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It might only be 3 stops, but whatever is necessary to decrease the crowded 4/5/6 lines, I'm fine with. Doesn't matter what time of day/night, weekday or weekend, the entire east side crowds onto 3 train lines. And with the construction going on (103rd st uptown closed down), and the nightmare construction on the weekends, this is a good start.
But it will eventually happen. Due to current politics they could not instantly get the entire thing funded at once. So the next best thing is to get the money to do what they can, while they can. The reason why phase one of the Second Avenue Subway could even happen is because the city finally opened up the 63rd Street tunnel in the late 80s. Said tunnel used to have trains that only went to 21st street, but now the F train runs through, while the LIRR to Grand Central is under construction underneathe.
NYC is going to be here after your lifetime and infrastructure improvements are not just for people currently alive, but for future generations.
But it will eventually happen. Due to current politics they could not instantly get the entire thing funded at once. So the next best thing is to get the money to do what they can, while they can. The reason why phase one of the Second Avenue Subway could even happen is because the city finally opened up the 63rd Street tunnel in the late 80s. Said tunnel used to have trains that only went to 21st street, but now the F train runs through, while the LIRR to Grand Central is under construction underneathe.
NYC is going to be here after your lifetime and infrastructure improvements are not just for people currently alive, but for future generations.
The problem is that the MTA is effectively a jobs program instead of an infrastructure management agency in the greatest city in the world.
How does that help anything unless there's an economic contraction?
IF the MTA is always behind the trend, then only an economic/population contraction helps them to actually catch up with demand.
The MTA is a joke. I don't think anyone can dispute that.
I'm not such a big fan of privatizing public services but I would vote in a heartbeat to privatize the MTA.
The IRT and the BMT mind you were privately owned. The city owned IND was created to compete with them and replace many of the elevated lines which it did. The city refused to allow the private operators to raise fares beyond a nickel. So guess what happened? The private operators went out of business.
Mass transit is too vulnerable to the whims of politicians to be successfully run by private enterprises.
Metro North and LIRR were privately owned, and NJ Transit too. Quite clearly this is no longer the case now.
Yes but I probably won't see the full length of the subway in my life time. The fact it take YEARS to make a subway just over a mile long is laughable and a disgrace.
Even if MTA has enough funding for the entire T line, it will still take decades to complete. How can we compete in the global arena?
The cost per mile of transit construction in the US is ridiculous compared to that of peer developed countries. It's fine if China builds at a much cheaper rate as labor is extremely cheap there and eminent domain is pretty straightforward without having to compensate people and houses that are in the way very much. What's mortifying is how much more expensive per mile transit construction in the US is compared to places like Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, much of Western Europe, etc., i.e. other developed countries. Sure, there's also an issue with the relative little amount of funding we give to mass transit in the first place, but it would be wonderful if the meager amount of funding we do give actually gave more for it.
That being said, it also irks me when people say phase 1 of the second avenue subway is going to be useless because it's pretty close to existing stations and it's only three stops. It's not a fair assessment, because it's not just three stops existing in the ether. It's three stops in what are among the densest population tracts in the USA with the existing transit access points being overcrowded. That overcrowding isn't just dangerous, it also holds up the operation of the trains affecting the timetables for everyone on that line. That overcrowding isn't bad for just the people getting on at the Upper East Side stops, but for everyone else on the line as well. These three stops also allow for new service patterns with people being able to go from the western parts of midtown to the upper east side and vice versa which serves not only that neighborhood, but also means that those people won't be contributing to the overcrowding at crosstown transfer points like at Grand Central on the 7.
The cost per mile of transit construction in the US is ridiculous compared to that of peer developed countries. It's fine if China builds at a much cheaper rate as labor is extremely cheap there and eminent domain is pretty straightforward without having to compensate people and houses that are in the way very much. What's mortifying is how much more expensive per mile transit construction in the US is compared to places like Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, much of Western Europe, etc., i.e. other developed countries. Sure, there's also an issue with the relative little amount of funding we give to mass transit in the first place, but it would be wonderful if the meager amount of funding we do give actually gave more for it.
That being said, it also irks me when people say phase 1 of the second avenue subway is going to be useless because it's pretty close to existing stations and it's only three stops. It's not a fair assessment, because it's not just three stops existing in the ether. It's three stops in what are among the densest population tracts in the USA with the existing transit access points being overcrowded. That overcrowding isn't just dangerous, it also holds up the operation of the trains affecting the timetables for everyone on that line. That overcrowding isn't bad for just the people getting on at the Upper East Side stops, but for everyone else on the line as well. These three stops also allow for new service patterns with people being able to go from the western parts of midtown to the upper east side and vice versa which serves not only that neighborhood, but also means that those people won't be contributing to the overcrowding at crosstown transfer points like at Grand Central on the 7.
The Second Avenue Subway Phase One adds 4 new stops to the Q train. 63rd and Lex, 72nd, 86th, and 96th Street. That's a big help to residents of the Upper East Side and the lower part of East Harlem. As for East Harlem as a whole, NYS just added funding to Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway, the extension of the Q train to 125th Street and Lex. When that's done that's a huge help to East Harlem residents and the process is now started with the design contracts being awarded this summer. As the money becomes available phases 3 and 4 the extension of the T train downtown will happen. This is a process due to our political system, but they have to start somewhere.
LIRR construction to Grand Central will open in the 2020s.
Bronx residents will get new Metro North stations that go over Hell Gates bridge into Queens into Penn Station and work on that starts in this capital plan. Eventually the Amtrak tracks on the West Side of Manhattan will be converted to Metro North tracks with stations at 125th Street and 72nd Street that go into Penn Station. That isn't in this capital plan (they'll have to get more funding). But system expansion is moving along nicely.
You people think this is bad, wait until you see the plans to floodproof lower Manhattan.
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