engineerboy6561

https://www.google.com/maps/d/view?mid=1zhIa6KPRstAdc6lm_hlyskX0SVHM7NPh&ll=40.7265655209285%2C-73.87552185000004&z=11 That should work. @bobtehpanda We'll likely need to replace the Jamaica el in 30-50 years anyway, we're getting a 2 Av line anyway, and we need a subway up 3rd anyway to keep the Lex from bursting at the seams. The marginal cost and pain in the ass of building those out with four tracks and enough junction work to provide a bunch of useful connections is likely lower than the marginal cost of building all that plus the ESA-Atlantic tunnel. I say you'll still need a whole bunch of subway trackage there because LIRR and MNR stations are somewhat farther apart than express subway stations, and you're not gonna be able to get a full 24tph through those stations because of what that does to commute time from outer suburbs (and the true capacity will be a lot lower because most MNR/LIRR trains are pretty full coming into the city, and the extra passengers from trying to use them would likely pack them pretty badly). Adding an ESA-Atlantic tunnel would be an awesome infrastructure project in its own right, and I would love to see it succeed, but I would do that alongside new four-track subway corridors rather than in lieu of them.

Here's the map; it's really ambitious and there are a few things I'd change now (namely reverse-branching the trunk with 2 Av and 6 Av services, and sending a couple of the 2 Av services via the Manhattan Bridge to provide 2 Av with access to the Atlantic-Pacific transfer complex. The 10 Av corridor was mostly about "I have spare tph and am not sure where to put them; this would essentially fill the gap that the extension would have filled if it hadn't been neutered, and the to LGA setup would require six tracks from 86 St to 72 St to allow for 60 2 Av tph plus the . I added the rearrangement to get one service out of DeKalb Av, and the rearrangement makes room for a to Church to allow for full time express service between Church and Bergen. https://www.google.com/maps/d/drive?state={"ids"%3A["1zhIa6KPRstAdc6lm_hlyskX0SVHM7NPh"]%2C"action"%3A"open"%2C"userId"%3A"114356854643211448619"}&usp=sharing

Exactly; a four-track Jamaica line would offer service from Jamaica to Broadway-Nassau in the 25-30 minute range and Jamaica to Midtown runtimes in the 40-45 minute range. At that point an extension would let you do things like Merrick and Springfield to 59th St in about an hour (which if you feed some of the 6 Av services onto the new trunk becomes pretty reasonable). QBL's already fairly near capacity and you can't really push more than 30 express TPH through it (nor are you going to be able to without building another track pair, which isn't a bad idea but if we're going to be shelling out for extra track pairs I'd much prefer to have something coming into the bottom of Manhattan so that you can assemble continuous UES/UWS-Midtown-Downtown service on a single corridor; that would also take a large load off the train coming into Manhattan (especially if you reverse branch the Jamaica trunk to carry a mix of 2 Av and 6 Av services; that would basically turn LES-2 Av into a second West Fourth St and let east side people take the 2 Av line (or the 6 Av line one stop to Broadway-Lafayette for the ) and west side people take the 6 Av line (with the option of getting the 8 Av line at West 4th St if need be).

That's not bad; that would leave you with Bedford Park Blvd-Metropolitan Av via Concourse/CPW local/6 Av express/Jamaica local/Myrtle local 205 St-Jamaica via Concourse/CPW express/6 Av express/Jamaica local (peak direction Jamaica express) 179 St-Coney Island via QBL express/6 Av local/Culver express/McDonald local (weekday peak express from Kings Highway) Forest Hills-Church Av via QBL/6 Av/Culver local (weekday peak extension to Kings Highway) Jamaica-Broad St via Jamaica local Fordham Plaza-Coney Island via 3 Av/2 Av/Broadway express/4 Av express/Sea Beach Fordham Plaza-Brighton Beach via 3 Av/2 Av/Broadway express/Brighton express 55 St-Coney Island via 2 Av/4 Av local/New Utrecht Av 55 St-Coney Island via 2 Av/Brighton local. That's not bad at all; I'd still want to build all of the new stuff with provisions for express tracks (including redoing the Jamaica line as a proper four-track subway) so that when the money comes we could just four-track it all the way up. I like sending the locals via the bridge because that actually lets 2 Av benefit from Atlantic-Pacific in a way that it really needs because nothing else runs that far east in Manhattan. I'd want to eventually get continuous tph all the way up, which would give us a new service pattern (that I'd love to write up right now but don't quite have straight and need to get up for work soon), but if everything was built with provisions for four tracks then we could get your setup up and running and then add trackage incrementally.

