Subway Cars on the George Washington Bridge

If Robert Moses and other city planners had had more foresight, perhaps we would have subway or commuter rail lines across the George Washington Bridge, instead of just perpetually clogged car lanes. However, apparently they do use the GWB for transporting subway cars on flatbed trucks. That was news to me; I always thought they were delivered by barge to Brooklyn or the Bronx.

We happened upon this unusual sight a couple of weekends ago, just after the p.m. rush hour on a Friday night. Police stopped everyone else so that the subway cars could have the bridge for themselves. On the Manhattan side, they went onto city streets — most likely to 207th Street Yard.

Today's Dumb Stat: Most NYC Drivers Oppose Congestion Pricing

Today, Reuters reports that “most” NYC drivers oppose Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to implement congestion pricing for vehicles entering Manhattan (below 96th Street) during prime times. The polling margin was actually 51% opposed, which means that 49% of drivers either favor the proposal, or aren’t sure.

Well, duh! Obviously drivers don’t favor paying an extra $8 for their daily commute. What the article didn’t say, is that only about 10% of those employed in Manhattan drive to work. A poll showing a bare majority opposed, when the other 90% of the population is left out of the survey, doesn’t mean much.

Probably half of the 10% who drive to work in Manhattan would use mass transit, if it were available and convenient to the area where they live. And that’s the whole point of Bloomberg’s proposal — to use the congestion pricing fee to invest in mass transit. It’s a needed corrective to almost 70 years of neglect.

Since 1940, many new expressways, bridges, and tunnels have been built. But the city’s mass transit capacity actually shrank, because many elevated lines were demolished, and the subways that were supposed to replace them — such as the Second Avenue Line — were never built. Many of the lines that do exist aren’t in a state of good repair. And most lines could run more trains, were it not for antiquated signalling systems that are long overdue for replacement.

Manhattan can’t accommodate any more cars. But it can accommodate more transit lines. Building mass transit is the only way to get more people into Manhattan. It would also help the existing population, since transit is nearly always faster than driving, provided the starting and ending points of the journey are reasonably close to one’s home and office.

But Bloomberg’s proposal is still going to be a heavy lift, as many politicians in the outer boroughs oppose it. The trouble is that congestion pricing would take effect almost immediately, but building new transit capacity takes years. Politicians are loath to vote for short-term pain, when the long-term gain probably won’t materialize until after they’re out of office.

It will take plenty of political strong-arming to get congestion pricing approved. We simply must.

Second Avenue Subway Groundbreaking

The MTA held a ritual groundbreaking today for the Second Avenue Subway (SAS). Depending on how you count, it was either the third, fourth, or fifth time since the 1920s that a subway line along Second Avenue has been proposed, but not built.

In the 1920s, there were elevated lines along Second and Third Avenues. Those lines were torn down on the premise that the SAS would replace them. Without the SAS, the Lexington Avenue Line is the city’s only rapid transit option on the East Side. The Lex is already over-capacity, and there are many parts of the city where there’s a very long walk to the Lex.

As now planned, the line is expected to be built in four phases. Phase I, which won’t open till 2013, adds just four new stations to the service: 96 & 2nd, 86th & 2nd, 72nd & 2nd, and 63rd & Lex. That’s six years to build four stations. It’s actually worse than that, because the station at 63rd & Lex already exists: it’s “hiding” behind a partition wall at the 63rd & Lex station.

Phase II would extend service up to 125th & Lex, with stations at 106th Street, 116th Street, and 125th Street. This ought to be one of the easier phases to complete, because it uses two large tunnel sections that were built in the 1970s, the last time there was serious work done on this project.

Phase III, the largest phase, would add stations at 55th, 42nd, 34th, 23rd, 14th, and Houston Streets. Phase IV would complete the line down to Lower Manhattan, with stops at Grand Street, Chatham Square, Seaport, and Hanover Square. When completed, letter would be used for the trains running the full length of Second Avenue. But there will be no until after Phase III, which could be decades from now.

The catch is that funding is in place only for Phase I—and in fact, the project is still about $1 billion short. Given the history of this line, one has to be skeptical about where the funds for Phases II–IV will come from.

There’s another catch. A few years ago, transit officials argued that the extension of the to 96th Street was as far as the line needed to go. This initial plan was widely regarded as inadequate—skeptics called it a “stubway”—and that led directly to the current plan for a full-length SAS. But some have cynically suggested that the later phases are just a ruse. After Phase I is built, the MTA will announce, with crocodile-tear sadness, that alas there are no funds to complete the full line.

