Sometimes it appears New York City never had a bit of transit planning.
Where else can one find a city with its major airports poorly served by rail,
its major convention center without a rail connection, and block upon block of the city served only by busses.
Add to this list the South Street Seaport, United Nations and the Meadowlands sports complex in New Jersey. The East Side absence of rapid transit might not have been as great if the Second Avenue subway had been built. The West Side's gap has a ready answer - the old New York Central Freight Line. The northern portion is being restored as an AMTRAK connection but the southern portion is a rusty strip.
Many, many plans (good and bad) have been presented over the years but few accepted. One reject was "A complete Rapid Transit System for Greater New York" which was prepared by Beauvais B. Fox, Jr. in 1941. It expanded on the July 16, 1940 proposal to the City Planning Commission by the Board of Transportation.
In this plan, Staten Island would be linked to the rest of the city by tunnel. Local trains would be intraborough while expresses would be interborough.
All lines on the system would be either 2, 3 or 4 track. Certain lines would be expanded beyond this limit but would act as separate lines. For instance, a 6 or 8 track line would operate as two 4 track or a 4 and a 2. Fifth tracks would be added in several areas with this track utilized as a peak period express track (travel in direction of prevailing flow). In non-rush periods, it would be utilized as a storage track.
The capacity of most subway lines is 30 trains per hour, with some capable of 40. At this rate, a train passes a station once every 90 seconds. The capacity of most tunnels is 80 trains per hour.
Fox's plan advocated the development of interline transfers.
NY, Westchester & Boston routes in the city would be taken over and Westchester County would be encouraged and aided in the development of a corporation to take over the rest of their lines.
Finally, the plan included integration of subways into Grand Central Terminal to alleviate congestion.
It isn't just New York City that ignored public transportation in its planning. A 1962 report by the Greater Bridgeport (Connecticut) Regional Planning Commission gave absolutely no recognition that trains (or even busses) played a part in a regional transportation policy. The answer was roads, roads and more roads. This region had a 1960 population of 280,000 people and was projected to grow to 550,000 by the Year 2000.
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) thinks that for a little over $50 billion it could correct many of the region's problems.
Some of their proposals include:
* Completing the 2nd Avenue Subway.
* Building a transfer between the subway system and the Long Island Railroad at Queens Plaza.
* Connecting Grand Central Terminal with New Jersey. (an old idea revisited)
* A cross-Westchester route (see below).
* Extending the IRT "7" Flushing Line to Javits Center and the New Jersey Meadowlands.
* Rail access between Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports with connection to Manhattan.
Recently, Metro-North Commuter Railroad, an arm of the MTA, has proposed a rail line crossing Westchester County along the same route that Interstate Highway 287 passes. In other words, it would go from Port Chester on the New Haven Line, through White Plains (Harlem Line), cross the Hudson River (connect with Hudson Line) and end up in Suffern with interchanges to the Port Jervis branch and hopefully restored service on the West Shore (CONRAIL's River Division). Concurrently, the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) is exploring light rail in the same area.
The Metro-North option would cross the Hudson by either bridge or tunnel and would link New Jersey to New York City as well as permitting direct rail service to Stewart Airport near Newburgh. Some of the problems are how to build through already-populated areas, how to connect with the Hudson line (a physical "altitude" problem), and how to serve dispersed work locations along the corridor.
Rail advocate groups and the Regional Plan Association have surfaced several other options recently. One of the most popular is extension of the Hudson Line of Metro-North to Hyde Park and even on to Rhinecliff. Other ideas for New York State east of the Hudson are: Jamaica (Long Island) to New Rochelle (New Haven Line) and Penn Station to New Rochelle with several intermediate stops; Yonkers to Penn Station (when AMTRAK connection opens); Danbury - Brewster - Hopewell Junction - Beacon; and extension of the Harlem Line to Millerton.
The Hudson Valley will have at least 10,000 additional commuters by the year 2005. Most of these will be west of the Hudson. West of the Hudson ideas include extension of the Pascack Valley service to Suffern; service on Conrail's River Line to Newburgh and Kingston; service to the Catskill Mountain resort area; and, of course, additional bridges/tunnels across the river. Eventually, growth will dictate extension of the Port Jervis Line to Honesdale and new service from Campbell Hall to New Paltz.
Connecticut service advocates wish list includes extension of the Danbury Branch to New Milford; use of the line between Danbury and Derby and on to New Haven; and service between Waterbury and Hartford.
New Jersey, with almost 200,000 commuters into the city has not kept pace. Its only recent improvement was the North Jersey coast electrification. Service to Toms River and Sandy Hook, including several intermediate points, would help many commuters. Some of the other service improvements might be: increased service on the Raritan Valley Line and extension to Allentown PA; extending the Boonton Line to Washington NJ; rail service to Flemington, Stroudsburg/Scranton via the Lackawanna Cutoff; and Susquehanna service to Warwick NY. But New Jersey's biggest problem is absence of suburb-to-suburb commuting and poor interline connections.
The biggest problem remains the New York City airports. The next biggest problem is connecting the existing lines and handling cross-suburb commutes. This situation would be alleviated if the Long Island and NJTransit were linked with the New Haven via Hell's Gate; the LIRR and NJTransit were linked with the Hudson Line via the Westside Connection and also via the lower level of the 63rd St. tunnel.
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