I know I'm kind of beating this to death, but doing 3 Av/2 Av/Jamaica as a single four-track corridor kills three or four birds with one stone. In one shot you take a bite out of QBL congestion (15 tph taking 45-50 mins to downtown becomes 15-30 tph taking 25-30 minutes to downtown and 15-30 tph taking 45-50 mins to downtown; how many actual tph wind up getting allocated depends on whether the corridor branches on the south end, but if you work at any of the lower Manhattan hospitals a 2 Av/Jamaica train would be time and comfort competitive with the to the ), take a huge load off the (if you live southwest of Wilson Av or in Williamsburg and need the east side then a one-seat ride from a new Jamaica line would be a better deal than taking the to the Lex and dealing with the crowding at Union Sq; you might actually get a seat your whole ride), and offer a huge relief to the Lex express (because if you're in the Bronx between the Concourse and White Plains Rd and going to basically any of the east side hospitals except Mt Sinai the new line is closer, and Bronx express service might make it faster than the or even to Mt Sinai or Lenox Hill. That is also the sort of megaproject that would run eleven or twelve figures by the time it's done, but it would be worth it. Building this out would be really expensive, but it would also address a pretty wide swath of the gaps in the our current subway system (all the above, plus an alternative to the that would keep trains from getting rush-hour-in-Japan packed all the time, a rearrangement to incrementally improve DeKalb, an rearrangement that gets subway service to Fresh Meadows and through a chunk of Queens east of Main St that could use it, and a new connection to the far West Side combined with a lower Manhattan crosstown).

Ideally there would be more to 2 Av than just the ; the 2 Av subway really should be paired with a revamp of the Jamaica Line. In an ideal world where I had a few billion dollars to play with, 2 Av would be four tracks from 125 St to Houston and the Jamaica line would be a four-track subway. In that scenario 2 Av would carry 40-60tph from 125 to Houston and 15tph from Houston south, Jamaica would carry 30-60 tph and Fulton would carry 40ish tph. I put together a megapost on what that would look like a while back.

That's the problem; the only way to do this in one jurisdiction would be to extend the Church Av Yard tracks down Ft Hamilton to Bay Ridge and then build actual subway to SI via a new Ft Ham-SI tunnel (which would also be hilariously expensive). Frankly, doing SI-Elizabeth with an extension of the S48/98. beefing up S89 service to Bayonne, and beefing up S79/93 service to Brooklyn may be as good as we can get.

That would be awesome I'd still be in favor of getting more tph farther into Eastern Queens on the subway (and I still think that the Jamaica line needs a full four-track rebuild, both to get more trains into Manhattan that are time-competitive with the and because of the weight that would take off the ), but a more affordable LIRR would help.

Gotcha; the Queens leg was there mostly because it satisfied a couple of constraints; it let me keep the and the completely separate (which is a key part of pushing frequencies up enough to be respectable) and it avoided cutting service to any current stations. The alternatives to that leg would be to have a merge from Euclid to Rockaway Blvd (which at least partially defeats the point of separating the and ), or having the new tunnel segment follow Conduit Av directly and drop service to Aqueduct Casino/Racetrack. As far as subway service to far SE Queens goes I disagree with you somewhat because of the fare structure on the LIRR; a lot of the areas around Linden and Merrick Blvds have household incomes under $65K/year, so getting subway access there would likely be a decent load off of a fair number of people's paychecks; a Zone 3 monthly is $234/mo, plus the $120 unlimited MetroCard. If you assume two working parents that's $708/mo (or about $8500/year) in commuting costs if you choose to go LIRR; an express subway into Manhattan from farther southeast than Jamaica would likely do those people much better. I agree that the Fulton line likely isn't the best way into southeastern Queens, and my megapost (with corresponding map here) a few pages back mostly focuses on using a modified QBL and a completely rebuilt four-track Jamaica line to get 70tph (30 local, 45 express) into downtown and midtown from Jamaica, with 30 of those tph continuing on to SE Queens; I just like leaving options on the table when it comes to laying out trackage.

That makes sense; the problem is that a tunnel from SI to the mainland is also hilariously expensive, unless you fold it into a Ft Hamilton Pkwy line. I could see a Crosstown extension via Ft Hamilton Pkwy/I-278 potentially working, but who knows?

Try it now? I just edited it. In words, the basic idea is to add two new track segments: 1) A two-track tunnel via the Worth St bellmouths; this would swing down and connect with City Hall lower level, before continuing mid-block between Broadway and Nassau Sts with a stop at Fulton St , and swinging across to Hanover Sq (above planned platform). A track connection would then tie the lower 2 Av line to the new tunnel that would connect to Court St IND and then to the Hoyt-Schermerhorn local tracks. trains would stop at City Hall lower level, Fulton St, Hanover Sq upper level, Court St, all current local stops to Euclid, then all stops to Ozone Pk/Lefferts Bl. 2) A four-track segment continuing on from Euclid Av under Pitkin Av to 133 Av, then under 133 Av past Cross Bay Blvd and connected to the Rockaway line. Stops would be Euclid Av , 76 St , 84 St , and Cross Bay Blvd . Past Cross Bay Blvd a pair of tracks would drop down and swing over to connect to the Rockaway branch local tracks, while the remaining four tracks would be configured to allow trains to relay the way trains currently do at 71 Av/Forest Hills. Doing it that way completely deinterlines the from the and frees the up to run 15tph should we so choose, and the four-track continuation would also leave an option open for extending the line out to Springfield Gardens or St. Albans if we wanted to.

