No. 7 train extension delayed

An extension to the No. 7 train line across Manhattan will be delayed, pushing back the $2.4 billion project’s completion to late summer or early fall.

Installation problems with the extension’s high-rise and incline elevators are to blame, MTA officials told the New York Post, noting that tracks for the expanded line have already been laid. The new track, which will extend from Times Square to 34th Street and 11th Avenue at the doorstep of the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards project, originally had a slated completion of June 2014.

The MTA also recently announced delays with its East Side Access project, an effort to extend the Long Island Railroad into Grand Central Station. Originally slated to Have Trains Rolling Into The 42nd Street hub by 2009, the projected completion has now been pushed back to 2019. At an estimated $8.3 billion, the cost of the extension is nearly double the original projected price tag of $4.3 billion. Word of a new stop off the 7 train just west of 10th Avenue near West 34th Street prompted developers to buy up sites in the area at a frantic pace last year. [NYP] — Julie Strickland