A tipster passes along this video of these men smoking, spitting, and loudly cursing on the 7 train this past Friday. Lets give these two guys the benefit of the doubt: they could be from the future, where 50-year-olds dress like 18-year-olds waiting for their dorm's laundry room and cigarettes are made of healthy moondust. more ›

So the 7 train to New Jersey is probably (definitely) not going to happen. But that doesn't mean the line's expansions will stop when it hits 11th Avenue. MTA head Joseph Lhota today says that, "I'd like to see the 7 train in other parts of New York City." Specifically, he'd like to see it going to Chelsea. more ›

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called for increased city oversight on state-run construction projects at a press conference today outside the 7 train extension site, where Tuesday night's crane collapse killed one worker and severely injured another. Quinn and other city lawmakers want state agencies like the MTA, which currently oversees construction at the West Side site, to fully adhere to city safety regulations on construction projects within in NYC. As it happens, the DOB was supposed to inspect the crane in January, but that safety inspection was postponed and rescheduled for... tomorrow. More on that below. more ›

In the end, it was all just a pipe dream. Though the MTA got our hopes up last fall that the plan might make it, it appears that a 7 train extension to New Jersey is not likely. Or, in the words of MTA Chair Joe Lhota it is "not going to happen in our lifetime. It’s not going to happen in anybody’s lifetime." more ›

Yesterday it came out that the presumed dead plans to extend the 7 train to New Jersey were very much alive if very much in its infancy. And now the plan has gotten a vote of confidence from no-less than the man who killed the last big New York-New Jersey tunnel project, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. more ›

[Update Below] A direct MTA subway connection to New Jersey has been mankind's greatest dream ever since the founding bros first glimpsed the glory of the Meatpacking District from Hoboken. Now, rumor has it, Mayor Bloomberg is moving heaven and earth to make the dream a reality before the end of his third (and final?) term. You'll recall that the Bloomberg administration gave a quarter-million dollar no-bid contract to an engineering firm to study the feasibility of extending the 7 line to Secaucus. Now sources tell the Post that Bloomberg wants to get the project moving before he leaves office. more ›

What with the rain falling and the apocalypse nigh, things couldn't get much worse, right? Don't be so naive: this weekend the MTA is shutting down all service on the 7 between Times Square and Queensboro Plaza to address "a recent increase in signal-related delays" caused by "an aging signal system and water-related issues." As always, the MTA in its press release is asking "patience from customers," but for riders of the 7, that's like getting blood from a stone. more ›

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who recently scrapped the plan to build a new NJ Transit tunnel from New Jersey to Midtown, said he would consider using state funds to extend the 7 train over to Secaucus. He said on a radio show, "It would actually connect us to the east side of Manhattan...go through Penn Station like we always wanted to, at what appears to be less of a cost, and with New York bearing part of the burden for that project." He has yet to speak to Bloomberg about the plan, but this brings us one step closer to subway access to the 182nd best place to live in New Jersey. more ›

What if you could get to the promised land of New Jersey without ever leaving the convenient confines of the NYC Transit system? Such a revolutionary transit transformation could encourage thousands of Jersey residents to leave their cars at home, while enticing more New Yorkers across the Hudson in search of cheaper rent and "alt scenes." The Bloomberg administration is currently floating a plan to extend the 7 train as far as Secaucus, which means the 7 would be the new L, and Weehawken should probably brace for a wave of Prohibition-era cocktail lounges. more ›

We're not entirely sure why city workers don't realize there is an army of citizen reporters waiting to post videos of their unlawful antics on the Internet, but it's about time they were made aware. City transit officials are investigating the case of a 7 train motorman caught texting while driving the Queens-bound train on Friday morning. An anonymous straphanger caught video of the motorman on his phone, who quickly stopped once he saw he was being recorded. The straphanger told NY1, "I was a bit perturbed to see that the driver of the train was text messaging and his eyes were on his cell phone and not at all on the tracks." more ›

A transit worker took a terrifying tumble from the elevated 7 train tracks in Queens while doing repair work this morning. Transit supervisor Kent Morgan was overseeing a switch replacement when he fell through a path next to the tracks, more than 20 feet up. He landed on 114th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Corona. Eyewitnesses said he landed flat on his back in his street with his head pounding against the sidewalk. "He couldn’t talk. He was able to move his right hand a little bit, but it was shaky," Luis Lopez told the Post. He was rushed to New York Hospital Queens afterwards, but remarkably, was said to be alert and conscious when he was put in the ambulance. more ›

