New York's Greatest Unbuilt Project (cont'd)

The New York City Transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has claimed that construction on phase I of the Second Avenue Subway will likely begin in the summer of 2007. Phase I runs from 63 to 96 streets along 2nd avenue, with stops at 96, 86, and 72 streets. It will join the existing ex-IND 63 st. connection and will see its first revenue service as an extension of the ex-BMT "Q" Broadway Express, currently running from Coney Island (Bklyn) to 57 St. & 7 Ave. (Mnhtn). Construction is expected to take 6-8 months.

My questions, one practical and one cynical: How long after tunnel construction will the service actually start? And how far past these projections will construction actually go? Given the project's legendary tendencies to avoid completion, Phase I will set the mood for the rest of construction. The projected date for full service between 125 st. and Hanover Square is 2020. If phase I is completed on time or ahead of schedule, I bet the momentum could bring that date rapidly closer. 14 years is ample time for something to come along and wreck a city's good intentions; any delays in construction would make New York's unforeseen catastrophes (of any size) that much more damaging to the timeline.

So get digging, MTA.

New York's Greatest Unbuilt Project

Last week, I expounded briefly on the importance of regional intercity transit. In truth, this is but one of what should ideally be a three-level national transit network:

Level 1: National Intercity Rail (and High-Speed routes)
Level 2: Interlocking Coordinated Regional Commuter Rail
Level 3: Efficient Local Mass Transit

At this moment, the National Railway Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) is our only attempt at Level 1 transit. It can be considered a success ONLY in that it has just turned 35 in spite of having been set up to fail. National long-distance passenger rail is a joke, and high-speed service is a fantasy. Level 2 transit networks are present around most major cities in the U.S., but for the most part they share the same story of being carved out of failed private companies. Many are mismanaged, underfunded, and continually on the brink of service cuts. Level 3 transit, implemented at the local level, is my main focus today. Namely, a transportation project in New York City that has taken only baby steps off the drawing board in the last 80 years.

I live on the east side of Manhattan, New York, shoulder-to-shoulder with Bellevue Hospital on 1st Ave, and rapid transit availability is inconvenient at best. There was a time when just about every north-south avenue on the island had an elevated train rumbling above it (to replace the streetcars that jammed traffic at grade level). Electric traction motors enabled these trains to move underground, which they did in New York starting in 1904. By the 1920s, the city's Independent Subway was planning a mammoth expansion to replace exting elevated lines in four of the five boroughs. They only got around to a few of them before the Depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the 1970s economic collapse stymied any significant expansion until the 1980s. In 2005, the New York State Transportation Bond Act passed, committing some hefty numbers to construction of a much-needed Second Avenue Subway.

Needless to say, I am still skeptical that I will ever see the project completed in my lifetime. I challenge New York to step up to the plate and meet their 2012 deadline. In demonstrating their recognition of the importance of readily available mass transit, they could set an example for any other city in America with a struggling transportation network. The Second Avenue Subway will be worth the investment--if it is ever completed, that is. The same could probably be said about any number of proposed service expansions in mass transit networks across the country. In realizing this 80-year-old idea, a crucial step will have been taken towards a more mobile future.

Welcome Aboard

Hello, my name is Ben, and this is the innaugural post on the official blog of the Regional Coalition for NorthEast Corridor Transit, ReCoNECT. ReCoNECT is, at the time of this posting, only an idea, but I hope that I can help that idea to grow.

The idea is for commuting residents living in the nine states on the NorthEast Corridor (Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachussets) to come together in support of public transit on local and intercity levels. Traffic on the NorthEast Corridor (NEC), which for the purposes of this blog runs from Richmond, VA, to Boston, MA, accounts for a significant portion of rail travel by volume in the U.S and the vast majority of Amtrak ticket purchases. It runs through the nation's capitol, four state capitols, and two of the five largest cities in the country. It is electrified for much of this route, and connects to seven regional rail networks forged out of many more now-defunct private railroad companies. All of these regional transportation authorities (MBTA, ConnDOT, MTA, NJT, SEPTA, MARC, VRE), and the National Passenger Railroad Corporation (Amtrak) are woefully underfunded and routinely pile on fare hikes and service cuts, in most cases because they are expected to be fiscally self-sufficient. The NEC is poised to become a streamlined, affordable, efficient, and convenient public transit network. Bringing this about could set an example for the entire nation to follow in the coming decades, when individual mobility will only get more difficult. But it will not happen unless the commuters themselves can make their voices heard.

An example of some of the first steps to take: There is a 20-mile stretch of the NEC between Perryville, MD, and Newark, DE, and another 50-mile stretch between New London, CT, and Providence, RI, that are served only by Amtrak. Extending regional service to fill in these gaps would allow passage on local public passenger rail from Richmond, VA, to Boston, MA, for a fraction of the Amtrak costs. The current rate for an Amtrak ticket is $107 each way, for a trip that could last anywhere between 10h20m and 13h52m. With proper schedule coordination (already in place for the SEPTA/NJT connection in Trenton, NJ) the trip could conceivably be made in comparable time and cost under $100--ROUND TRIP.

Here are some supplemental facts, according to the World Book, drawing upon sources including the International Union of Railways, and the United Nations: The United States has more miles of mainline railroads than any other nation (with a 50,000+ mile lead over 2nd place, Russia) and is the global leader in freight service by rail, but doesn't rank anywhere in the top 10 in passenger service. The world is in an upward surge of rail passenger traffic, with the global total approaching 1.5 trillion annual passenger-miles, up from 1.0 in the last twenty years. By comparison, U.S. passenger rail traffic has risen from 12 billion to just 14 billion passenger-miles over the last HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS. We've got a long way to go, America. We can start here.