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MAKING TRACKS - Vol. 2, No. 2 - Spring 1996
Entire contents of MAKING TRACKS is copyright © 1996 by Village Crosstown Trolley Coalition,
but may be reproduced either in whole or in part with a clear acknowledgment of the source.
Please report any errors to us at VCTC. Thanks.
Inside this Issue
A New 8th Street Trolley: Filling the Transit Vacuum
Trolley Topics
Astor Place Festival
Letter from the Editor
Filling the Transit Vacuum
By William K. Guild
The 8th Street transit corridor intersects every north-south subway line in Manhattan between Fourth and Seventh Avenues, but closer to its extremities the route passes through neighborhoods which have been under-served by transit for generations. Restoring light rail to the Village Crosstown corridor would be a giant step toward relieving these transit-starved areas and providing a more balanced transportation infrastructure.
As early as the 1920s, the Lower East Side was recognized as transit-deficient. Phase II of the city's plan for the Independent Subway included the Second Avenue line and two other routes which would have given the area "a remarkable concentration of rapid transit facilities, equaled by no other secondary business district in New York City." Unfortunately, none of these new subway lines has ever been built.
Far from improving or expanding transit, in the years just before and after World War II the city abandoned Manhattan's elevated lines, reneging on promises to replace the heavily-used Second and Third Avenue els with a modern subway. Since the Second Avenue el actually ran along First Avenue below 23rd Street, the East Village area was an especially big loser, with no rapid transit left in the mile-wide strip between Astor Place and the East River. In the West Village, removal of the Ninth Avenue el from Greenwich Street left the area west of Seventh Avenue without rapid transit, except for the Christopher Street PATH station. Thus on both sides of Manhattan, a bad situation was made even worse.
At the same time the city was cutting back north-south rapid transit on both sides of Manhattan, it was also forcing conversion of its neglected but still viable streetcar network to less efficient and far less attractive buses, further discouraging transit use. This was particularly devastating to crosstown commuters, including more than 20,000 daily riders on the streetcar lines which had served 8th Street for more than 60 years. Today, thanks to the motor vehicle's monopoly on crosstown transportation, walking is often the fastest and most reliable way to get across Manhattan.
Since World War II, a number of East Side transit improvement plans have been floated, only to sink eventually into a morass of political and financial crises. Most traumatic was the $500 million bond issue of 1951, approved by the voters on assurances that it would finance the long-promised Second Avenue subway. While large-scale investment in the existing transit plant may have been more urgent, the "diversion" of these funds created a level of cynicism among the public from which New York has never recovered.
The Second Avenue subway surfaced again in 1968 as part of Gov. Rockefeller's master transit plan. One variation included a "cup handle" route which would have provided subway service to "Alphabet City" for the first time. When funds ran out in 1975, the project was abandoned, leaving behind 3 segments of pristine subway tunnel which remain unused.
The current Manhattan East Side Transit Alternatives Study (MESA) is taking a fresh look at the Second Avenue subway, as well as various light rail and other options. At most, however, this might lead eventually to a Second Avenue subway stop at Avenue B near 7th Street or, more likely, light rail, trolley bus or "improved" bus service on a north-south route. None of the "official" studies now under way addresses the more serious need for improved crosstown transit links.
It is widely believed that, offered the option of driving, few people would choose to use public transit. Transit is seen as a service provided to those who are too young, too old or too poor to own cars. Although most New Yorkers never subscribed to this view, too many of our political leaders over the past 60 years seem to have been guided by it. Treating transit as a preferred alternative to the automobile, rather than as a social safety net, may be essential to relieving congestion, pollution and a host of other intractable urban problems.
Recent studies, as well as experience, demonstrate that people will opt for transit over driving when roads are congested and transit is of high quality. In St. Louis, for example, 30% of the ridership of the new light rail system earn $45,000 or more per year, 45% own two automobiles and almost 25% own three or more cars! These riders have chosen high quality transit over driving, not merely settled on transit because it was the only mode they could afford.
The Village Crosstown Trolley, like the 42nd Street project in midtown, would differ from new light rail systems springing up in many other cities by providing service exclusively to an urban corridor. While LRVs in Portland, Denver and other cities operate through streets in central business districts, they also carry large numbers of suburban commuters, often from park-and-ride stations outside the city. These systems have much in common with the interurban lines which served many American cities in the early years of this century.
