What Could Have Been - Part II

In the early 1980's, the Regional Plan Association studied transit use in 29 American Cities and came to the conclusion that new rapid transit lines could be supported from a passenger use basis in such cities as Los Angeles, Seattle, Honolulu and Houston.  Light rail could also be supported in such cities such as Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Denver, Kansas City and so on.  Looking back over 30 years, new systems were built and old systems were expanded.  It was also reported that if as many as thirteen buses are needed in each direction, light rail begins to have an economic advantage over buses.  Many of the bus lines in Manhattan and the following bus routes in Brooklyn could have operated more economically in Brooklyn:

1. B2- Avenue R
2. B6 -Avenue J
3. B35 - Church Avenue
4. B38 - De Kalb Avenue
5. B41 - Flatbush Avenue
6. B42 - Rockaway Parkway
7. B44 - Nostrand Avenue
8. B46 - Utica Reid
9. B54 - Myrtle Avenue
10. B55 - Richmond Hill

This listing comes from the New York Division Bulletin, Electric Railway Association's August 1982 edition (Vol. 25, Number 8).

In what will follow, you will see that according to the New York Division Bulletin, that the Board of Transportation studied the surface system and looked at operating statistics ending June 30, 1944.  Their recommendations were listed in the Bulletin but what is surprising, as shown in a previous post, I have the link to what appears to be the original maps from the Board of Transportation dated 1945 and that many of the busy routes in 1944 were still the busy ones in 1982, even though they were bus lines.  Many of the routes listed above which were then streetcar were selected for an upgrade to PCC operation at the end of 1945, but it never happened.

To be continued:
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