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Main article: History of the New York City Subway

The Program for Action was a proposal in the mid-1960s for a large New York City Subway expansion proposed by then-Mayor John Lindsay. Although only two lines were built under the program, it was the most ambitious expansion plan since the IND Second System was planned.

Context

In 1968, US$600,000,000 was made available to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York City. About $1,230,000,000 was spent to create three tunnels and a half-dozen holes as part of construction on the Second Avenue and 63rd Street Lines.[1][2] Construction for the lines stopped in 1975 because the city went bankrupt, yet none of the lines were done when federal payments were suspended in 1985.[3] The two-phase "Program for Action" would cost $2.9 billion in total.[4]

As part of the Program for Action, existing elevated structures were to be replaced with new subways. The eastern end of the BMT Jamaica Line was to be replaced with the BMT Archer Avenue Line, while the IRT Third Avenue Line was being torn down in favor of a new subway line running parallel to the Metro-North tracks at Park Avenue.[2] A subway map was also drawn up to illustrate planned service patterns upon the program's completion.[5]

Expected to be completed by the mid-1970s and early 1980s,[6][7] these plans were derailed by the 1970s fiscal crisis, which delayed the completion of the Archer Avenue and 63rd Street lines, the only two lines to be built under the program.[8][9][10][11]

Phase I

Phase I was to cost $1.6 billion and be completed over the span of a decade.[2]

It entailed aggressive completion of the 63rd Street Lines was to be completed as well as the connections to the IND Sixth Avenue Line and the BMT Broadway Line. This line would reduce overcrowding on the IND Queens Boulevard Line, on the IRT Flushing Line, and on the 60th Street Tunnel's services.[2] The 63rd Street tunnel would facilitate service between the IND Queens Boulevard Line and the Second Avenue Subway, via bellmouths west of Roosevelt Island which turn south towards Midtown and Lower Manhattan (although these turnouts may be used for the third and fourth phases of the Second Avenue Subway].[12][13][14]

A connection to the Rockaway Beach Branch was proposed, with branch lines along other LIRR lines to outer Queens areas without rapid transit service.[8]

A 2-track subway line, splitting from the IND Queens Boulevard Line at Briarwood, would go to Springfield Boulevard in southeastern Queens using the LIRR Atlantic Branch, with a transfer at Jamaica.[2][8][10][15][6] The most important of the proposed lines along LIRR branches, it was supposed to be a "Southeast Queens" extension of the Archer Avenue subway along the Locust Manor branch to Springfield Gardens, which was the original intention of the Queens Boulevard extension to Archer Avenue. The line was built to Jamaica Center, although a LIRR extension would have necessitated the construction of new stations or the conversion of existing facilities along the right-of-way.[8][6][7]

The Archer Avenue and 63rd Street lines were planned to be connected by a "super-express" bypass of the Queens Boulevard line,[8][10][16][15][12] proposed due to the overall congestion of the line during peak hours.[10][17][18] This bypass would have no stops. The bypass would have used the outer two of the six trackways of the LIRR Main Line (formerly used by the Rockaway Beach Branch), which are currently unused, and would have allowed trains to travel at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. It would stretch from the 63rd Street Line east of 21st Street – Queensbridge near the Sunnyside Yard, with the possibility of access to the 60th and 53rd Street tunnels. At its east end, it would have left the LIRR right-of-way near Whitepot Junction and ran under Yellowstone Boulevard to the Queens Boulevard Line near 71st Avenue station, which would have been converted into a bi-level station.[8][12][19][20][21][22] There were also plans for an intermediate stop at the current Woodside LIRR station, and an additional 63rd Street line station at Northern Boulevard adjacent to Queens Plaza. The bypass and proposed Woodside station would have necessitated the widening of the LIRR Main Line right-of-way onto private property west of Winfield Junction, where the Main Line merges with the Port Washington Branch, and reorganization of the track layout in the Sunnyside Yards.[22][23] The IND Queens Boulevard Line was to be reverse-signaled as well to further increase capacity.[2]

