Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Cost of 2nd Avenue Subway extension to East Harlem balloons to $7.7B
By
Stephen Nessen
and
Clayton Guse
Published Mar 9, 2023
Modified Mar 9, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Stephen Nessen / WNYC
By
Stephen Nessen
and
Clayton Guse
Published Mar 9, 2023
Modified Mar 9, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The cost of the Second Avenue Subway extension to East Harlem has ballooned to $7.7 billion, an $800 million increase from previous estimates, according to documents published on Thursday by the Federal Transit Administration.
The disclosure of the price jump came as the Biden administration announced a budget proposal that would give the MTA $497 million to begin work on the long-stalled project. But that money is a fraction of the $3.4 billion New York officials say they need from the feds to complete the extension.
“The federal government added contingency costs to the project and we are reviewing it,” said MTA spokesperson John McCarthy.
The new price tag includes interest payments on debt the MTA expects to take out to build the subway extension. The feds reported the previous price tag at $6.9 billion, but the MTA reported the number at $6.3 billion, a figure that did not include debt financing costs.
The project would extend the subway line by 1.5 miles from East 96th Street. It would add three new stations: one at East 106th Street, another at East 116th Street, and a new level beneath the existing platforms at Lexington Avenue and 125th Street.
The MTA dug out Second Avenue tunnels between East 99th and East 105th streets and between East 110th and East 120th streets in the 1970s before the city’s financial crisis in 1975 halted work on the project.
Nearly 50 years later, the MTA is still waiting to finish the job.
A study published last month by researchers at NYU’s Marron Institute found the Second Avenue Subway extension is one of the costliest railroad expansion projects per mile in the history of the world.
Eric Goldwyn, who helped lead the study, said “inflation fears could explain the increase” in the project’s price tag.
“Delay is a killer,” said Goldwyn. “I would also guess… that the FTA has identified a risky element, something related to the new tunnel that needs to be built or the challenge of expanding and tying in [the] Second Avenue Subway to the existing station at 125th Street.”
The documents published on Thursday said there are “additional steps” the agency must complete before the FTA signs off on another roughly $3 billion in federal grants for the project.
MTA Chair Janno Lieber said during a news conference on Thursday that the feds wouldn’t send the money while the agency faces financial peril.
“To land that grant once and for all, US DOT is requiring us to demonstrate that we're going to have financial stability in our operating budget so that we can pay for the operation of a new train line in addition to everything else,” Lieber said. “Not for nothing, we've been promising East Harlem and central Harlem, the Second Avenue Subway since Joe Biden was like 10 years old.”
Lieber said lawmakers and city leaders should sign off on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to plug a budget deficit at the MTA with a payroll tax hike and $500 million in additional aid from New York City’s coffers.
Tagged
new york city
manhattan
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
Read more
Clayton Guse
Clayton is the editor of the Transit and Infrastructure desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .