The 34th Street–Hudson Yards station is a New York City Subway station in Manhattan's West Side on the IRT Flushing Line, and is the western (railroad south) terminus for the 7 local and <7> express services. It has two tracks and one island platform, with two levels of mezzanines: one directly above the platform and the other directly below street level. The station directly serves the Hudson Yards mega-development above it, and is located within the greater Hudson Yards neighborhood. The station contains two entrances along Hudson Boulevard: a primary entrance south of 34th Street, and secondary entrance south of 35th Street.
The station, originally part of the city's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics and the failed attempt to build the West Side Stadium, was first scheduled to open in summer 2012. When London was chosen for the Olympics, the opening date was pushed to December 2013. In 2011, the opening was postponed to June 2014, pending the completion of the escalators and elevators in the station. After a series of delays involving escalator, elevator, and fire and safety systems, the station finally opened on September 13, 2015. The 34th Street station was, at the time of opening, the first completely new station in the New York City Subway system since 1989, as well as the first such station funded by the government of New York City since 1950.
The new construction, part of the city's and the MTA's master plan for the Far West Side, extended the IRT Flushing Line west from Times Square to Eleventh Avenue, then south to 34th Street. Although the West Side Stadium plan was rejected by city and state planning agencies, the 7 Subway Extension plan received approval to move ahead, as New York political leaders wanted to see the warehouse district west of Eighth Avenue and north of 34th Street redeveloped as part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment, and subway service was to be an essential part of that effort. The extension also serves the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which was expanded in 2008–2014 and is located a block away from the station entrances.
History
Planning and construction
Shortly after Javits Center opened as New York City's primary convention center in 1986, New York City transportation commissioner Ross Sandler had suggested the possibility of extending the IRT Flushing Line (then served by the 7 train) or constructing a light-rail line to the convention center. At the time, the neighborhood was largely inaccessible by public transit, and the nearest subway station was about away. In response to the City Planning Commission's 1993 proposal to improve access to the Manhattan Central Business District, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) began exploring the possibility of an extension of the IRT Flushing Line to New Jersey. In 1999, then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani advocated for a westward extension of the 7 train to the intersection of 11th Avenue and 33rd Street, where he wanted to build a football stadium, the West Side Stadium. The same year, the MTA included $75 million in its 2000–2004 capital plan for preliminary studies of the 7 train extension.
In 2001, a business and civic group convened by Senator Charles Schumer argued that a westward extension of the Midtown office district could not be accomplished without a subway extension, saying:
A station on the West Side was again proposed as part of the New York City bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The city government wanted to get funding before July 2005, at which time the International Olympic Committee would vote on funding. However, due to shortfalls in the MTA's capital program, as well as preexisting funding for the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access, the MTA could not pay to fund the extension. After a proposal for the West Side Stadium, an Olympic stadium to be located above the nearby West Side Yard, was rejected in 2005, New York City lost their Olympic bid to London.
For then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the extension was still a priority. His December 12, 2006, address to the New York League of Conservation Voters noted that in November 2006, the government began issuing bonds to fund the extension of the 7 subway to Eleventh Avenue and 34th Street. The extension was funded with New York City funds from municipal tax increment financing (TIF) bond sales that are expected to be repaid with property tax revenues from future developments in areas served by the extension. The one-station extension to the burgeoning Hudson Yards area was originally to cost , but eventually grew to , excluding a intermediate station at 10th Avenue that was canceled due to costs.
In October 2007, the MTA awarded a $1.145 billion contract to build of twin-tube tunnel to S3, a joint venture of J.F. Shea, Skanska USA Civil, and Schiavone. The contract was to build tunnel from the 7 train's terminus at Times Square westward underneath 41st Street to Eleventh Avenue, then down to 26th Street. Richard Dattner and Partners, Architects, designed the 34th Street station. After excavating the new terminal's shell and creating the first of tunnel using the drill-and-blast method, S3 placed two tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) in the ground to dig the remaining ; as it dug, each TBM placed precast concrete liner segments to create the tunnel interior.
On December 21, 2009, the MTA said that a tunnel-boring machine broke through the 34th Street station cavern wall. Both tunnel-boring machines were scheduled to finish the required tunneling in the spring of 2010.
