Continuing for the next two months, Fields and her Second Avenue Subway Task Force will ask subway riders to sign postcards asking MTA Chair E. Virgil Conway to include the east side project in the MTA's next capital plan, to be developed later this year.

In the past, the MTA has expressed interest in only building the subway from 125th St. to 63rd St. South of 63rd Street, the trains would run on unused N and R express tracks. But at the press conference, Fields, the Straphangers Campaign, the Transport Workers Union and the NYC Transit Riders Council advocated a 2nd Avenue line running the entire length of Manhattan.

The Regional Plan Association also advocates extension of the additional east side line into the Bronx, and its connection to a downtown tunnel to Brooklyn.

The cost of the project in Manhattan has been estimated at $8-$10 billion. On Monday, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney hosted a forum to discuss project financing. In recent weeks, some of the city's most powerful business leaders have expressed a willingness to help pay for new subway lines.

East Side state legislators, led by State Senator Roy Goodman, have vowed to block a new MTA capital plan in Albany if money for the project isn't included.

Contact the Manhattan Borough President's Office, 212-669-8300, to help with the postcard campaign.