That would be one option; the way I would do it would be to send the through the new tunnel as the 8 Av/Fulton local, and then build a Pitkin Av/133 Av connector to connect the to the Rockaways directly, leave the to take over the Liberty Av el as a local, and turn the at a new Cross Bay Blvd station (you can get away with this because the interlocking at Euclid Av is designed so that trains can go directly from the el to either the express or the local tracks). Here's a rough map of how I'd do it: https://www.google.com/maps/d/drive?state={"ids"%3A["1tHM4omxrUX_UnUfQ8r_TubpK8kLEInji"]%2C"action"%3A"open"%2C"userId"%3A"114356854643211448619"}&usp=sharing By having the and share local duties you can push Fulton local up to 25-30tph peak, while leaving the almost completely deinterlined; at that point it would only share tracks with the from 59-145 Sts, and if the stays capped at 10tph because of DeKalb Av nonsense you could push the to 20tph peak (10 to Far Rock, 10 to Rock Park).

Agreed; if you ran a new tunnel branching off the Worth St bellmouths diagonally you could connect to the City Hall lower level, then Fulton St, Hanover Sq, and Court St on the Brooklyn side. Also doing it that way clears the way for the to run to Euclid as a secondary local service.

So the only way to get across the Kill would be a tunnel (that would still need to be 70 feet deep to clear the channel depth for NeoPanamax ships) or adding a lane pair to the Bayonne Bridge to carry LRT trains (which would likely be enough of a PITA to only be worth doing when the bridge gets replaced).

It might make sense to use the HBLR as a replacement for the Staten Island proposed BRT; double track it between 22nd and 8th Sts, add a new crossing just west of the Bayonne Bridge with a station at 1st St, then a four-track station at Richmond Terrace and Granite Av. Raise the inner two tracks and swing them onto Morningstar Rd, then run them along Morningstar Rd/Richmond Rd to Eltingville Av/Hylan Blvd while making stops at Walker St, Forest Av, Leo St, Staten Island Expressway, Victory Blvd, Rockland Av, Richmond Hill Rd, Ring Rd opposite Barnes and Noble, Yukon Av, Eltingville Transit Center, Genesee Av, Sylvia St (change for SIR), Koch Blvd and Hylan Blvd. The outer two tracks would drop into the old North Shore ROW and run along that to St George, reactivating the old stops at Elm Park, Tower Hill, Port Richmond, West New Brighton, Livingston, Snug Harbor, New Brighton, the ballpark, and Saint George. That would let you run trains from Hoboken to Hylan Blvd and Hoboken to St. George, with the option of running St. George to Elizabeth NJT by way of the old North Shore ROW to a new rail bridge to an elevated structure along East Jersey St to Broad St. The biggest physical issue with this is going to be double-tracking the segment from 22 St to 8 St; until you do that you're likely bottlenecked at 15tph. To me the simplest way of doing that is building a new ROW south of 22nd St; take a tight S-curve just south of the station and swing directly over Av E, add an infill stop at Av E/14 St, then build a new two-track station above 8 St at JFK Blvd, continue over 8 St to Av A, take Av A to 1st St with a new station there, then cross directly over to Granite Av/Richmond Av from there. That plus a new fourth light rail track at Hoboken should let us push 25-30tph between Hoboken Terminal and Bayonne; at that point we could push 8-10tph from Richmond/Hylan to Hoboken, another 8-10tph from St. George to Hoboken, the remaining 8-10tph between West Side Av and Hoboken, and 10 more tph from St. George to Elizabeth. Based on the capacity of a single extended two-car train (600 people peak) this setup would let us push 4.5-6k pax per hour from each branch, and so up to 9-12k pax/hr from SI to Hoboken, with PATH connections at Exchange Pl, Newport and Hoboken for Midtown and downtown. Current travel time from Hoboken to 8th St is half an hour over a nine-mile run. Since the distance to St George is 15.2 miles, and the distance to Richmond and Hylan is 18.5ish miles we could probably expect travel times of 65 minutes from Richmond and Hylan to Hoboken, and 85 minutes from Richmond and Hylan to 33 St via PATH. That knocks the pants off the off-peak SIM buses; the SIM4C takes 100+ minutes to get from Eltingville Transit Center to 41 St in Midtown, as does the SIM1C. For the St George branch the main competition would be the SIM3C, which it still beats by about 10 minutes, and it would be about even with the scheduled runtimes on the SIM8 and some of the SIM30-series buses. Honestly the only really serious issue would be fare integration with NYCT and PATH; if it were possible to do Eltingville Transit Center to Penn Station in 65 minutes for $2.75 that would be a way better deal than the express buses; if , HBLR and PATH were able to work out a revenue-sharing agreement that would allow for Penn Station to Eltingville to be a $2.75 total trip that would be amazing; as it stands right now that trip would be $5 with no ability to change to bus or subway without paying a third time. If MTA transfers were accepted on both systems, then a straight trip would be $2.75, and a trip with a third or fourth leg would come to $5.50, which is a dollar less than the express buses.

