7 Train May Soon Run to New Jersey

Next stop, Jersey.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his idea yesterday to extend the No. 7 subway line into the Garden State. The 7 train, which has its Queens terminus at Main St. in Flushing, currently runs to Times Square. 

"In the not-too-distant future, straphangers will be able to ride the Number 7 all the way to the 34th Street Station on the Far West Side," said Bloomberg during his weekly radio address.  "And now, we plan to talk to officials on both sides of the Hudson about whether we might be able to extend the Number 7 line even further west - to New Jersey."  

The mayor has yet to have that conversation with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Governor David Paterson or federal transportation officials, according to Bloomberg spokesman Andrew Brent.

The train's final destination in New Jersey, it is hoped, will be Secaucus. Stops along the way have not yet been plotted out, according to Brent.

The mayor is hoping funding for the project will come from federal dollars that were earmarked for a from New Jersey to Manhattan, which Christie decided would go prohibitively over-budget. 

The city has not yet received assurance that funding from that project will be made available for an extension of the subway line.