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A Brief History of the NYC Subway System


BrooklynBus

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Different from your normal blog... this info is easily found though, you're just restating it.

 

 

I'm writing it for an audience who are not subway or bus buffs and do not know what you know. I'm not going into the detail that is available elsewhere, that the general public may not find interesting. I wrote it by request from several readers. You still may find out something new. There are several points that I made in the series that are not available anywhere else.

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Having researched the history of the subways, and the IND in particular, I really feel like you leave out a bunch of information. Your history focuses almost entirely about which lines were built when, and not on the politics of subway construction. One thing that you completely ignored was the five cent fare debate, which I find quite interesting. Additionally, the concept of private vs. public construction and operation is something worth mentioning in my opinion.

 

Also, I'm pretty sure that your statement that the IND charged a 10 cent fare was wrong. In fact, the person who proposed the IND was fiercely opposed to a fare increase, and he built the IND entirely to provide competition to the "evil" private companies who wanted to raise the fare. According to what I learned, the subway fare was never raised until the 1940s.

 

The inclusion of some sources would make your information much more trustworthy, I think.

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Having researched the history of the subways, and the IND in particular, I really feel like you leave out a bunch of information. Your history focuses almost entirely about which lines were built when, and not on the politics of subway construction. One thing that you completely ignored was the five cent fare debate, which I find quite interesting. Additionally, the concept of private vs. public construction and operation is something worth mentioning in my opinion.

 

Also, I'm pretty sure that your statement that the IND charged a 10 cent fare was wrong. In fact, the person who proposed the IND was fiercely opposed to a fare increase, and he built the IND entirely to provide competition to the "evil" private companies who wanted to raise the fare. According to what I learned, the subway fare was never raised until the 1940s.

 

The inclusion of some sources would make your information much more trustworthy, I think.

 

 

My statement about the IND charging 10 cents was incorrect and has since been corrected, I once read that somewhere and I don't remember where. Sorry to have perpetuated that error.

 

There are many topics that I wanted to go into more but didn't. In the final part I briefly mention some of the subjects I did not discuss. As it is, the series which I intended to do as two parts turned into six. Discusing those additional topics would have meant a series of ten or more parts. As I stated in the beginning, it was not intended to be comprehensive, but just a brief overview with the concentration on southern Brooklyn.

 

Also, the subject of public vs private construction and the politics of subway building are subjects which would have required considerable research since I'm not too familiar with them. Since I am not getting paid for writing, and do it only because I enjoy it, undertaking new research at this time was not something I was willing to do.

 

I lived through the more recent subjects I discussed, and am more familar with those so you won't find errors there.

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My statement about the IND charging 10 cents was incorrect and has since been corrected, I once read that somewhere and I don't remember where. Sorry to have perpetuated that error.

 

There are many topics that I wanted to go into more but didn't. In the final part I briefly mention some of the subjects I did not discuss. As it is, the series which I intended to do as two parts turned into six. Discusing those additional topics would have meant a series of ten or more parts. As I stated in the beginning, it was not intended to be comprehensive, but just a brief overview with the concentration on southern Brooklyn.

 

Also, the subject of public vs private construction and the politics of subway building are subjects which would have required considerable research since I'm not too familiar with them. Since I am not getting paid for writing, and do it only because I enjoy it, undertaking new research at this time was not something I was willing to do.

 

I lived through the more recent subjects I discussed, and am more familar with those so you won't find errors there.

 

Thanks for explaining. I understand what you mean, that there are a lot of aspects to the history of the subway, and they can't all be covered. I guess my bias lays in favor of whatever I've learned about, which explains the criticism that I gave. In my opinion, possibly the most interesting part of the history of the subway is why the various lines were constructed.
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Thanks for explaining. I understand what you mean, that there are a lot of aspects to the history of the subway, and they can't all be covered. I guess my bias lays in favor of whatever I've learned about, which explains the criticism that I gave. In my opinion, possibly the most interesting part of the history of the subway is why the various lines were constructed.

 

 

I would like to know that also. Perhaps you would like to do the research and share it with the rest of us.

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