Underground trains

Subways fascinate me.  In part, they fascinate me as an environmentally sound alternative to automotive gridlock.  But they fascinated me long before I appreciated their eco-advantages -- they fascinated me as systems worthy of being mastered, as puzzles to untangle. Almost as a sufficient cause in themselves to visit big cities. 

I've written earlier my review of the novel Lowboy, a story about a psychotic youth who lived underground in Manhattan's subway tunnels.  I've returned recently from London, where I once more enjoyed the challenge of working my way, mole-like, from one landmark to another.  Just blocks from my house, here in Seattle, work continues daily on the underground light rail line from downtown -- our own poor man's version of a big city subway.   And today, the New York Times Magazine delights me with photos and text relating to on-going excavation of the Second Avenue subway extension in New York.

The history of the Second Avenue line resembles more the raising of a medieval cathedral than it does construction of a modern public works project.  The line was first proposed in 1929 as an expansion of the then-independent IND line.  Construction was sabotaged by the Depression, and then World War II.  Actual construction began in 1972, shortly before New York City became insolvent.  Several short segments of the route were excavated; they have been quietly awaiting further work for several decades.  In 2007, work recommenced on the first phase of the newly conceived project.

As all New Yorkers are well, aware, the East Side is served by only one north-south subway line, the Lexington Avenue IRT line, serving No. 4, 5, and 6 trains.  (An elevated line running up Second Avenue closed in 1942. The Third Avenue El was supposed to continue in operation until a Second Avenue subway line was opened, but commercial pressure caused it to be shut down in 1955.) The Lexington Avenue line now serves 1.3 million passengers a day -- according to the NYT article, more than are carried at the same time by the entire transit systems of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco combined. 

The phase now being developed will extend the existing Q trains -- which now run up Broadway in Manhattan on their way north from Brooklyn and then east to Queens -- from 63rd and Lexington over to Second Avenue, and then north up Second Avenue to 96th.  That extension should be open for business by the end of 2016.  Three more phases of construction on Second Avenue are planned, which will give rise to a new line, designated the T line, running from 125th to south Manhattan. None of these three phases has yet been funded:

• Phase 2 -- Extension north from 96th to 125th Street.
• Phase 3 -- Extension south from 63rd to Houston.
• Phase 4 -- Extension south from Houston to Hanover Square.  Eventually, the T trains may extend north into the Bronx and south to Brooklyn.

In my ideal world, no one would ever be tempted to drive a car into a major city.  The rapid transit infrastructure would be so highly developed, the trains so comfortable to ride,  that it would seem madness to risk traffic jams and sky-high parking fees by bringing your own vehicle.  The Second Avenue line won't achieve that level of nirvana -- it will barely keep up with growing demand, and no one's ever been exhilarated by the luxury of New York's subway cars.

But it's a step in the right direction.  That poor kid in Lowboy may have been psychotic in his devotion to the underground world of trains.  If so, it's a psychosis with which I can fully sympathize.