These are the transit advantages of reactivating the Rockaway Branch as a subway line. Neighborhoods

As the effort to convert the Rockaway Beach Branch Line into a park gains state funds and media recognition, transit advocates are starting to raise their voices against the plan. As I ve written in this space recently, we need to give rail its due as well. At the least, rail should be placed thrifty car rental gsp airport on equal footing with the QueensWay option, and at the most, reactivating a disused right-of-way should take clear precedent if it is technically feasible.
A few fine gentlemen both in need of promotions have gotten the proverbial ball rolling. Capt. Subway thrifty car rental gsp airport and Cap n Transit have launched a petition urging Gov. Cuomo to reactivate the rail line , and Capt. Subway, writing thrifty car rental gsp airport on Cap n Transit s site, offers up his idea . He wants to send the R to Howard Beach via the Rockaway Beach Branch and restore G train service thrifty car rental gsp airport to the Queens Boulevard line.
Unfortunately thrifty car rental gsp airport the local tracks, while also theoretically capable of 30 trains per hour, are presently only running at about 20 trains per hour in the peak period. This is necessitated by the terminal at 71-Continental, which can only turn around about 20 trains per hour at the limit, and that not very well. For this reason the 63rd St connection to Queens Boulevard required a robbing from Peter to pay Paul switcheroo: the G line had to be cut back to Court Square and its slots on Queens Boulevard given over to another, Manhattan oriented service, first to the V , and now to the M . (For the first few years the "G" line ran to and from Forest thrifty car rental gsp airport Hills nights and weekends, when there was no V train service. But this passenger thrifty car rental gsp airport friendly part-time service died to make weekend service changes more doable).
thrifty car rental gsp airport Of course it needn't be that way. Even in the original MTA plans from the late '60s G service would have remained intact. The express by-pass alone would have insured this. This is where the old LIRR Rock Line comes into play. By connecting this line to the Queens Boulevard line east (subway thrifty car rental gsp airport north) of 63rd Drive station – the tunnel bell mouths are there specifically for that scenario – the path to another local service terminal would be created, i.e. now the G , along with the M and R could run along the Queens Boulevard local tracks, with one of these service branching off after 63rd Drive and heading thrifty car rental gsp airport off to a new terminal at either Howard Beach or, it would be hoped, JFK, and thus not threatening to overwhelm 71-Continental as a terminal. In this way peak trains per hour on the Queens Boulevard local tracks could be raised from the present day 20 trains per hour up to 27 ½ trains per hour, given the current timetables on those three lines. This would be a significant improvement in service, especially if the G were equipped with full length trains.
These are the transit advantages of reactivating the Rockaway Branch as a subway line. Neighborhoods like Woodhaven, Rego Park and Ozone Park get quicker thrifty car rental gsp airport service to Midtown. Greenpoint and Williamsburg can be reconnected to Astoria and Jackson Heights with revived G train service. Local stations on the Queens Boulevard line see seven more trains an hour.
I have very little commentary to add. This proposal is an ideal one for many reasons and would require far less capital investment than building a new line from scratch. At a time when mobility matters and vulnerabilities have taken center stage, reactivating the rail line deserves as much attention, if not more, than the QueensWay initiative. So check out the two Captains efforts and give that petition a good skim.
What are the number of trains per hour on the R versus the M? If there s a difference, I would think you d want the one with the fewest number of TPHs mated with the G to 71st-Contenental while the other goes to Howard Beach, since you want to make sure the trains don t back up west of the portal near 63rd Drive, which would then also slow down the Rockaway Branch service.
If the R would be the only train operating to 179th Street the only station serving huge parts of Eastern, Southeastern and Northeastern Queens and Nassau thrifty car rental gsp airport County, while the F runs to the airport and the Rockaways, it would be totally unacceptable.
In that case, the service shouldn t run along Queens Boulevard at all. In fact, it should end at Woodhaven Boulevard, with transfers to the G/M/R (and converting the station into an express station).
That s not necessarily a bad thing I highly doubt that Rockaway Beach branch ridership would be high enough to justify R train levels of service. M, maybe, but the M is cut back to Myrtle on weekends.
(Nitpicking myself: I should have said something running parallel thrifty car rental gsp airport to the T, south of the Q, since there will be extra capacity there because of the Q taking some slots. The T will still be needed for end-to-end SAS service.)
That s already happening. There s a junction from westbound F to southbound T, and vice versa , west of Roosevelt Island. (You ll see it 5 minutes 18 seconds after clicking on the link, or just jump to the 5:18 mark on the video.)
