On Sunday, New Yorkers were mesmerized by the artwork adorning the walls. At the 72nd Street stop, Sumana Harihareswara stopped to gaze at a mosaic of a woman of South Asian descent dressed in a burgundy sari, looking at her cellphone. Ms. Harihareswara was overcome with emotion.
"I don't think I've ever come across subway art before that makes me feel so seen," she said through tears. "This woman could be my aunt; she could be my cousin."
She and a stranger exchanged a knowing glance. "Representation matters," they agreed. Ms. Harihareswara, a longtime transit enthusiast from Astoria, Queens, said she was struck by the diversity portrayed in the mosaics, including a mural of a gay couple holding hands.
"There is no feeling quite like seeing yourself cemented into the infrastructure of New York," Ms. Harihareswara said.
After decades of aborted efforts to build the Second Avenue line, and at least three groundbreakings in the 1970s, construction on the current segment began in 2007. The line was originally projected to open in 2013, but subway officials pushed the deadline to the end of 2016 many years ago.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who effectively controls the authority, pressed officials to meet the December 2016 deadline even as concerns grew that the subway would not be ready in time. Still, the agency made the deadline — just barely — with a lavish inaugural ride on New Year's Eve for a collection of dignitaries that culminated in a midnight toast.
Although many New Yorkers believe the city runs the subways, it is actually the governor who appoints the authority's chairman and holds considerable sway over the agency. Mr. Cuomo has capitalized on the Second Avenue opening to raise his national profile, overshadowing his frequent nemesis Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat who attended the inaugural ride on Saturday but was not given a speaking slot.
Despite general good will over the opening, some transit advocates expressed concerns over the high cost of the project and questioned whether officials would move aggressively to extend the line to 125th Street in East Harlem as planned.
On Sunday morning, Mr. Cuomo arrived at the 96th Street station with the authority's chairman, Thomas F. Prendergast, to join the first trip for regular riders, who cheered as the train pulled out of the station. Then Mr. Cuomo's voice came over the loudspeaker. "Rest assured: I'm not driving the train," he joked.
The first day of service was smooth, although there were a few hiccups. Around 3 p.m., there were delays on the Q line because of a train with mechanical problems at the City Hall station.
About an hour earlier, the elevator at the new 86th Street stop had begun to malfunction, stranding passengers above and below ground. Strollers were wheeled onto steep escalators. Parents became upset. Jill Tallmer, 62, and her mother, Margot Tallmer, 91, contemplated visiting another day.
"We've been waiting for 10 years, or more, to ride," the younger Ms. Tallmer said while standing with her mother, a lifelong New Yorker who is in a wheelchair. "Hopefully, it's almost ready for us."
It was not, and they left after a few minutes.
At the 72nd Street station, George Braith, a jazz saxophonist, was being mobbed by an eager pack of veritable paparazzi. The reason for his newfound celebrity: His likeness is featured in a mosaic there.
"Would you look at that guy?" Mr. Braith, 77, said. "Pretty handsome fellow if you ask me."
He is one of several local celebrities portrayed in the artwork, including chef Daniel Boulud.
In Mr. Braith's mosaic, he is clad in a slick red blazer and carrying his signature Braithophone, alto and soprano saxophones melded into one. Taking the instrument from his suitcase, he obliged the crowd with a brief tune.
"Are you famous?" a passer-by asked, seeing the hubbub.
"In the jazz world," Mr. Braith replied.
The man shook his head and said, "Well, you're immortalized as far as I'm concerned."
Another opening-day celebrant, Ian Ma, 15, lives in Sheepshead Bay, a waterfront neighborhood in southern Brooklyn that is nowhere near the new subway line. But he has been enchanted by trains since he started rolling toy models on the floor as a child, he said, and he cajoled his parents into giving him a ride.
"I feel like I've been waiting for this train my whole life," he said, seemingly speaking for many others.
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