Solution to E,F,R,G Line Congestion In Near Future

After over 10 years of congested subway stations and time-consuming waits, the Transit Authority (TA) has announced a key expansion of the Queens-Manhattan link that promises to bring relief to a transportation system that has forced Queens residents to wait for too long.
The link is a 1,500-foot extension of the 63 St. subway tunnel, from the 21 St. Queensbridge station in Long Island City to the E and F lines on Queens Blvd. The link, dubbed the 63 St. Connector, is part of a $1.5 billion effort spanning three decades to mitigate congestion to the E and F lines, two of the busiest in New York City.
The link will also provide congestion relief for the R and G lines, which share two tracks with the E and F lines at the Queens entrance to an old tunnel at 53 St.
The tunnel and connector will give the TA the capability to run 17 more trains per hour on the
E and F lines, which will provide relief for the 900,000 passengers that use the lines every weekday.
The concept was first devised in 1990 and construction began in 1994. According to TA officials, the new tunnel will open in January but will be in use only during off-peak hoursnights and weekendswhile signal work is done in the 53 St. tunnel. The 63 St. Connector and 53 St. tunnel will be used during all hours starting in late August or early September, TA officials said.
"I was wondering what they were doing here," said Tamiqua Johnson, an Elmhurst native who works in the city and had no idea there was a solution to the congestion. "That’s going to make things much easier. I get so irritated when it gets packed in this [subway station] and it ruins my day."
The 63 St. subway line was coined many years ago as the "tunnel to nowhere" since it ended in Long Island City after crossing under the East River from Manhattan. The tunnel project initially began in the 1960s but was shelved in the 1980s because of disagreements over how far east it should run in Queens. Now, the 1,500-foot connector extends the tunnel to the Queens Blvd. subway lines that run east across the borough to Jamaica.
"This is going to make a lot of people very happy," said Charles Rowan, a track engineer for the Transit Authority. "I have seen plenty of bitter people using these lines over the two years I have been working here…I think their moods will soon change." The project is estimated to cost the Transit Authority over $645 million.