Could the M do the same if it ran on weekends? I ask because I had another idea. Extend the R to 179th Jamaica have the F skip a few more stops from Kew Gardens to 179th. Trains will continue to stop at Parsons as that station has island platforms. Remember the E ran that rute until 1988 when the Jamaica Center extention opened
Good idea, the R 10 179. I believe it ran for a few months shortly after Archer Ave opened. But the passengers at the intermediate local stops: 169, Sutphin, Van Wyck 75 Ave were enraged at having the all-local R replace a one seat express ride (the E used to serve those stops until Archer Ave, then the F took over, but both went express after 71-Cont) thrifty car rental gsp airport and got it shot down.
Does the F have enough ridership to justify express service overnight? After midnight, most express runs like A, D, E N end everything runs local. If not, then your segestion works. However thrifty car rental gsp airport if F express is nessessary then adding M or R service overnight will fill frequency gaps.
As for the effected stations that could lose F service, how much longer could a commute be with a cross platform transfer at Kew Gardens or Contenental over what it is currently. 1, 2 minutes at most? It wouldn thrifty car rental gsp airport t be anything earth shattering.
The F currently runs express at all times between 36 Street and Continental Avenue, and local at all times between thrifty car rental gsp airport Continental and 179 Street. I don t know for sure, but there could be enough ridership thrifty car rental gsp airport during off-peak hours to justify service of the three affected stations during those times.
It does take longer to transfer between trains, however. You are right, local and express trains do usually come within 2-3 minutes thrifty car rental gsp airport of each other, but that s 2-3 minutes of time wasted. Besides, there usually isn t enough ridership east of Briarwood-Van Wyck to justify F express service all the way to 179th.
Most riders get off at 179th, with some getting off at 169th, and Sutphin is basically an afterthought, so express service won t impact ridership that badly. However, off-peak, waiting for a train at the Hillside Ave stations can be a bit onerous, so it should probably be a peak-only thing.
The Culver/Jamaica express and local should have 2 separate bullets (i.e. Culver Express trains run express on the Jamaica Line with the designation, and Culver Local trains run local on the Jamaica Line east of 71 Avenue, with the (F) designation). Imagine if a passenger wanting to take the Culver Local accidentally takes the express because there wasn t anything distinguishing the different services.
If this were ever done, the other thing that really should be looked at would be the conversion of Woodhaven Blvd. to an express stop. Keeping the situation as it is would mean riders coming in from the Rockaway Branch would join those transferring from the Queens Blvd. local stops and the 7 train at Roosevelt Avenue, thrifty car rental gsp airport which already is crush loaded. Better to get the transfer over with at Woodhaven and also throw an easier-transfer-to-the-express bone to riders at 67th Avenue, who you know are going to be howling about having their R train replaced with G service.
There s actually bellmouths leading off from the local track before Woodhaven that could be used to run tracks on the outside of the current local platform. If that was done, the current local tracks would be filled in to create about a 25-foot wide island platform (which given the width of Queens Blvd. could be easily thrifty car rental gsp airport handled without running afoul of any of the building lines on the north side of QB).
Sending the pokiest line in the system to JFK is not going to win any hearts and minds, plus the route becomes ridiculously long. The E needs to go to JFK, it s fast, is already associated with JFK via Jamaica Ctr and has a shorter route with better headways. Send the R to Jamaica Ctr.
That was actually considered in 1988 when the Jamaica Centre extension was first proposed: the G and Broadway Local would go to Jamaica Ctr. while the E/F would go to 179th. thrifty car rental gsp airport If the R goes to Jamaica Centre, then the E must be extended to Howard Beach so the E doesn t lose its JFK connection.
Jamaica will hate that. Even if R runs express east of 71st Continental, it will be a long trip to Parsons. Building thrifty car rental gsp airport tracks and underpasses to local tracks is also easier/cheaper than to express tracks.
Jamaica Center is the second-biggest bus-subway transfer point in the whole subway system. There are too many riders there. The political consequences would be immense. If the Rockaway Beach branch is ever reopened (with what money?). you re going to see the R or M go there.
Voiceing on my part. Why do we need the Broadway Line to JFK? It d make more sense to bring the M over because it will give 6th Ave and Queens Blvd the option to the Rockaway. The G can stay in Court Sq, not much service will be lost from Rego Park to Forest Hills. I like the station proposals but I just can t see the R out there. It would be murder on someone who has to drive that route.
The whole point of this is to increase TPH on the local tracks,