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New York’s most famously “almost” subway is inching toward a very real new chapter: Governor Kathy Hochul says the Second Avenue subway is poised to stretch west across 125th Street, adding three new stations and finally giving Harlem a crosstown link that isn’t dependent on a bus.
In her 2026 State of the State, Hochul laid out a plan for the MTA to begin preliminary engineering and design to extend the Second Avenue Subway tunnel west from the line’s planned Harlem-125th Street terminus toward Broadway. The concept will extend the Q line along 125th Street with new stops at Lenox Avenue, St. Nicholas Avenue and Broadway, creating an east-to-west subway connection that would plug into a whole lot of north-south service.
“New Yorkers deserve a world-class transit system. By advancing projects like the Second Avenue Subway and reimagining Jamaica Station, we’re building on past investments to deliver more reliable, efficient and modern transit options for riders today and for generations to come,” Hochul said.
Construction won't start tomorrow, but the announcement is a concrete next step. The state’s pitch is that doing the tunneling work as a follow-on to the current East Harlem extension (Second Avenue Subway Phase 2) could save time and money compared with stopping, demobilizing and trying to restart years later. A feasibility study funded after Hochul’s 2024 State of the State found that the westward build is not only possible but also more efficient if treated as a continuation of the Phase 2 effort.
The payoff, according to the MTA’s long-range planning, of a westward 125th Street extension could attract nearly 240,000 riders a day and save the average rider more than 30 minutes of travel time each week, thanks in large part to the number of subway lines it would intersect as it crosses Manhattan.
In the same announcement, the governor also said the state would propose committing $50 million in next year’s budget to advance the design phase of a reimagined Jamaica Station, which is one of the region’s biggest transit choke points, handling more than 1,000 trains and about 200,000 riders on weekdays. The goal there is a smoother, less crowded station complex with more seamless connections between the subway, the Long Island Rail Road and the JFK AirTrain.
It’s early and it’s New York—so skepticism is allowed. But for the Second Avenue Subway, even getting the westward expansion into engineering mode counts as movement. And if you’ve ever tried to get across 125th Street on a bad day, you know why that’s a win.