Those new maps have barely had time to hit the walls, and now the MTA is considering implementing even more service cuts. The possible new cuts, which must be approved on Wednesday by the MTA board, could save the MTA an additional $3.7 million. Bloomberg did warn us. So what could possibly be on the chopping block this time? more ›

Daily Intel caught up with a 24-year-old who moved from Queens to the Upper West Side, via the 7 train then the 1 train—via a transfer at Times Square—and thanks to his friends from his language school. Well, now they're his former friends after hauling Young Min's "air conditioner, collapsible double-rod closet, dishes (including serving platters and utensils), laptop, linen, quilts, books, clothes, and assorted framed pictures, a soup cauldron, Korean medicine, condiments, and a 40-pound bag of rice... (Mid-trip, the air conditioner broke through the trunk holding it.)" more ›

Though Bloomberg previously scrapped a plan for a 7 station at 41st and 10th Avenue after extension costs became too high, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Real Estate Board members will meet with VP Joe Biden tomorrow to ask for federal funding for the project. The extension from Times Square to the Javits Center is already costing the city $2 billion, and they estimate the 41st Street station would cost an extra $500 million. REB president Steve Spinola says not building the station would be a "terrible, terrible mistake." more ›

[UPDATE: It's back.] Good morning, we hope this reaches you in time to reroute your commute if you're traveling between Long Island City and Manhattan! Due to mechanical problems at the Grand Central-42nd Street Station, there is currently no 7 train service between the Hunters Point Avenue Station and the Times Square-42nd Street Station in both directions. And earlier this morning there were big problems with the L train; service was disrupted due to "signal problems in Canarsie Tube." The MTA says the L train is now back its mobbed, normal self. You can stay up to speed by following the NYC Transit Twitter, or check the MTA website for updates. more ›

It's a triumphant day for Long Island City residents—and for Manhattanites who just want to visit Long Island City to enjoy the neighborhood's parks, art scene, restaurants, bars, theater, etc. After announcing that vital weekend 7 train service between Manhattan and Queens would be suspended for ten consecutive weekends, NYC Transit has defied expectation and finished work early, "ending a major inconvenience for tens of thousands of weekend riders." Indeed, people were pissed. more ›

As MTA megaprojects including the Second Avenue Subway and the 7 train expansion have fallen behind schedule and gone up in cost, salaries and staff at the department in charge of overseeing such projects have increased for five years straight. Under the guidance of the MTA Capital Construction department, the price of major developments has surged and setbacks have become commonplace—yet the department has grown from 39 employees in 2004 to 151 in 2009, and its payroll has ballooned by $10.6 million. more ›

With the G train out of commission for four straight weekends, some crafty commuters in the Greenpoint area had relied on the 7 train—just on the other side of the Pulaski Bridge—to get into Manhattan. Well, so much for that stratagem. Starting next weekend, there will be no 7 train service between Grand Central and Queensboro Plaza. And no service for the next 10 weekends after that. Please be patient. more ›

In February, the city released literally awesome photos of a massive cutter head for a 1000-ton tunnel boring machine, as it was lowered into a "launch chamber" hole near the intersection of 25th Street and 11th Avenue. The tunnel boring machine, or TBM, has been working its way east since then, as part of a $2.1 billion project to extend the 7 subway line from Times Square to the Hudson Yards. Now the mayor's office has dropped this fresh video of the TBM cutter head breaking through the 34th Street Station Cavern Wall. The fun starts at the 30 second mark, and climaxes when [SPOILER!] triumphant workers crawl through the cutter head from the other side: more ›

To make room for the planned extension of the 7 train, the Port Authority will evict the city's largest homeless drop-in center at the end of March, according to the Daily News. The Open Door shelter — which every day provides meals and showers to some 200 homeless men and women — would have closed sooner, but the city was able to convince the transit agency to delay a part of the line extension project to keep shelter visitors off the streets during the winter. Though the Open Door shelter doesn't have beds, an average of 94 people slept there per night in September. One of the regulars, 63-year-old Lee Parker, told the tabloid he has slept in a chair at the shelter each night for the past two months. "It's better than sleeping out on the street," he said. "It's safe and warm." more ›