The 8th Street line and the 42nd Street project are both in the urban streetcar tradition, providing local transit as well as connections to other transit modes. Like Paris' St. Denis-Bobigny line, opened in 1993 with ultra-modern low floor light rail cars linking a working-class district with the Metro (see "Village Light Rail: Not Just a Nostalgia Trip" in MAKING TRACKS, July 1995), they will attract far greater ridership than the bus lines they replace by making available to urban riders transit amenities heretofore reserved for suburban commuters.
Census figures for 1990 show the tracts flanking the 8th Street corridor are among the densest in the city in terms of "workers by origin zone" and trail only the midtown and lower Manhattan central business districts in "workers by destination zone." While business destinations tend to be concentrated at the center, nearer the subways, the heavy residential areas extend from river to river. This unique combination of "origin" and "destination" zones makes the corridor a prime candidate for high quality transit. With many evening and weekend destinations for tourists and other visitors along the route, an attractive and reliable light rail system is justified, since high levels of ridership can be maintained outside normal commuting hours.
The demographic character of the Village Crosstown corridor has not changed significantly in many decades, while tourist and other visitor destinations have multiplied in recent years. Nevertheless, transit usage on the route now stands at little more than 10% of streetcar ridership prior to bus conversion in 1936. This may be due in part to congestion, delays and infrequent service. Nine minute "peak hour" headways turn into 20 minute waits on weekends, doing little to attract the tourist trade. However, while no one enjoys standing on a street corner waiting for a bus, many other factors combine to discourage ridership.
NYC Transit data show that a significant percentage of current M-8 bus riders begin or end their trips at north-south bus lines, where free transfers are available, rather than at the numerous subway stations clustered in the central part of the route. This suggests that the "two fare zone" remains a strong deterrent to transit use, even in Manhattan.
Modern light rail vehicles are almost always more comfortable, faster and more reliable than buses. It is difficult to quantify the subjective preference of most potential riders for light rail, but a consistent decrease in ridership when buses replace trolleys, and a corresponding increase when LRVs replace buses, has been observed in cities across the country and around the world.
VCTC believes that the 8th Street transit corridor is ripe for conversion from buses to light rail. By combining the transitway with pedestrian space through the central retail-oriented part of the route, business and transit will both gain from the symbiotic relationship, but the public will be the real beneficiary.
Of course, riders must be allowed to transfer freely between light rail, the subway and other surface transit. With NYC Transit moving deliberately toward elimination of "two fare zones," there is reason to hope that "seamless" transit journeys will soon be a reality, on 8th Street and throughout the city.
The capital investment required for rail-based transit is well justified on a route with potential for significant off-hour and weekend ridership as well as peak hour commuter use. The Village Crosstown Trolley exemplifies such a route. The high level of transit ridership in the corridor prior to bus conversion, coupled with current demographic and commercial profiles of the area, suggest strongly that the proposed light rail line would not merely succeed, but also attract a new generation of transit riders. It would quickly become a model for high quality urban transit, at relatively low cost, to be emulated in other corridors and in other cities from coast to coast.
East Village Parks Group Welcomes Trolley
Truly a "grass roots" group, the East Village Parks Conservancy has sponsored clean-up projects in the parks and has worked with the city's Parks Department to plan further enhancements. The group sponsors the popular "Art-Around-the-Park" Festival, which will be held this year on Saturday, May 18 at Tompkins Square Park. Highlight of the festival is the placing of a canvas on the park's fence with local artists assisting children painting original works. For more information about the Conservancy, call Sandy Turner at 212-674-5117.
MTA's Manhattan East Side Alternatives (MESA) study is taking a fresh look at resuming construction of the long promised Second Avenue subway. The comprehen-sive planning study is exploring a wide range of transit options including restoration of the Second Avenue light rail line. VCTC members are closely monitoring this study and offering suggestions for coordinating north-south links with crosstown routes. The current issue of New York Streetcar News features a cover story about the Committee for Better Transit's Second Ave. trolley proposal. For a free copy call VCTC at 212-475-3394. To find out more about the MESA study call Keith Martin at 718-694-5164.
Astor Place Festival
Letter From the Editor
Dear Reader,
The Village Crosstown Trolley Coalition now has a presence on the Internet's World Wide Web! Our WWW address is:
This site will be updated periodically with the progress we are making as well as with the complete text of each issue of MAKING TRACKS. You will also find links to other transit related sites there. As always, your comments are appreciated. Please send them to us at the address below. Thanks and Happy Surfing!
Michael Goodman, Editor
NY Today
TimeOut New York
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