two months. These upgrades included work laying new trackbed and track, and improvements in drainage and flood mitigation systems. The closure of the shuttle allowed the contractor to fix an unexpected tunnel settlement condition at Times Square, which would have otherwise delayed the project by three to four months. Despite the General Order, the shuttle reopened on August 10, 2020 to accommodate passengers displaced by unrelated construction on the Lexington Avenue Line, which caused a partial closure of that line. At midnight on November 7, 2020, another phase of work on the project began as track 3 was taken out of passenger service. Shuttle service on track 4 resumed on November 9. As part of this phase of work, track 3 and its infrastructure was removed to allow for the construction of new platforms. In addition, structural work, and new power and signaling systems will be completed, and work will also begin on the new transfer passageway between the Times Square and Bryant Park stations. As of December 2020, work on the project was 55 percent complete; the new platforms opened on September 7, 2021. In preparation for the opening of the new platform, weekend service ran on a single track during July and August 2021, and the shuttle was closed for four days in July and twelve days in August and September 2021. Components As part of the project, the 42nd Street Shuttle became ADA-accessible, and track 3 was removed, reducing the shuttle from three to two tracks. As part of the project, train reliability will be improved with the installation of a new signal system, replacing the existing system, which dates back to the 1930s. The new signaling system will not use communications-based train control (CBTC), but will be CBTC-ready. The shuttle now runs with two six-car trains, compared to the two three-car trains used for tracks 1 and 4, and the one four-car train used on the former track 3, increasing capacity by 20 percent, from 100 cars of capacity per hour to 120 per hour. Times Square and Grand Central stations were reconfigured with wide island platforms, and access improvements will be completed at Times Square. Certain features of the Times Square station would be repaired and restored, and to increase capacity, 122 spaced columns between the trackways and 11 mezzanine columns were removed and replaced by 45 new spaced columns that are at least two