For many Upper East Side residents getting around means trekking across several avenues just to get to the subway. Manhattan reporter Michael Scotto followed around one commuter who can't wait to give up that walk after the Second Avenue Subway opens in just a few days.

It is 8:21 a.m. when Taina Prado steps out of her East 72nd Street building for her daily commute to Lower Manhattan.

"Typically door-to-door it takes 45 or 50 minutes," she says.

At Second Avenue she heads four blocks to 68th Street then west, walking two long blocks to Lexington Avenue.

"And we're still not there," notes Prado.

Finally she reaches the 68th Street stop on the 6 line.

Total time: 15 minutes, maybe 12 if we weren't following her with a camera.

Prado is one of the thousands of Upper East Siders whose commutes will be cut dramatically when the the Second Avenue subway opens.

For more than 50 years, since the Third Avenue el was demolished, only one train line has served the neighborhood.

For people living near First, Second and York avenues, that's meant a long walk just to reach a train.  

But now, instead of six and a half blocks, Prado's walk will last just half a block.

"It's very exciting, especially when it's cold or rainy or hot," says Prado.

But being closer to the subway isn't the only benefit for East Siders.

The Lexington Line is the city's busiest with 1.3 million riders a day.

Most mornings when Prado transfers to an express at Grand Central, the crowd is so large, she cannot get on the first train that comes by.

One time the platform was so packed her phone fell to the track when someone bumped her.

"And they got it out. They have a special instrument to scoop it out," she recalls.

Prado is one of the 200,000 people expected to use the new line every day, easing the crush on Lexington Avenue service.

On this day the express isn't living up to its billing. It inches along at a painful pace.

Finally, at a little after 9 a.m. we reach our destination - Wall Street and Prado's job at the Downtown Alliance.

Total commute time: 47 minutes. Next week, she figures, that will change.