MTA boss says 7 train extension may open as late as October

The 7 train extension, which was originally slated to open at the end of 2013, may open as late as October this year, MTA. Chairman Thomas Prendergast said today.

The extension has faced numerous setbacks, with the opening date delayed multiple times over the last year and a half.

When the work is completed, Queens commuters will be able to take the 7 train across to the west side of Manhattan, where a new station at 34th Street and 11th Avenue will be opened.

At a city council hearing, Prendergast responded to pressurefrom Council Member Corey Johnsonfor an exact opening date for the extension by saying the extension will open “by September or October” of this year.

At the same hearing, he said the MTA’s last-minute call for extra capital funding “could have been timed better”- which raised their request to the city from $657 million to $1.5 billion.

“I certainly understand we can’t keep changing the num bers, as you say moving the goal posts,” he told the committee hearing.

There is a $14 billion gap in funding for the MTA’s $32 billion 2015-2019 Capital Plan.

Prendergast is also asking for additional funds from the state legislature, though the Daily News reports that state politicians seem unlikely to help before the end of the senate’s session this year.

He also said the MTA will be seeking funding from the federal government.

“We need to have this aggressive dialogue down in Congress … We need a transportation subsidy,” he said, likening it to a federal farm subsidy for states that rely heavily on agriculture.