That would make sense; the question at that point would have to do with how many trains Euclid can turn and how much of a reliability hit the merged segment between Euclid and Rockaway Blvd would cause. There's already the shared run through the Cranberry St tubes that would limit Fulton to 25-30tph, so the additional shared segment might not mess things up too much; that said, scheduling it sounds like a massive pain in the ass and I'd really like to see some sort of connection between the Chambers St/WTC platform and Court St to kill the merge there. In an ideal world we'd just finish the Pitkin Av line out to Cross Bay Blvd (including building the mythical 76 St station) with four tracks and an express stop at Cross Bay, then tie the into the Rockaway line just below 133 Av. Have the take over Lefferts service, then to the Rockaways with the merge at Euclid Av; late nights when the ran local the could just run from Lefferts to Euclid and reverse on the express tracks.

Potentially; you'd just need to add Y interlockings on the end of each of the storage tracks that currently run right up to the platform. They're currently configured to be able to store maybe two trains; if you shorten them to 600', then add a Y interlocking folding them both back into the inner and outer tracks, and then add a double crossover just past it then you could turn trains at Ocean Pkwy without interfering with following trains or with trains at Brighton Beach.

JFK to Bay Ridge has a couple of different options; you could go via Linden Bl/Church Av/Ft Hamilton Pkwy and replace the B35 LTD with the new bus, you could go via Linden Bl/Fountain Av/Flatlands Av/Kings Hwy/Bay Ridge Pkwy/Fort Hamilton Pkwy and replace the B82SBS, or you could even go via 86 St/Shell Rd/Av Z/Belt Pkwy (though I don't think I'd recommend that). In the first case, you'd need to get rid of all side parking on Church and Ft Hamilton Pkwy to do it, but it would be worth it. For that configuration you'd probably want stops at Bay Ridge/86 St , Bay Ridge Pkwy/Ft Hamilton Pkwy, Bay Ridge Av/Ft Hamilton Pkwy, 61 St/Ft Hamilton Pkwy (split the difference between the and the B9 connection), 49-50 St/Ft Hamilton Pkwy, New Utrecht Av /Ft Hamilton Pkwy, 39 St/Ft Hamilton Pkwy, Ft Hamilton Pkwy/McDonald Av, McDonald Av/Church Av, Coney Island Av/Church Av, E 18 St /Church Av, Flatbush-Bedford Avs/Church Av, Nostrand/Rogers Avs/Church Av, New York Av/Church Av, E 42 St/Church Av, Utica Av/Church Av, Kings Hwy/Church Av, Remsen Av/Church Av, E 98 St/Linden Blvd, Rockaway Av/Linden Bl, Van Sinderen Av/Linden Bl, Pennsylvania Av/Linden Bl, Van Siclen Av/Linden Bl, Ashford St/Linden Bl, Fountain Av/Linden Bl, Euclid Av/Linden Bl, Eldert La/Linden Bl, Lefferts Blvd Airtrain, then all stops. This looks like the highest ridership option, because based on the route profiles in the Brooklyn bus report you'd be combining most of the most-heavily used B15 sections with the most heavily used segment of the B35 (the run between Utica and McDonald carries >4K pax/day, peaking around 7K at Nostrand). The B35 profile shows the westernmost spot with a ton of boarders right near the 9 Av station; I think it's a safe assumption that a fair number of those folks are coming from the and wouldn't mind picking the bus up at Ft Hamilton Pkwy instead. Only the eastern segment would be expected to be comparatively empty (the B16 is an 800-1500 pax/day route that gets nearly half its passengers from local stops). The second configuration would require no parking on Bay Ridge Pkwy. For that configuration you'd probably want stops at Bay Ridge/86 St , Bay Ridge Pkwy/Ft Hamilton Pkwy, 13 Av/Bay Ridge Pkwy, 18 Av/Bay Ridge Pkwy, Bay Pkwy/Bay Ridge Pkwy, then all B82 SBS stops to Louisiana Av/Flatlands Av, then Van Siclen Av/Flatlands Av, Ashford St/Flatlands Av, Fountain Av/Flatlands Av, Fountain Av/Linden Bl, Euclid Av/Linden Bl, Eldert La/Linden Bl, Lefferts Blvd Airtrain, then all stops. The B82/B4 combo would likely see less ridership, because the B82SBS mostly has pax loads in the 2k-3k/day range, and the B4 carries peak loads in the 800-1200 pax/day range (while the B35 sees peak loads of almost 7K/day, with basically the entire run between Utica and McDonald carrying >4K/day) The third case would require no parking on 86 St and would likely see the lowest ridership of the three. It would stop at Bay Ridge/86 St , 14 Av/86 St, 18 Av/86 St, 20 Av/86 St , Bay Pkwy/86 St , 25 Av/86 St , 86 St , Av X/86 St , Shell Rd/Av Z, Ocean Pkwy/Av Z, Coney Island Av/Av Z, Sheepshead Bay /Av Z, Ocean Av/Av Z, Nostrand Av/Voorhies Av, Knapp St/Voorhies Av, Canarsie Pier/Shore Pkwy, Pennsylvania Av/Shore Pkwy, Erskine St/Gateway Pl, Gateway Term/Gateway Pl, Vandalia Av/Flatlands Av, Ashford St/Flatlands Av, Fountain Av/Flatlands Av, Fountain Av/Linden Bl, Euclid Av/Linden Bl, Eldert La/Linden Bl, Lefferts Blvd Airtrain, then all stops. The B1 is a 3K-4K pax/day route, with the big turnover points at Brighton Beach and Bay Ridge; assuming most of those people are coming from Manhattan, picking up a LTD at Sheepshead Bay instead of a local at Brighton Beach isn't a bad idea. The big question is going to be whether the connection to Gateway Ctr is actually a reasonable ridership draw; if so that would be awesome, but I doubt that Gateway Ctr-Brighton Beach ridership is gonna be in any way comparable to B82 or B35 ridership. @B35 via Church you know a lot more about Brooklyn buses than I do; I'd love to get your feedback.