Another less publicized plan was for a new double-tracked subway line, which would diverge from the IND Queens Boulevard Line near Woodhaven Boulevard and go to Kissena Boulevard.[2][12] In Phase I, it would go to Queens College, and In Phase II, to Fresh Meadows and Bayside.[2][8] This "Northeastern Queens" line would have been built under the expressway, or in the median of a widened LIE in a similar manner to the Blue Line of the Chicago "L".[8][6][12][19][20][24] A similar line along the corridor had been proposed in the 1939 IND Second System plan as an extension of the BMT Broadway Line east of the 60th Street Tunnel, when the road was called Horace Harding Boulevard prior to the construction of the expressway.[8][25]

A Second Avenue Subway tunnel

The Second Avenue Subway from 34th Street to the Bronx, with a connection to the 63rd Street Tunnel. The portion of the line from 63rd Street in Manhattan to 138th Street in the Bronx, would be built as two tracks.[2] The Brook Avenue station on the IRT Pelham Line would be reconstructed to allow a cross-platform interchange. Further north, there would be a connection with the IRT Pelham Line at Whitlock Avenue, and station platforms would be narrowed to accommodate the B Division trains from the Second Avenue Subway[2] The IRT Pelham Line would terminate at Hunts Point Avenue. IND Second Avenue Line trains would have a branch to Dyre Avenue and a branch to Pelham Bay Park. The Dyre Avenue Branch would continue from 138th Street along the former New York, Westchester, and Boston Railway's right-of-way to Dyre Avenue. The stations along the IRT Dyre Avenue Line would be narrowed, as they were widened to accommodate A Division trains.[2] The junction at East 180th Street, as well as the approach of the IRT White Plains Road Line at the station, would be rebuilt to allow cross-platform interchanges; curves would be rebuilt for a smoother ride.[2]

Related to the Second Avenue Line, the sharp curves connecting the IRT Lexington Avenue Line to the IRT White Plains Road Line at 149th Street – Grand Concourse would also be removed.[2]

The Rogers Junction would be reconstructed to increase capacity for two extensions. The IRT Nostrand Avenue Line would be extended along Flatbush Avenue to Avenue U; other plans had the line extended to Voorhies Avenue along Nostrand Avenue.[2] The IRT New Lots Line would be extended southerly to Flatlands Avenue; the line would run at ground level.[2]

There would be a purchase of about 500 high-speed air-conditioned subway cars for operation on the new subway extensions. Yards and shops would be expanded to serve the new subway lines and the increased fleet size. The purchase of 500 more air-conditioned, high-speed subway cars was covered in Phase 2.[2]

The Staten Island Railway would be fully rehabilitated and would also get new rolling stock.[2]

A new "Metropolitan Transportation Center" at 48th Street and Third Avenue would be built to provide a terminal for the new LIRR line that would use the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel. It would also have a terminal for a proposed new high-speed line to John F. Kennedy Airport that would run via Jamaica. It would be a transfer point to Grand Central – 42nd Street. Access to Grand Central Terminal would be provided through a new north end access point. Construction costs would be offset by building office space above the transportation center. There would be a mezzanine above the four island platforms and eight tracks, which were split evenly across two levels. (This would later be the East Side Access project.)[2]

Phase II

Phase II came after Phase I and cost $1.3 billion. Phase II was composed of mostly extensions of existing lines and Phase I-built lines.[2]

Phase II entailed completion of the Second Avenue Subway from 34th Street south to the Financial District along Water Street to Whitehall Street. A cross-platform interchange would be provided at Grand Street.[2] There would also be a midtown tunnel distribution system along 57th, 48th, 42nd and 33rd Streets.[2]

There would be an extension of the subway east of Jamaica to Hollis, Queens and demolition the BMT Jamaica Line above Jamaica Avenue east of 121st Street. There would also be an extension of the Long Island Expressway line to Springfield Boulevard.[2]

The MTA would replace the Bronx portion of the IRT Third Avenue Line with a new subway line running adjacent to the New Haven Line along Park Avenue.[2] Extending the IND Pelham Line to Co-op City in the Bronx and extending the IND Concourse Line to White Plains Road would also be performed.[2]

As for New York City railroads, they would also get improved. One proposed project entailed extending the LIRR from Flatbush Avenue into lower Manhattan would also be an option.[2] A new railroad station at 149th Street in the Bronx, near the current Yankees – East 153rd Street station, would be built.[2]

