Subway station no 469 opens in Manhattan's far west side

New York

IN A West Side neighbourhood long isolated from the rest of Manhattan, crowds gathered on Sunday for a truly rare sight in New York City: the opening of a new subway station. Train aficionados and local families streamed in, squealing in delight and snapping photos of the city's first new subway station in a quarter century.

As the No 7 train pulled out of the new Hudson Yards station just after 1 pm, destined for Times Square, the East Side and finally Queens, it marked a new chapter for the city's subway system and a signal moment for the emerging neighbourhood that the station was built to serve - and that not so long ago was a mostly forgotten, largely industrial pocket of an otherwise bustling borough.