Fair point; those were just some quick (~5 minutes while I was busy) thoughts; I'm not sure what data exists to show how many people from different areas travel to Jamaica and Flushing and don't hop trains into Manhattan. If this got built it would be worth doing a proper bus study of commuters through those hubs to try to get a sense of how many are going to those places vs through them on the way to Manhattan. I suspect the current bus densities into Jamaica would likely be able to drop by a fair amount (but probably not by the 80-90% that my above post implies), but I also don't spend enough time moving through Jamaica to have a sense of how a revised southeastern Queens bus network would look and would love to learn more. Flushing is more complicated because you don't have more than two or three lines coming in off a given corridor, and it makes sense to run into Flushing along most of those corridors; for Jamaica seeing eight different bus lines on a single street just popped out to me as odd (and probably overkill if there was train service along Hillside to Springfield).

A more specific answer would depend on exactly how many tph Jamaica and Forest Hills need (and will need in the future). If Jamaica only needs 70 tph and Forest Hills only needs 40,then you can send the out to Francis Lewis from Woodhaven, the to Jamaica Center, and the up Hillside; if they need 75 and 45 then you can send the to Francis Lewis (but that runs into issues around making the ungodly long, since to 179 St it would be about two hours max, and if you pull it off at Woodhaven and send it to Francis Lewis it would probably wind up running 2:15-2:20); if you need more than that and you still really want to shed a service off QBL at Woodhaven you'd need to cut Utica back to a single 15tph line so you can flow 45 tph into Jamaica via the new Williamsburg/Jamaica Av trunk. I'd build the with track connections to QBL so that you could arrange the service patterns that way if you chose, but for now I figured throwing 85tph at Jamaica and preserving 30tph down Utica without doing something wild like swinging the north from Euclid to run under Atlantic Av would be a good starting point.

I picked the because it was right there (because Middle Village is kind of a cruddy spot to end a subway line, and looping it back for a connection at Woodhaven so that people trying to go into Midtown from Middle Village have other options made sense to me. Once I did that it seemed to make more sense to just keep going with the than try to add another interlocking at Woodhaven to split a local off. You are right that in this setup the really tends to have two different ridership zones, where a big chunk of the people get off at Woodhaven to hop the QBL, probably some northbound ridership from Middle Village/Ridgewood to QBL. and then ridership from Ridgewood southwest into Downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan. I'm not sure there's a good way around that, but I also wanted to have the option to run local service all the way down to 179 St (potentially 40tph to 179 St if the turns at 179 and then the share a terminal at Springfield) because I was worried about starving QBL.

My argument about that is that with subway service extended beyond Flushing and Jamaica we can look at deemphasizing Jamaica and Flushing in the Queens bus network. As an example, Hillside Av coming into Jamaica carries the Q1, Q2, Q3, Q17, Q36, Q43, Q76 and Q77. There's no need to have all of these buses come all the way into Jamaica once there's subway service out to Hillside/Springfield and Merrick/233 St. You can leave the Q43 as the Hillside Av bus, but you could eliminate the Q2 and have the Q17 take over the Q2 route south of Hillside Av, and you could do the same thing with the Q76 and Q77 (eliminate the Q77 and extend the Q76 down to 147 Av) with no actual change to Q76 runtime. The Q36 could just run full time from Little Neck Parkway to 212 St/Hillside Av and the Q1 Springfield and Braddock segments could be replaced by the Q88. On Merrick, the Q4 could continue west on Linden to Rockaway Blvd and end at Rockaway Blvd train station, and most people wouldn't mind as much because they'd still be connecting to the trains.

