Trump Threatens to Cut Off Funding for NYC Subway

$18 Billion in Funding Now at Risk

New York has been waiting for the Second Avenue Subway since 1920.

The first three stations finally opened in 2017, and now the extension into East Harlem is underway with trains expected by 2032.

But in October 2025, President Trump announced he was terminating federal funding for the project, along with the new Hudson River Tunnel.

The reason?

Diversity requirements in contractor hiring that his administration calls unconstitutional. Governor Kathy Hochul says it is political payback against a blue state, and she is fighting back in court.

The stakes go far beyond New York, because this is about whether the biggest infrastructure projects in America can survive a change in Washington.

$18 Billion Frozen on Social Media

On October 1, 2025, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought posted on X that roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure funding was being put on hold.

He said the freeze would ensure money was not flowing based on what he called unconstitutional DEI principles.

A $300 million disbursement for the Second Avenue Subway was blocked immediately, and the Department of Transportation said its review would take longer because furloughed staff could not conduct it.

Trump Calls the Cut Permanent

Two weeks later, on October 15, President Trump went further during a White House event. He declared the Gateway Program, which includes the Hudson Tunnel, was terminated on a permanent basis.

He framed it as punishment during the budget standoff with Democrats, whose top two congressional leaders both represent New York. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it treating working people as collateral damage.

The Gateway tunnel and the subway extension together represent about 15,000 union construction jobs that are now in limbo.

First Proposed in 1920

The Second Avenue Subway is not a new idea.

In 1919, chief engineer Daniel Turner drew up plans for a massive trunk line under Second Avenue with six tracks and branches reaching into Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

By 1929, the city had budgeted $86 million to build from Houston Street to the Harlem River, with an opening date of 1938.

In today’s dollars, that original budget would be about $2.4 billion. The first phase alone ended up costing $4.5 billion when it finally opened 79 years behind schedule.

The Great Depression Stopped Everything

The stock market crash of 1929 crushed the original proposal.

All available funds went to finishing the Independent Subway System, what New Yorkers now know as the A, C, E, and other lettered lines.

The Second Avenue Subway was pushed back to proposed status and ranked as the city’s 14th most important transportation project.

Meanwhile, the elevated trains that ran above Second Avenue kept carrying passengers. The city promised the subway would replace them, but that promise went unfulfilled for decades.

Wars Delayed It Twice More

World War II halted all nonessential public works starting in 1941. The city demolished the Second Avenue Elevated in 1942 anyway, expecting the subway to come soon.

It did not. By 1950, planners set a new target of 1957 or 1958. Then the Korean War broke out and construction material prices soared.

A $500 million bond measure passed in 1951, but most of that money was diverted to buy new subway cars and maintain the crumbling existing system.

The Second Avenue Subway kept slipping further away.

The 1970s Left Abandoned Tunnels

New York finally broke ground in 1972 after voters approved a $2.5 billion transportation bond. Workers dug tunnel segments under East Harlem between 99th and 105th Streets.

Then the city went broke.

The 1975 fiscal crisis killed funding for nearly everything, and subway ridership hit its lowest point in history as New Yorkers fled to the suburbs.

Construction stopped. The tunnels sat empty for decades, maintained by crews who spent $20,000 a year just to keep the streets above from collapsing.

Phase 1 Opens After 97 Years

On January 1, 2017, Governor Andrew Cuomo rode the inaugural train through three new stations at 72nd, 86th, and 96th Streets.

The $4.5 billion first phase marked the first major subway expansion in more than 50 years. Artists including Chuck Close and Vik Muniz created $4.5 million worth of tile murals for the station walls.

Within weeks, ridership on the overcrowded Lexington Avenue line dropped by 27 percent at nearby stations.

The subway that time forgot had finally arrived, at least partially.

Phase 2 Heads to East Harlem

The second phase would extend the Q line three more stations north to 125th Street, using some of those 1970s tunnel segments that have been sitting empty for half a century.

The project is budgeted at nearly $7 billion with a target opening of September 2032.

State Senator Cordell Cleare called it unacceptable that after 100 years, the project finally reaches Black and brown communities and now faces funding cuts.

More than 100,000 East Harlem residents would gain convenient subway access for the first time.

The Lexington Line Cannot Handle More

The 4, 5, and 6 trains along Lexington Avenue carry 1.3 million riders every day.

That is more passengers than the entire transit systems of Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco combined.

Trains run at over 100 percent capacity during rush hour. Riders routinely wait for multiple trains to pass before they can squeeze aboard.

The Second Avenue Subway was designed specifically to relieve this pressure, and until it extends further, the Lexington line will keep groaning under a load it was never built to carry.

The Hudson Tunnel Is Just as Urgent

The other project caught in the funding freeze is even more critical to the region.

The North River Tunnel opened in 1910 and is the only passenger rail link under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan.

Superstorm Sandy flooded it with corrosive saltwater in 2012, and engineers say it needs major rehabilitation.

The $16 billion Gateway Program would build a new two-tube tunnel and fix the old one. Without it, a tunnel failure could cost the regional economy $100 million per day in lost productivity.

Courts Side With New York So Far

In October 2025, federal Judge Lewis Kaplan permanently blocked the Trump administration from withholding $34 million in counterterrorism funds meant to protect NYC transit from attacks.

The ruling noted that the subway system has been the target of at least eight attempted terror attacks since September 11.

Governor Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James called it a victory and vowed to keep fighting. The larger funding battles over the subway extension and Hudson Tunnel are still playing out in court.

A Fight With No Clear End

Governor Hochul has promised that New York will sue to protect every dollar. The state has already filed multiple lawsuits challenging various Trump administration funding freezes.

Hochul called the moves a shameless attempt to exact revenge on a blue state and said anyone who undermines efforts to protect New Yorkers is in for a fight.

For commuters waiting on platforms packed three deep, the legal battles feel very far away. The Second Avenue Subway took a century to get this far.

Whether it finishes depends on what happens next in Washington.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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