Progress

The Jamaica Center station of the Archer Avenue Lines

As of 1973, the single-track Queens Super Express Bypass for the IND Queens Boulevard Line was now two tracks. The line would diverge from the 63rd Street Line in Sunnyside Yard and run via the LIRR Main Line, and rejoin the IND Queens Boulevard Line in Forest Hills. The BMT Jamaica Line would be razed from 121st Street to 168th Street, and the Jamaica Line would run into the lower level of the Archer Avenue Line and terminate at Jamaica Center – Parsons/Archer (though tunneling would extend to Merrick Boulevard). There was never a plan to connect the upper IND level and the lower BMT level of the Archer Avenue subway.[2]

In 1973, the northeast Queens line to Kissena Boulevard was approaching final engineering. The southeast Queens line connecting to the Jamaica Avenue line was close to having a final design approved. Design was coming along on the extension of the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line to Avenue W, and the new line leaving the IRT Eastern Parkway Line at Utica Avenue, running along Utica Avenue to Avenue U. People mover studies for 48th Street and lower Manhattan were underway. Plans to extend the Second Avenue subway into the Pelham Line were changed to extend it to Co-op City via the New Haven Railroad right of way.[2]

Later that year, the Long Island Expressway extension was canceled. As late as November 1974, the MTA still felt that many of the subway projects that were underway or planned would get done. First, the Archer Avenue Line to Springfield Boulevard would be done in 1981. The 63rd Street Line, as well as the Second Avenue Subway from 34th Street to 125th Street with an interchange with the 63rd Street Line, would be done in 1982. Next, the Queens Super Express Bypass from Sunnyside Yard to Forest Hills would be done in 1983. Afterward, the extension of the Second Avenue Subway into the Bronx to Co-op City, as well as the BMT Jamaica Line's connection with the Archer Avenue Line would be done in 1983. Then, the Second Avenue Subway from 34th Street to Whitehall Street would be done in 1988. Finally, the Utica Avenue Line, the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line, the Long Island Expressway Subway and East Side Access would all finish in 1993.[2]

Most of the extensions also received the thumbs-down within four years, due to the 1975–76 fiscal crisis that affected the city; the "40 miles of new subway" advertised was whittled down to just 15 miles of new trackage, and all but three of the lines were cancelled. The exceptions were the Second Avenue Subway, 63rd Street Line, and Archer Avenue Line, which continued construction. The Archer Avenue Line was opened in 1988 and the 63rd Street Line was also opened one year later; both lines were scaled-down versions of their original plans.[2] However, the Second Avenue Subway, whose construction stopped in 1976 and did not resume until 2007, will not be open until December 2016 at the earliest.[26][27]

IND 63rd Street Line

The 63rd Street Line at 21st Street – Queensbridge

By the end of 1985, the 63rd Street Line's eastern Queens extension was no longer being planned. At the then-terminal of the line, 21st Street – Queensbridge, usage estimates for that station in 1984 were 220 passengers per hour. The MTA was studying four options for making this line more useful:[28][22][23][29][30]

  1. The Queens Express Bypass: extending the line along the LIRR to Forest Hills – 71st Avenue. It would be completed in 1998 and cost $931 million. This was the original plan for this line proposed in the 1968 MTA Program for Action. This was also the only option that the MTA felt that would provide relief to the E and F express services. At a proposed station at Northern Boulevard, a transfer concourse would have allowed transfers between local, express, and bypass trains.[22][23][29][30]
  2. Connecting the line to the local tracks of the IND Queens Boulevard Line. It was the cheapest and fastest alternative to complete, as it would be done by 1993 at a cost of $222 million. But critics complained that it would do the least to relieve overcrowding on the E and F services in Queens, the most crowded in the system. The line would leave 2⁄3 of the available capacity of the 63rd Street Line unused and probably make any future expansion of this line unlikely. This was the option ultimately chosen. It was completed in 2001, with connections to the express tracks.[22][23][29][30]
  3. Extending the 63rd Street Line through the Sunnyside Yard and the LIRR Main Line to the Archer Avenue Line. It would cost $594 million and be completed by 1997, but residents along the proposed route objected to this option.[22][23][29][30]
  4. Extending the line to Sunnyside Yard in Queens and allow passengers to connect to a new LIRR service stopping in Rosedale and Queens Village. The route of the new LIRR service would be the Montauk Branch, used mostly for freight service. It would cost $488 million and be completed by 1995, but like the Main Line proposal above, Queens residents along the proposed route objected to it.[22][23][29][30]

