We've Come a Long Way Since October 27, 1904

[TransitJusticeForAll]

October 27th, 2015

 

There’s no better way to get around New York City than the subway system and that has been the case for more than a century. In observing the 111th anniversary of North America’s largest subway, customers should note that the system has recently been expanded by one station – the newly opened 34th Street – Hudson Yards terminal. While making it far more convenient to reach Manhattan’s far West Side, the Flushing Line’s latest addition will spur tremendous growth in the surrounding area just as the subway did for the City.

Even at this advanced age, the subway is still growing. Work continues on the construction of the Second Avenue Subway, the City’s first rapid transit line east of Lexington Avenue since the razing of the Third Avenue Elevated in 1956. The project is sorely needed to help ease the pressure on the Lexington Ave. Line.

Downtown subway riders now benefit from the reconstruction and new lay-out of the Fulton Center, which successfully untangled a spaghetti maze of connections. The original complex was a complicated mix of ramps and staircases tied together decades ago to link lines of the three separate subway systems.

The system has come a long way since October 27th, 1904. The initial line, operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit system was later joined by the BMT and then later the IND. Both private operators joined the IND under City ownership in 1940 and change has been ongoing since then. The subway system has been instrumental in the City’s growth and today, nearly six million customers a day use the system.

Transit workers, including the men and women assigned to the Department of Subways have been an instrumental part of guiding New Yorkers through region-wide challenges from massive power failures, to severe weather events to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. They also deserve credit for maintaining a system that was state-of-the-art at the beginning of the last century.

Can you imagine New York City without the subway? It would be a far different place. Trips would take far longer to reach midtown, the buildings would not be as tall and street traffic would probably be heavier than it is now.

With continued growth to the City’s economy, subway ridership will stay high and the job now is to develop new ways of accommodating high ridership, improving our ability to maintain even spacing between trains and continue to offer improved ways to communicate with our customers to keep them informed.

As a reminder, you don’t have to wait for the 27th of October each year to experience New York City’s Transit history. The New York Transit Museum, located at Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn, is open six days a week and through permanent and temporary exhibits, offers a unique glimpse into the City’s transit past.

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