Building off a bunch of the talk in this thread around improving northeastern Queens service, cleaning up DeKalb, getting only 10-car trains on QBL and redoing the Jamaica line I put together a proposal that should achieve most of those things (while also providing four-track service along the 3 Av corridor in the Bronx and crosstown service along Gun Hill Rd, and building out part of the South 4 St subway). The proposal is as follows: Becomes QBL local from Jamaica Center to Chambers St. via Williamsburg/Franklin Av/Brighton Local extended to Bay Plaza extended to Springfield Blvd. Becomes Culver express between Church Av and Bergen St all times except nights; becomes QBL express 179 St-21 St/Queensbridge, rush hours runs express from Kings Highway to Bergen St. : Restored Culver local/QBL express. Operates from 179 St to Church Av, express Union Turnpike-21 St/Queensbridge, local otherwise, extended rush hours to Kings Highway to allow peak-direction express service. becomes 10 Av/Jamaica local between 72 St and 233 St/Merrick Blvd 10 Av/Myrtle Av/Horace Harding Expwy local between 72 St and Francis Lewis Blvd Astoria/2 Av local, Broadway/Brighton express, runs between LGA and Brighton Beach (P): 3 Av/2 Av/Jamaica express, Bay Plaza to 233 St/Merrick Blvd. : 3 Av/2 Av/Fulton St local, Norwood-205 St to Euclid Av. (U): Astoria Blvd/2 Av/ Utica Av local, Bell Blvd to Kings Plaza. (Y): Astoria Blvd/2 Av/Utica Av express, Bell Blvd to Kings Plaza. The idea behind this proposal was to get express service to Jamaica on a way that wasn't QBL, since QBL is essentially full. Since there's already a line via Williamsburg (and Williamsburg/Bushwick were exploding in population before COVID), converting that line into a four-track trunk should take some pressure off QBL (since if you live in Jamaica and work below 34 St or on the East Side the new trunk would be quicker and more convenient) and off the as well, as Williamsburg/Bushwick goes from getting 36-38tph peak (20 + 10-12 + 6 ) to 65 (20 +15 +15 (P) + 15 ) east of Myrtle and a whopping 95 (20 +15 +15 + 15 (P) + 15 (U) +15 (Y)) east of Myrtle Av. Furthermore, by providing service along Merrick Blvd this should allow for at least some rearrangement of the bus service into Jamaica. The northern Queens and Bronx service was intended to do two things; the Bronx service was intended to provide subway service to the Webster/3rd Ave corridor, which needs it badly, and to Gun Hill Road as a crosstown. The expected goal of being able to provide up to 30tph through the Bronx core should be a decent size ridership reduction on the , as people who need the East Side and currently live between Southern and the Concourse can just hop the and have a straight shot to basically all the hospitals on the East Side of Manhattan except Mt Sinai, plus all the workplaces on 3rd, 2nd, and 1st Aves. People living in the north Bronx now have an IND option for both sides of the island (the (P)) for the east side and the for the west side, which should take a hefty load off of Dyre and WPR. The Queens changes (the four-track trunk along Astoria Blvd and the LGA spur served by the ) accomplish three main things; they get a train to LGA that doesn't backtrack to Flushing, they take a decent-sized load off the , and they make it more feasible to cut down on some of the bus traffic into Flushing by arranging for some of the Eastern Queens lines to terminate at Bell Blvd or 162/Crocheron. This setup would also connect northern Queens directly to the West Side by connecting to the at 75 St (for local trains) or 31 St (for express trains), and allow one-seat rides to the East Side from Flushing. In theory the could be extended to College Point from LGA, and the yard for all this could be placed on the old Flushing Airport site; I just wasn't sure whether it was the best idea. The extension and QBL rearrangement leaves the as the QBL locals and the as the QBL expresses; now the only merges you have are the with the just west of QP, and the with the just east of Union Turnpike, which should let you run 55tph on QBL (15 each of , 10 of because of service to Astoria), and all trains are 600'. The Utica Av line is essentially set up to be the South 4th St subway as originally planned, just with only four tracks because 30tph should be enough to serve Utica Av just fine, and the local/express split is mostly to improve travel time for South Brooklyn riders rather than being super necessary; that could instead be run as a two-track local line with the extra 15 express tph continuing on to Jamaica to provide 75tph between Jamaica and Manhattan rather than the 60 that my current proposal would call for; I'm not sure what the tradeoff there looks like. The rearrangement was based on some of the commentary about the value of a lower Manhattan crosstown line, and the desire to get the off QBL to make room for a as a way to increase Culver and QBL service in one fell swoop. The gets an extension via Eliot Av/HHP out to Francis Lewis Blvd, with a connection to QBL at Woodhaven Blvd (which would become an express stop on QBL); that would likely increase QBL loading (which is why