Until now, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents Lower Manhattan neighborhoods that would benefit from the line, has been one of its strongest advocates. But Silver can only do so much, and at the glacial pace that transit projects usually take to materialize, he may no longer be around when it comes time to pony up for the later phases.

Some transit advocates are skeptical about the spacing of the stations. The SAS will be the only north–south line in the city without express service. There are several particularly long gaps, such as 86th to 72nd; 72nd to 55th; 55th to 42nd; and 14th to Houston. The design is a hybrid, with stations closer together than the typical express, but farther apart than the typical local. There could come a day when transit officials regret that decision.

For now, let’s be happy that at least part of the SAS is on the way. Coming to a theater near you in 2013.

Second Avenue Subway to be Built In Stages

The Daily News reports that the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway will run from 96th to 63rd Streets, connecting to the existing Q line at 57th and Broadway. The phase would add just four new stations (96th & 2nd, 86th & 2nd, 72nd & 2nd, and 63rd & Lex). Construction could be underway by the end of this year, and the extended Q line could be in service in about seven years.

The full-length Second Avenue Subway ("SAS"), from 125th St to Hanover Sq, could be completed by 2020 if all of the funding comes through, but New Yorkers have every reason to be skeptical. Several tunnel sections for the line were completed in the early 1970s, but were never used because the city ran out of money. A Long Island Railroad tunnel under the East River at 63rd St was built around the same time, and it still has never carried a single passenger. (A project called East Side Access, which will finally put that tunnel to use by bringing LIRR trains into Grand Central, is still years from completion.)

However, it seems entirely reasonable to phase in the SAS's benefits, and the section from 96th to 63rd is the most logical starting point. It allows the SAS to connect to the existing unused connection to the Broadway Line, and it will reduce crowding on the Lexington Avenue Line by giving UES reidents another way to get downtown.

Details of the plan should appear on the MTA website within the next several weeks.

New York Magazine Touts Second Avenue Subway

It has been called the world's most famous un-built subway. If the cover story in this week's New York magazine is right, construction on the Second Avenue Subway could be underway by early next year.

First conceived in 1925, the "SAS" has suffered one delay after another. The MTA actually broke ground in 1972 and completed three short tunnel sections, but the city's near-bankruptcy stalled the project. Now, it seems, the stars are finally in alignment. Peter Kalikow, the MTA's politically well-connected chairman, has lined up support in Albany and in Washington, and most of the funds to build the first segment have already been earmarked, or will be shortly.

The need for the SAS is obvious. Of Manhattan's five major north-south trunk lines, only the Lexington Avenue line is on the East side. That line is ridiculously over-crowded, a problem that will only become worse after the MTA completes East Side Access, a project that will bring Long Island Railroad trains into Grand Central Station. Some bristle at the cost (now estimated at $17 billion), but New York hasn't expanded its subway system in any significant way since 1940. Unless you believe in standing still, the SAS is the next logical step.

I do have my concerns about the design. As now conceived, the SAS is two tracks between 125th St and Hanover Square. I wonder if this decision is short-sighted, as all of the other major north-south trunk lines in Manhattan are four tracks. I am also concerned about the spacing between the stations. The line starts out promising enough, with stations planned at 125th, 116th, 106th, 96th and 86th. But after that, the stations are at 72nd, 57th, and 42nd Streets, gaps of 14, 15, and 15 blocks respectively. Below 42nd Street, the gaps between stations are once again more reasonable, aside from the roughly 14 blocks between 14th St and Houston.

Nothwithstanding my reservations, the SAS is a tremendous step forward for the New York City subway system.

#7 Train Extension in Doubt

The New York Times reports that state and MTA officials are unenthusiastic about extending the #7 subway line from its current terminus at Times Square, to the Jacob Javits Center at 34th St & 11th Ave.

The state and the MTA believe that East Side Access (which will bring LIRR trains into Grand Central) and the Second Avenue Subway are more urgent transit priorities.

Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff believe that the #7 extension is essential to long-term commercial growth on Manhattan's West Side. The city's bid for the 2012 Olympics also assumes that the train will be there. But the Olympic bid has always been a long-shot, and the New York Jets, who want to build a stadium over the MTA's west side rail yards, say they don't need the subway.

The city has offered to pay the #7 extension's $1.8 billion cost out of its own coffers. The theory is that the train will bring commercial development, which will bring higher property tax revenues, which will allow the city to pay off the bonds used to finance the project. But it would be unprecedented to promise future tax revenues to fund a transit project on this scale.

My own view is that the MTA has enough big-ticket projects on its plate, and I have yet to see a compelling case for letting this one go forward. Let's see how the West Side evolves before betting the ranch on future tax revenues that might not materialize.