None of these options came to pass, and the 63rd Street Line was opened in 1989 after more than a decade of delays, its terminal station at 21st Street rendering the once-grandiosely-planned line a "useless subway to nowhere".[31]

References

  1. ^ Feinman, Mark. "The New York Transit Authority in the 1970s". nycsubway.org. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad Feinman, Mark. "The New York Transit Authority in the 1980s". nycsubway.org. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  3. ^ Martin, Douglas (November 17, 1996). "Subway Planners' Lofty Ambitions Are Buried as Dead-End Curiosities". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  4. ^ "1968 NYCTA Expansion Plans (Picture)". Second Avenue Sagas. Retrieved December 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ^ "1970s NYC Subway Map That Never Was - Business Insider". Business Insider. 18 June 2013.
  6. ^ a b c d "New Line May Get Double Trackage: Transit Unit Shift on Queens Super-Express". The New York Times. February 21, 1971. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  7. ^ a b Burks, Edward C. (October 24, 1973). "Work Begun on Queens Subway Extension". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Joseph B. Raskin (1 November 2013). The Routes Not Taken: A Trip Through New York City's Unbuilt Subway System. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-5369-2. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  9. ^ Roger P. Roess; Gene Sansone (23 August 2012). The Wheels That Drove New York: A History of the New York City Transit System. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 416-417. ISBN 978-3-642-30484-2.
  10. ^ a b c d Johnson, Kirk (December 9, 1988). "Big Changes For Subways Are to Begin". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  11. ^ Kennedy, Randy (May 25, 2001). "Panel Approves New V Train but Shortens G Line to Make Room". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  12. ^ a b c d e Program for Action maps from thejoekorner.com
  13. ^ "Second Avenue Subway Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS): Track Diagram, North of 55th Street" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York). Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  14. ^ 2nd Avenue Subway – Tentative track plan, Manhattan portion, nycsubway.org
  15. ^ a b "1968 NYCTA Expansion Plans (Picture)". Second Avenue Sagas. Retrieved December 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYTimes-63St-QBLRevSig-1987 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference MTA-FLineReview-2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference MTA-GLineReview-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ a b "1968 NYCTA Expansion Plans (Picture)". Second Avenue Sagas. Retrieved December 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  20. ^ a b "1970s NYC Subway Map That Never Was - Business Insider". Business Insider. 18 June 2013.
  21. ^ Burks, Edward C. (March 20, 1970). "Board Approves Downtown Subway Route and East Side Loop". The New York TImes. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  22. ^ a b c d e f g Burks, Edward C. (June 6, 1976). "Shortage of U.S. Funds May Delay Subway Link". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  23. ^ a b c d e f Burks, Edward C. (July 29, 1976). "New Subway Line Delayed 5 or 6 Years". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  24. ^ Kihss, Peter (April 13, 1967). "3 Routes Proposed to Aid Growing Queens Areas". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference IND2ndSystem1939Map was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ MTA releases Second Avenue subway images, says project on track NY Daily News, November 5, 2013
  27. ^ MTA.info—Second Avenue Subway Quarterly Report Q4 2013
  28. ^ "63rd Street Subway Tunnel: More Setbacks for a Troubled Project," New York Times, November 1st, 1984, page B1.
  29. ^ a b c d e Burks, Edward C. (September 24, 1976). "Coming: Light at End of 63d St. Tunnel". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  30. ^ a b c d e Burks, Edward C. (August 7, 1976). "New York Improving Subway, But Still Trails Foreign Cities". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  31. ^ Lorch, Donatella (October 29, 1989). "The 'Subway to Nowhere' Now Goes Somewhere". The New York Times. Retrieved October 20, 2011.

Category:History of the New York City Subway

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