Mass transit AHC: NYC's 2nd Avenue subway line completed by 2000

mta-map-small.jpg


Ever since 1919, there have been plans to build a subway line on Manhattan's east side under Second Avenue. But each time that funding was obtained and/or construction began, the line was cancelled. Current work on the line finally began in 2007, with phase 1 planned to open at the end of this year (or more likely sometime next year).

Under what alternate circumstances would this long-proposed segment of a New York City infrastructure be at least partly completed and in use before the current millennium?
 
Chicago got the Orange Line of the L built thanks to the gratitude of President Reagan - apparently Congressman William Lipinski had voted to support the Contras and Reagan rang him up to ask if there was anything he could do for him to show his gratitude, his reply being to ask if Reagan had heard of the Southwest Side rapid transit proposal. One funding agreement and seven years later and Lipinski had his new L line. Find a razor-close vote where the government feels strongly enough about it that the local Representatives are able to trade their votes for the funding for the line.
 
How in depth of an answer are you looking at here, and would you mind different PoDs being expressed for likely iterations of the SAS to be built?
 
Last edited:
How in depth of an answer are you looking at here, and would you mind multiple different PoDs mentioned at different times, for the likely iteration of the SAS to be built?

I'd guess a PoD sometime during the 60s and 70s would make for an interesting TL. I know that the planning/construction around that period came to a halt thanks to the city's mid-70s fiscal crisis. But at the same time, there were transit projects going on elsewhere in the country that did manage to open. BART opened in '72, DC's metro in '76, and Atlanta's MARTA in '79. Of course, there are always gonna be particular difficulties to building New York transit, especially in the post-WWII era of nationwide car-centric development. But it's still possible to imagine an ATL where it happens.
 
I'd guess a PoD sometime during the 60s and 70s would make for an interesting TL. I know that the planning/construction around that period came to a halt thanks to the city's mid-70s fiscal crisis. But at the same time, there were transit projects going on elsewhere in the country that did manage to open. BART opened in '72, DC's metro in '76, and Atlanta's MARTA in '79. Of course, there are always gonna be particular difficulties to building New York transit, especially in the post-WWII era of nationwide car-centric development. But it could happen.

Okay, pretty much speaking post-WWII, you had two main PoDs as far as I can see, and I'll do some brief descriptions:

1) You have a higher initial bond measure in 1950 to pay for the construction of the Second Avenue Subway or a lack of a Korean War to reduce the construction wars. It is rather unlikely they'd complete the entirety of the Second Avenue Subway either way (but probably stronger with the former I feel), and I'd expect the portion north of 61st Street to the IRT Pelham Line to be built first, with the Pelham Line being shifted to B-Division cars for the SAS like originally planned. I'd expect work to slowly be proceeding downtown, and likely focused on the creation of Chrystie Street Connection in it's original format as proposed for the 1950 Bond Measure.

2) Orient a modified Second Avenue Subway to be built as part of the Program for Action; shift it so that the Phase I built north of 63rd Street sees more of a higher focus in construction. This would also likely require a better plan in increasing the count of stations, but to develop the construction plan in all likelihood for an eventual expansion to four tracks (this would likely be something similar to what was planned for the BMT 4th Avenue Line south of 59th Street). Getting the initial portion done north of 63rd Street would help, and then likely working down south later on in the 80s or 90s once the portion north of 63rd Street is built. Possibly, you see the portion south of 63rd Street built in a proposed fashion like north with the capacity to build four tracks in the future, OR, you see significant efforts to make it four tracks alongside a construction of the Queens Boulevard Line superexpress tracks. It might then be completed by the end of the century, depending upon when the project is started.
 
Top