the changes on the Jamaica line become so important; they pull a whole bunch of people off QBL down there to free up room for people coming from Fresh Meadows). The continuation as the Myrtle Av line through Montague separates the from the trunk and lets it do its own thing (which in this case entails hitting an area that only has the ), while providing a direct link between lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. The shared stretch from Canal St to 72 St was an idea for providing meaningful crosstown service across lower Manhattan, while also connecting Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea into the subway network properly; it's an idea I've seen proposed for the before, but in this case it made more sense to set the up that way. The need for a new Canal St platform also lets us relocate the transit museum to Canal St so we don't lose it when we reactivate Court St IND. Finally, the rearrangement eliminates one of the merges at DeKalb, and replaces the Franklin Av shuttle with something that people are likely to actually use. The map is here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1zhIa6KPRstAdc6lm_hlyskX0SVHM7NPh&usp=sharing, the gory details in text are below: : Rerouted after Broadway-Lafayette onto the fifth and sixth tracks of the 2 Av/Williamsburg trunk, stops at Pitt St (local, six tracks), Kent St (express, six tracks), Driggs Av(local, six tracks), Marcy Av(express, tracks swing south). Below Marcy Av the merges with the and stops at Flushing Av, Myrtle-Willoughby Avs (connect to ), and Bedford-Nostrand Avs. Past this point, the B swings onto Franklin Av, stopping at Fulton St (connect to ), Park Pl, Eastern Parkway (connect to (3)), and Prospect Park on the local tracks (connect with ) before continuing to Coney Island as the Brighton local. : Extended via Gun Hill Rd from Norwood-205 St to Bay Plaza, with stops at White Plains Rd (transfer to (5)), Bronxwood Av, Seymour Av (transfer to (5)), Bartow Av, Edson Av, and Bay Plaza. (E): Becomes QBL local from Jamaica Center to Chambers St. (F): Becomes Culver express between Church Av and Bergen St all times except nights; becomes QBL express 179 St-21 St/Queensbridge, rush hours runs express from Kings Highway to Bergen St. (J) 10 Av/Jamaica local: Starts at 72 St/Columbus Av (connect to (1)(2)(3)), 64-65 Sts, 57 St, 50 St, 42 St, 34 St, 14 St, Christopher/Greenwich Sts, Houston St, Canal/Varick Sts (connect to (1)(A)(C)(E)), Lafayette St(connect to (N)(Q)(R)(W)(6), (M) branches off), Delancey/Essex (six tracks, merge with (B)(P)(U)(Y)), Pitt St (local, six tracks), Kent St (express), Driggs Av(local), Marcy Av(express, (B) tracks swing south), Union Av (local, connect to (G)), Flushing Av (local), Myrtle Av (express,connect to (M)), Kosciuzko St(local), Gates Av(local), Halsey St(local), Chauncey St(local), Broadway Junction (connect to (A)(C)(L)(T)). From there the Jamaica trunk swings onto Jamaica Av, and the J continues at Arlington Av (local), Elton St(local), Logan St(local), Cypress Hills (express), 75 St(local), 85 St(local), Woodhaven Blvd (express), 104 St (local), 111 St(local), 121 St(local), Sutphin-Archer(express, connect to (E)), Jamaica Center(express, connect to (E)). Past Jamaica Center swing onto Merrick Blvd with stops at Liberty Av (local), Brinkerhoff Av (local), Linden Blvd (express), Foch Blvd (local), Baisley Blvd (local), Farmers Blvd (local), Springfield Blvd (express), 223 St (local), and 233 St (express). (M) 10 Av/Myrtle Av/Horace Harding Expwy local: The only remaining segment of the old (M) is from Marcy Av to Metropolitan Av; the new (M) starts at 72 St on the same track pair as the (J), sharing the stops at 72 St/Columbus Av (connect to (1)(2)(3)), 64-65 Sts, 57 St, 50 St, 42 St, 34 St, 14 St, Christopher/Greenwich Sts, Houston St, Canal/Varick Sts (connect to (1)(A)(C)(E)), and Lafayette St(connect to (N)(Q)(R)(W)(6)) before branching off onto the old Nassau St line, serving Chambers St(connect to to (4)(5)(6)), Fulton St(connect to (2)(3)(4)(5)(A)(C)), Broad St, and Court St/Borough Hall (connect to (2)(3)(4)(5)(R)). Past this point the (M) runs along Myrtle Av, with stops at Jay St (connect to(A)(C)(F)(R)), Ashland Pl, Vanderbilt Av, Classon Av, Union Av(connect to (B)(G)), Throop Av, Broadway(connect to (J)(P)(U)(Y)), Central Av, Knickerbocker Av, Myrtle/Wyckoff Avs(connect with (L)), Seneca Av, Forest Av, Fresh Pond Rd, and Metropolitan Av. Past Metropolitan Av the (M) runs briefly alongside the NY&A with stops at Juniper Blvd and Eliot Av, before running along Eliot Av with stops at Eliot Av/80 St, Eliot Av/85 St, and then running along Horace Harding with stops at Woodhaven Blvd (connect with (E)(F)(V)(R)), Junction Blvd, 99th St 108 St, College Pt Blvd, Main St, Kissena Blvd, 164 St, Utopia Pkwy, 188 St, 194 St, and Francis Lewis Blvd. (P): 3 Av/2 Av/Jamaica express, Bay Plaza to 233 St/Merrick Blvd. Stops at Bay Plaza, Edson Av, Bartow Av, Seymour Av (transfer to (5)), Bronxwood Av, White Plains Rd (transfer to (2)(5)), Norwood-205 St (transfer to (D)(T), (D) branches off here to go down the Concourse), Fordham Plaza, E Tremont Av, 163 