Daily News from New York, New York • 413

i SUyLil XQL OSI 1 DAILY NEWS Tt Sunday, December 4, 1988 9 f- r75 -i v- MisMI! 1 i- it- iV (J 4 V-HW yfWifmtfft fly frfltlfehfifft fflhihriii ntfnftft tfift. 'iiffwaiiftAftJIfr- ONE of the Archer Ave. subway entrances in final stages of construction. Long Island Rail Road train passes overhead on Archer Ave. at Parsons Blvd.

HS7 pfDDD. By ALBERT DA VILA I 4 -t sISa M'. Daily News Staff Writer It was the year of bell-bottoms and miniskirts. The Tet offensive in Vietnam led to the resignation of President Johnson. In 1968, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated and the kids listened to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Doors and Janis Joplin.

That same year, the Transit Authority decided it was time to open up the Archer Ave. Corridor to serve the pressing mass-transit needs of southeastern Queens. And in 1968, a subway ride cost 20 cents. Now, after 20 years of planning and construction worth $465 million, the TA is all set to open the corridor and inaugurate a new subway line the Line, which will supposedly speed up service from Jamaica, via Brooklyn, to downtown Manhattan. Next Sunday, the TA will welcome all aboard for a ride to Manhattan for a buck.

One more hurdle But the Archer Ave. Corridor faces one more hurdle: A group of merchants led by the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce has initiated a lawsuit to stop the TA from changing bus routes to coincide with the opening. From the start, Archer Ave. was an ambitious project fueled by the optimism of the go-go '60s and a spendthrift Lindsay administration. But extensive tunneling came to a halt during the financial crisis of the 1970s.

Then the project shrank to a less grandiose scale. Only the first phase was completed, and plans to extend the line farther southeast into Queens were canceled. "The Archer Ave. extension was to have been one part of a larger plan to link southeast Queens with Manhattan via a new East River tunnel," said a report released early this year by the TA's Operations Planning Department. "While the initial phase of the 63d St Tunnel Project will be completed in 1989, it will not result in a link between the tunnel and the Queens Blvd.

line," the report continued. OFFICIALS check out new facilities at Parsons Blvd. station. Escalator to street can be seen in background. Offer the opportunity of diverting subway traffic from Queens Blvd.

through the operation of the "semi-express" and line services during rush hour along the Jamaica Ave. line. This service is expected to make the Jamaica Ave. line a faster, better alternative to downtown Manhattan. The opening will also mean sparkling new stations along the Archer Ave.

Corridor that will boast the latest in subway technology. They will have highly visible, easy-toiread signs and bright lighting. Each station has elevators that will ascend from the platforms to street level to accommodate, the elderly and handicapped. All the stations will have escalators. "The Archer Ave.

extension will not result in any increased capacity to. Manhattan until a link between the Queens Blvd. line and the 63d St Tunnel is constructed." Nonetheless, the TA believes the new corridor will achieve the following goals: Relieve overcrowding at the 169th StHillside Ave. station by providing express services for connecting surface transit riders. Introduce higher-capacity passenger waiting platforms at the Archer Ave.Parsons Blvd.Jamaica Center station for arriving bus patrons.

Provide the ability to return Jamaica Ave. line service to Jamaica recapture former ridership. Rubber track fasteners and noise-dampening acoustical tiles on the station walls and ceilings will significantly reduce noise levels. Each station is decorated in colorful ceramic tile that has been treated with a graffiti-resistant coating. Hailed by officials The new line has been hailed by public and private officials as a catalyst in the reversal of urban blight in Jamaica.

Speaking of the new subway line and the new $93 million regional headquarters of the Social Security Administration in downtown Jamaica, Borough President Claire Shulman See ARCHER Page 3 l- 'HI HlllJilpiH.l Real Esta.