MTA adds new entrance at Fulton Street Transit Center

There’s finally some visible progress at the Fulton Street Transit Center — and it’s on time and budget.

The MTA opened up a new entrance Monday afternoon at 135 William St. to the downtown transit hub, giving straphangers another way to get down to the No. 2, No. 3, A and C lines.

"We're open for business!" MTA Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu exclaimed, as the MTA, construction workers and politicians celebrated the new station entrance.

But they weren’t quite “open” yet, as just an hour later, construction workers blocked passengers from entering, saying lights were still being fixed. The MTA later said it was a “misunderstanding,” and the station was permanently open.

The $1.4 billion complex is more than halfway done, according to the MTA, and will eventually connect five stations and 11 train lines, in addition to offering retail stores to some 300,000 daily riders when it opens in 2014.

The next major milestone in the project will be the opening of the southbound R train platform at Cortland Street, slated to open by Sept. 11.