In April 2011, the MTA announced that the contract covering the tunnels, the station mezzanine and passenger platform was 85% complete, and that the systems contract, covering mechanical and electrical systems, electric power, lighting and train tracks would be awarded by July 2011. The systems contract was awarded in September 2011. In May 2012, the MTA announced that the extension, now 65% complete, had received the installation of the first set of rails. By August 2013, the extension was 90% complete.
On December 20, 2013, Bloomberg took a ceremonial ride on a train to the nearly complete station, celebrating a part of his legacy as mayor, during a press tour of the extension. Train testing did not commence until June 2015.
Delays
In January 2012, the station was touted as under-budget and on schedule to open in 2013, before a series of delays plagued the project. The station, originally part of the city's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, was supposed to first open as part of a two-station subway extension, including 10th Avenue station, in summer 2012. When London was chosen for the Olympics in 2005, the opening date was pushed to December 2013; the Tenth Avenue station was dropped from construction plans soon after. By June 2012, trains were still expected to run "for test purposes" by the end of 2013. That same month, the station's opening was delayed to June 2014 for completion of the station's fitting-out.
Michael Horodniceanu, chief of MTA Construction Company, told The New York Times in January 2014 that complications in the installation of the inclined elevator would likely cause a further delay of about three months, bringing the opening date to very late summer or early fall of 2014, or to November 2014. By March 2014, the station's tentative opening date was still to be in November 2014.
Then, in May 2014, the opening was delayed again to install the inclined elevators, as they had originally failed a factory test in Como Province, Italy. Officials had insisted that the Italian-manufactured elevators had software and parts made from a variety of different companies in America, rather than from a single foreign company. However, the station was not delayed solely because of the elevators. The station's opening was also pushed to later dates due to "integrated testing for fire protection", which required the completion of all station infrastructure, including escalators, stairs, and elevators. Escalators and tunnel ventilation systems also caused the station to be delayed. At this point, the station was expected to open for service in late 2014, but due to further elevator delays as well as problems with the extension's ventilation systems, it was delayed in October 2014 by a further few months, to February 2015.
At this point, the project was so far delayed that the MTA was offered in "incentive" money if the station opened by February 24, 2015. Software changes were made to solve the elevators' problems, and the elevators were installed. Testing would be complete by November. Three ventilation systems were already installed by October 1, 2014, with two more systems to be installed by the end of the month. On November 17, it was confirmed that February 24 would be the opening date for the station; new signs and the southern entrance's canopy started to be erected. However, just a month later, the MTA stated that it was unable to open the subway extension for service until April to July 2015, due to the failure to get the inclined elevators to work properly. The MTA also cited problems with the fire alarm and security systems as another reason for the delay. In addition, the developer of the Hudson Yards mega-development, The Related Companies, also needed to dig caissons for the foundations of 55 Hudson Yards, just above the subway station, and the foundation work needed to be complete before the MTA could proceed with opening the station.
The MTA made another announcement, on March 24, 2015, saying that the station's opening would be delayed again to summer 2015, due to more problems with the fire and security systems. In addition, third rails, public service announcement systems, ventilation fans, escalators, and elevators would need to be tested. By April 2015, the station was complete, but unopened. On June 15, 2015, though, the extension was pushed back again to "before the end of the third quarter" of 2015. A month later, the MTA confirmed that the station would be opened on or before September 13, 2015. The opening date was confirmed on August 28, 2015. By this point, MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast had stated that the myriad delays in both the new station and in the other MTA Capital Construction projects were humiliating.
Operation
The station opened on September 13, 2015, at 1:00 p.m., in a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, and former deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff.See: The secondary station entrance at 35th Street, as well as finishing touches within the station itself, was not expected to be completed until 2016.
However, a couple of days after the station opened, there were some problems in and around the station, which multiple news outlets criticized. An escalator broke down on September 14, just a day after the station's opening. In an unrelated September 16 incident, a straphanger got injured while walking up another escalator at the 34th Street station. Earlier that day, the New York Post reported on signal problems in the brand-new tunnels around the station, while riders complained about the delays on Twitter and Reddit. A The Wall Street Journal commentator remarked that "it's only a matter of months (make that weeks) before the gleaming station ... is pockmarked with chewing-gum spots, urban scrawl and litter." Overall, however, the station was received positively during its first few days of service. In an article in several newspapers distributed by NYC Community Media, Lenore Skenazy writes that many riders have praised the station's design, its cleanliness, and its climate-controlled platforms, and noted herself that the station looked and felt "as uplifting as a cathedral".