Joseph B. Raskin - The Routes Not Taken: A Trip Through New York Citys Unbuilt Subway System

This book is the result of a labor of love that took many years to achieve fruition. I am indebted to a number of people who helped me complete the work.

It would be wrong for me to not mention first Robert Olmsted and Stephen Dobrow. They both knew far more about the New York City transit system than I could ever aspire to learn. I wish that they were both still here for me to personally express my gratitude to them.

I owe a great deal of thanks to the faculty of York College and Queens College of the City University of New York. I gained an appreciation for doing research and learning that I never quite had before, which has served me very well since then. I particularly want to remember Peter Wengert and Edward Rogowsky at York and Carol Brown and David Gurin at Queens.

If there is one person who was indispensible to making this book a reality, its my friend and former neighbor Peter Eisenstadt. He did more than did anyone else to give the whole project focus and push me in the right direction. I also want to thank my colleagues at MTA New York City Transit, Glenn Lunden and Jeffrey Erlitz, for their advice and kind words.

I cant say enough about the help that Ive gotten from the New York Transit Museum and its Archives. Gabrielle Shubert heads one of the great research resources on New York City historynot just transit historyan institution that has been invaluable to me. I particularly want to thank Carey Stumm for all her help.

Many words of praise are also owed to the staffs of the New York, Queens, and Brooklyn Public Libraries and the Brooklyn and Bronx Historic Societies for their help, despite the ways that Ive terrorized them over the past two decades or so, looking for more information. Dr. Peter Derrick of the Bronx County Historical Society has also been of major help to me.

And I must say many words of thanks to my other family, the Division of Government and Community Relations at MTA New York City Transit, for putting up with all my talk about unbuilt subway lines for such a long time. Having gotten all this out of my system in this book, I can finally talk about other things as well.

And a few more words about my dad, Jack Raskin, whose memories of the Burke Avenue line started me on my trips along New York Citys unbuilt subway lines. He passed away on January 27, 2013, after ninety years and three weeks of a wonderful life that touched countless others. Theres never going to be a time in my life when I wont be missing him a lot. I wish that he was still here to read this book, but I have the feeling that hes looking over my shoulder as I type these words.

On August 9, 1944, Board of Transportation General Superintendent Philip E. Pheifer sent a memorandum titled Service to Be Operated When the Second Avenue Line Is Constructed . It recommended the IND / BMT service plan for when that line was operating and the DeKalb Avenue switches were rebuilt.

IND / BMT CONNECTIONS

Fourteen trains per hour from the Jamaica Avenue line to the Queens Boulevard line, via the Williamsburg Bridge, Chrystie Street, and the 8th Avenue line.

Ten trains per hour from the Sea Beach line to Washington Heights via the Manhattan Bridge, Chrystie Street, and the 6th and 8th Avenue lines.

BMT / 2ND AVENUE LINE CONNECTIONS

Ten local trains per hour from the West End line to 72nd Street via the Montague Street Tunnel, Nassau Street, Chrystie Street, and 2nd Avenue.

Eight local trains per hour from the 4th Avenue line to a northern terminal via the Manhattan Bridge, Chrystie Street, and 2nd Avenue.

Eight local trains per hour from the Brighton Beach line to a northern terminal via the Manhattan Bridge, Chrystie Street, and 2nd Avenue.

2ND AVENUE LINE TRAINS

Ten express trains per hour from a northern terminal to Chambers Street on the Nassau Street line.

Ten express trains per hour from a northern terminal to Broad Street on the Nassau Street line.

Ten express trains per hour from a northern terminal to Bergen Street on the Smith Street line via 2nd Avenue, 57th Street, 6th Avenue, and Houston and Smith Streets.

OTHER LINES

On December 16, 1947, the Board of Transportation released the following list showing how existing subway lines would change once the 2nd Avenue Trunk Line was built. These lines would use the Chrystie Street connection and other planned links.