Hochul’s flashy Second Ave. Subway plan uses the MTA as shiny object

New York’s subways would be in far better shape if governors didn’t milk them for happy headlines; Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new Second Avenue scheme is only the latest example.

Hochul announced Tuesday that she’s told the agency to shelve its century-old plan to stretch the Q line further into Lower Manhattan, and instead move forward on extending it west along 125th Street to Broadway.

It’s big, it’s flashy, and it promises much-needed service to a transit-dry area of Upper Manhattan — great fodder for the gov’s re-election bid.

No matter that it’ll cost the budget-challenged MTA a cool $8.1 billion (and probably a lot more; New York public megaprojects always go far overbudget), and can’t even start for another six years at least, since that’s the soonest the agency will finish extending the Q from 96th Street to 125th.

Hochul, that is, will be long gone from office long before reality can bite in.

Left holding the bag will be some future gov, or MTA leader — or, actually, future straphangers.

One epic example of how badly political meddling can impact commuters: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s manic push for the first Second Avenue extension to finish by Jan. 1, 2017, so he could take a New Year’s Day victory ride on the new line.

That diversion of key resources was a direct cause of the Summer of Hell that followed, with massive failures on multiple lines thanks to deferred-but-vital maintenance.

Meanwhile, some work still needs finishing on that first leg: Late last month, the MTA put out a Request For Proposals for contractors to complete key infrastructure work on the now-not-so-new stations, along with safety measures like emergency exit lights.

Promising bold public projects is a fine way for politician to look good — any and all problems that follow, even multibillion-dollar ones, can be blamed on the bureaucrats, if the pol is even still around when the piper comes to call.

Plus, even the most egregious cost overruns seem to disappear into the MTA’s mammoth budget.

Yet New Yorkers most of all just want a safe transit system that works reliably to get them from Point A to Point B on time and without being stabbed, shoved or otherwise molested.

Oh, for a governor who’ll thunderously vow to deliver that.