The MTA is cutting the Second Avenue subway add-on, but the price is still high at $6.3 billion.

The MTA’s luxury plans for new multi-level subway stations in East Harlem have been scaled back but are still costing the same multi-billion dollar price tag, regulatory filings show.

With these changes, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hopes to lower the price by about $500 million, which now needs to be allocated to other project costs that have risen.

Bottom line: The projected price tag of $6.3 billion has not changed.

Filed discreetly with the Federal Transportation Administration in the midst of the pandemic, the papers requested—and received—permission to reduce the mezzanine at 116th Street station to half its original length.

Officials also confirmed to The Post that they plan to cut the mezzanine at the 106th Street station.

To reduce the amount of earthwork required, the MTA also plans to locate a canteen and subway crew accommodation underground at the 125th Street station.

The new savings are in addition to the $500 million the agency says they saved in 2018 by reusing a subway tunnel built under Second Avenue decades ago in preparation for the expansion.

Without the changes, the cost of the project would have increased to at least $7.3 billion, officials said.

The MTA’s decision to build huge stations with expensive full-length mezzanines for the first three Second Avenue subway stations—at 72nd, 86th, and 96th Streets—has been criticized for years.

More recently, a report by NYU researchers found that plants that were too large were the result of the MTA’s over-reliance on outside design and engineering firms, which had little incentive to limit costs.

An NYU report says that MTA consultants and contractors have designed stations with caves twice the size of the 600-foot platforms needed to board and exit trains.

All additional excavation comes at a cost, especially in New York, where builders are unionized and well paid.

However, even with the changes made, many of the heavily criticized design options for the first subway line on Second Avenue appear to be included in the second phase of the program.

For example, MTA charts presented to the feds show that the 116th Street station will eventually be about 1,100 feet long – from 115th Street to 120th Street. And in August 2020, the FTA approved the station changes, according to documents posted discreetly on the MTA’s website.

The head of the construction agency, Jamie Torres-Springer, indirectly mentioned them in his presentation to the MTA board of directors in December 2022, saying that officials managed to squeeze $1 billion in savings from the project.

“The $1 billion savings on this project is consistent with the MTA’s commitment to being creative in identifying efficiency and cutting costs where possible, avoiding costs without sacrificing reliability, service or safety,” said MTA spokeswoman Joana Flores.