Second Avenue Subway Opened 12 minutes Ago

https://youtu.be/5lN7iyWWziI?t=89

 As type this, at 12:12 pm New York time, the Second Avenue subway probably went into revenue service twelve minutes ago.  I am at home but I could not go to the opening.  In an interesting subchat posting "BMT Invades the Upper East Side", there is much truth in that statement.  The new Second Avenue subway is an extension of the Broadway - 7th Avenue BMT subway as far as present service is concerned because the Q train runs along the BMT lines from Coney Island to 57th Street and 7th Avenue.  In early subway history, and I will not quote references which I do not have presently but some may have been posted here years ago, the future plans for subway extensions was very different at the beginning of the 20th Century.  At the earlier stages, the IRT subway the opened in 1904 and extended to Brooklyn in 1908 may have be planned to go to Bay Ridge via Fourth Avenue.  The lower level at Atlantic Avenue was built with a track perhaps pointing to the Manhattan Bridge.  Who knows, if these plans may have been carried out, our traditional BMT lines, including the Culver, Sea Beach, West End and Fourth Avenue lines may have been part of the IRT network with branches to the upper Bronx!  In Manhattan, in planning service to upper Manhattan and perhaps the Bronx, the BMT subway at 57th Street was supposed to be extended to upper Manhattan as the BMT subway.  Everything above 59th Street in Manhattan could be considered as IND or IRT territory and now this changes.  Other changes of stripes occurred in Brooklyn.  The traditional BMT Culver subway line from Ditmas Avenue south became the IND D train in 1954.  The BMT City Line Elevated Line east of Grant Avenue became the IND Fulton Street Line in 1956.  The Dyer Avenue IRT line was originally part of a Westchester based private railroad.  In the late 1960's according to the Regional Plan, if the Second Avenue was extended to the Bronx, it would have "captured" the IRT Pelham Bay Park Line.  That line would have been modified to Dual Contract standards including provisions to use BMT-IND wider equipment.

Let us wish the Second Avenue Subway success and that the users will have many benefits from it.  It is really a "stubway" but something is better than nothing.  I guess that "Hell really froze over" today at 12 noon.

According to subchat, as of today, January 2, 2017, the new Second Avenue subway is beginning to experience "congestion" in turning trains around at the 96th Street station.  If appears that the turn around time involving signals and crossovers in greater than the regular schedule of trains.  It was suggested that since the tunnel goes north to 99th Street, there should have been a crossover north of the station as well.  Let us see what happens Tuesday morning which is a regular work day.  It was also suggested by some that the users of the new subway will not be Lexington Avenue Line users in the area but unhappy bus riders who need to get to their destination fast.  Do not forget that a GM fishbowl will solve all our transit woes.  Just joking.  Let us  see what happens regarding congestion; perhaps the signals and schedules need to be modified

Second Avenue Subway is Getting Ready

In this photo  from the New York Times by Karsten Moran, (for the NY Times),  the new Second Avenue Subway is shown south of the 96th Street station showing the track crossover.  Looks cool, but will it open on time on New Years 2017?

Rare Map of the Proposed Second Avenue Subway in Manhattan as of 1974

Source:  Erlitz, Jeffrey, B. In "Second Avenue Subway - Manhattan Section", New York Division Bulletin, Electric Railroaders' Association, Vol. 39, No. 4., April, 1996. p.4.

The attached map is a computer generated map which is based on a map that appeared in the August, 1974 Bulletin.  When the Second Avenue Subway was under construction in the early 1970's,  a number of small sections were built but subway construction stopped when the city went into a terrible fiscal crisis.  I believe a short section was built on the lower east side and another section uptown.  In the map attached, the Second Avenue route stretches from 125th Street to Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan.  The line is interesting because it would have included two track, three track and four track sections with a few interchanges with other lines.  There is also a double deck section in lower Manhattan.  At Grand Street, an cross a platform transfer to Sixth Avenue services was provided.  Currently, the Second Avenue subway is under construction again  only to 96th Street and also stretches north from a connection to the 63rd Street line from West 57th Street.  I believe the line is very deep and only has two tracks and did not utilize the "cut and cover" method that was used to build small sections of the line in the 1970's.  I am not sure if any previously constructed sections in the 1970's is used in the current construction.  This map is very rare and I know some readers would be interested in it.  Tramway Null(0).