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Ridership below prediction at new 7 train station

The city’s first new subway station in a quarter-century isn’t quite packing them in just yet.

The $2.4 billion city-funded stop on 34th Street and 11th Avenue that opened last week hasn’t had as many riders as the MTA expected, officials said.

When the No. 7 train station opened on Sept. 13, the MTA projected 32,000 commuters would either leave or enter it daily.

There is no data yet on the number of people leaving the stations, but only about 7,000 people a day on average have been going into the new stop.

They include dozens of transit buffs who have been excitedly photographing the new station, the first stop to be built in more than 25 years.

The new station’s features include a glass canopy, incline elevators, and a column-free space.

It extends the No. 7 line a mile and a half from Times Square to the far west side.

The MTA said the lower ridership may be due to an entrance being closed at the popular nearby High Line park.

Ridership is also expected to pick up significantly when massive nearby residential and commercial projects finish.

The Hudson Yards area, still under construction, will have as much as 50 million square feet of new development. This includes 20,000 apartments, 2 million square feet of stores, and 3 million square feet of hotels, the mayor’s office has said.

There’s a much different story systemwide, however. Officials said ridership is expected to hit 6 million a day on its jam-packed trains 55 days this year.

It hit that milestone 29 times last year — and not once in 2013.

The sky-high number of people on the rails has boosted the MTA’s coffers, but has challenged it with delays.

Overcrowding makes it difficult for trains to enter and leave stations quickly, and the MTA has been experimenting with a pilot program that includes platform conductors and more step-aside boxes.

There were more than 17,000 subway delays caused by overcrowding in July this year, the most recent month for which transit data is available.

Overall, weekday delays were up almost 30% in July this year, and weekend snags spiked more than 60%.