St, 149 St-3 Av (connect to (2)(5)), 138 St-3 Av(connect to (6)<6>), 125 St, 86 St(connection to (Q)(U)(Y) ), 59 St (connect to (4)(5)(6)(N)(R)(W)), 42 St, 14 St(connect to (L)), Houston St(connect to (B)(F)(V), (T) branches off), Delancey/Essex( (J) merges onto the main local track) Kent Av, Marcy Av( (B) branches off), Myrtle Av(connect to (M)), Broadway Junction (connect to (A)(C)(L)(T)), Cypress Hills, Woodhaven Blvd, Sutphin-Archer(connect with (E)), Jamaica Center(connect with (E)), Linden Blvd, Springfield Blvd, and 233 St/Merrick Blvd. (Q) Astoria/2 Av local, Broadway/Brighton express: The (Q) starts at Terminal D of LGA, stopping at Terminal B, 92 St, and 82 St before merging onto the local tracks of the four-track trunk line from Astoria Blvd. It then makes local stops at 75 St (connect with (U)), Hazen St, Steinway St, 31 St(connect with (N)(W)(Y)), 21 St(local), Shore Pl (local), 86 St (express, connect with (P)(T)(U)(Y)), 79 St (local), 72 St (local), and then all current (Q) stops to Prospect Park. At Prospect Park the (Q) stays on the Brighton express tracks and runs to Brighton Beach. (T): 3 Av/2 Av/Fulton St local, Norwood-205 St to Euclid Av. Stops at Norwood-205 St(express, connect to (D)), Bedford Bk Blvd (local), Fordham Plaza (express), 183 St (local), 180 St (local), E Tremont Av (express), Claremont Pkwy (local), 168-169 Sts (local), 163 St (express), 149 St-3 Av (express, connect to (2)(5)), 144 St (local), 138 St-3 Av(connect to (6)<6>), 125 St (express), 116 St (local), 106 St (local), 96 St(local), 86 St(express, six tracks), 79 St (local, infill station, six tracks), 72 St (local, six tracks), 59 St (connect to (4)(5)(6)(N)(R)(W)), 52 St (local, connect to (E)), 42 St (express), 33 St(local), 23 St(local), 14 St (express, transfer to (L)), St. Mark's Pl (local), Houston St (express, connect to (B)(F)(V)), Grand St(connection to (D)), Chatham Sq, Seaport, Hanover Sq, Court St, Hoyt-Schermerhorn, and then all (C) stops to Euclid Av) (U): Astoria Blvd/2 Av/ Utica Av local, Bell Blvd to Kings Plaza. Stops at Bell Blvd (express), Francis Lewis Blvd(local), Utopia Pkwy(local), 162 St/Crocheron Av (express), 156 St(local), 150 St(local), Main St/Flushing(express, connect to (7)<7>), Shea Stadium (express), 114 St (local), 108 St(local), 100 St(local), 94 St(express), 88 St(local), 82 St(express), 75 St(local, connect to (Q)), Hazen St (local), Steinway St(local), 31 St(express, connect to (N)(W)), 21 St (local), Shore Pl(local), 86 St(express, connection to 2 Av trunk, six tracks), 79 St (local, infill station, six tracks), 72 St (local, six tracks), 59 St (express, transfer passage to 59/Lex), 52 St (local, connect to (E)), 42 St (express), 33 St(local), 23 St(local), 14 St (express, transfer to (L)), St. Mark's Pl (local), Houston St (express, connect to (B)(F)(V), (B) joins trunk on separate track pair), Delancey/Essex (six tracks, merge with (J)), Pitt St (local, six tracks), Kent St (express), Driggs Av(local), Marcy Av(express, (B) tracks swing south), Union Av (local, connect to (G)), Flushing Av (local), Myrtle Av (express,connect to (M)), Halsey St(local), Gates Av(local), Fulton St (connect to (A)(C)(T)), St Marks Av (local), Eastern Pkwy (express, connect to (3)(4)), Empire Blvd (local), Winthrop St(local), Church Av (express), Av D(local), Av H(local, Kings Highway(express), Flatlands Av(local), Av N(local), Flatbush Av(express), and Kings Plaza(express). (V): Restored Culver local/QBL express. Operates from 179 St to Church Av, express Union Turnpike-21 St/Queensbridge, local otherwise, extended rush hours to Kings Highway to allow peak-direction <F> express service. (Y): Astoria Blvd/2 Av/Utica Av express, Bell Blvd to Kings Plaza. Stops at Bell Blvd, 162 St/Crocheron Av, Main St/Flushing(connect to (7)<7>), Shea Stadium, 94 St/Astoria Bl, 82 St/Astoria Bl, 31 St( connect to (N)(W), transfer to (Q)), 86 St (merge with main 2 Av trunk, connect to (P)(T)), 59 St (transfer passage to 59/Lex), 42 St, 14 St(connect to (L)), Houston St, Marcy Av, Myrtle Av(connect to (M)), Fulton St (connect to (A)(C)(T)), Eastern Pkwy (connect to (3)(4)), Church Av, Kings Highway, Flatbush Av and Kings Plaza. Most of the new trackage is four tracks; the exceptions are the three-track line from Norwood-205 St to Bay Plaza, the new (M) line and the (J) north of Delancey-Essex are two tracks (with three tracks along the combined stretch from Canal-Lafayette to 72 St), the (B) reroute is two tracks, and there are two brief spots on the 2 Av trunk (72 St to 86 St in Manhattan and Houston St to Marcy Av) that are six tracks to allow all individual services to run 15+ tph without any bad bottlenecks.

Oops, early post

The legal handbook at https://parks.ny.gov/publications/documents/AlienationHandbook2017.pdf says that in rare cases where replacing parkland isn't possible there are provisions for the land to be sold and then the net proceeds sunk into acquiring or improving parkland (assuming the parkland wasn't acquired under the Clean Water or Clean Air Acts, or the Environmental Quality Bond Act); if it was it may require federal law changes as well as a state bill.