The No. 7 train isn’t going to New Jersey anytime soon.
Mayor Bloomberg’s dream project of extending the line across the Hudson River isn’t happening anytime soon — if it ever does at all, the head of the MTA said today.
The subway extension to New Jersey likely is “not going to happen in our lifetime,” MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said at a New York Building Congress forum.
He added, “It’s not going to happen in anybody’s lifetime.”
Bloomberg has long supported a proposal to bring the 7 train to Seacaucus, NJ, a colossal effort that would cost billions to accomplish.
The cash-strapped city is currently footing the $2.1 billion bill to extend the heavily traversed 7 train to 11th Avenue and 34th Street, an ambitious undertaking that the Mayor expects will revitalize the far west side.
The project is expected to be complete by next year.
Bloomberg yesterday said he respected Lhota’s grim assessment of his pet project, but remained optimistic.
“Hopefully, it happens in somebody’s lifetime,” a joking Bloomberg said in response to Lhota’s remarks.
He conceded, “Those people may not have been born yet.”
As recently as October, Bloomberg was privately pushing the Garden State subway extension in hopes of getting the project started before the end of his 2013 term, the Post reported last year.