Transportation to Hudson Yards

While looking at articles about Williamsburg and its land market prices for my research project, I came across this article about Hudson Yards and how it will be a “transportation torture center.” Right now, the only train that goes directly to the Hudson Yards is the 7 train and this article discusses why the 7 train simply can’t accommodate all the people going to and from Hudson Yards after everything is built. The author, Lois Weiss, writes that an expected amount of 37,335 people will be leaving at a peak hour in year 2025, but as of right now, only an expected 32,670 commuters can be moved each hour on the 7 train. This does not account for the fact that people will already be on the train and that the station can only hold 25,000 at its peak. It is said that by 2025, 170 new buses will be needed to serve Hudson Yards alone.

I find this article really interesting because, as discussed in class, Hudson Yards is the biggest public-private partnership project that is happening right now, but they managed to overlook how transportation will be affected. Many tourists will be visiting this place, and while it does have a lot of attractive sites and will bring in a lot of business, it will create a lot of congestion in both the area and on the 7 train line. The 7 train is not expected to run without any problems, now or even in the future after all the buildings go up in 2025. In the future, unexpected problems and congestion will further affect how people will view Hudson Yards. Similarly, this reminds me of Williamsburg and when it became popular, the L train definitely became more crowded as people started going there. However, when the L train shuts down in 2019, there will be a necessity of more buses or alternative train travel routes. While it seems like a small problem as we all wait for trains and buses that are not overly crowded so we can actually get on, extra money will have to be put into these areas to accommodate for the heavy masses of people travelling in and out of popular neighborhoods. As for the 170 new buses in Hudson Yards, it may cost around $50 million.

You can find the article here.

Weiss, Lois. “Hudson Yards Will Be A Transportation Torture Chamber.” Bisnow. Bisnow, 27 Mar. 2017. Web. Mar. 2017.