New York, NY —

About 67,000 straphangers had a better way to get to their subway this morning. Transit officials opened a new station entrance at 96th street and Broadway for the 1, 2 and 3 lines.

The old entrances at 96th Street forced riders to go down two floors and then come up one to get to the train platform. The newly renovated structure brings people directly down to either the downtown or uptown platforms because the entrance is on Broadway's median strip.

Construction started about three years ago. New York City Transit says the remaining features of the station renovation, including an elevator and small park, will be complete in the fall. The project is costing $98 million.

Upper West Side resident Floraminda Balmaseda says the wait was worth it. "We waited for this station to get remodeled for so long and we [experienced] a lot of difficulties but it looks great," she says.

New York City Transit says 134,000 trips begin or end at the station; that means some 67,000 people use the station for their daily commutes.