Program for Action
Metropolitan Transportation: A Program for Action, also known as simply the Program for Action, the Grand Design, or the New Routes Program, was a proposal in the mid-1960s for a large expansion of mass transit in New York City, created under then-Mayor John Lindsay. Originally published on February 29, 1968, the Program for Action was one of the most ambitious expansion plans in the history of the New York City Subway. The plan called for of tracks to be constructed, and more than 80% of the new trackage was to be built in the borough of Queens. The $2.9 billion plan also called for improvements to other modes of mass transit, such as the present-day Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad commuter rail systems, and further integration between mass transit and the New York City-area airport system.
Transport improvements built under the Program for Action were supposed to relieve overcrowding on existing transit modes in the New York City area. However, even though many of the lines and transport connections proposed in the Program for Action were approved, New York City nearly went bankrupt in 1975, causing all but two of these projects to be canceled due to a lack of funds. The remaining projects, the 63rd Street and Archer Avenue lines, were both dramatically truncated from their original lengths, and both lines opened much later than originally projected. In total, only six stations and of tracks were added under the Program for Action.
Context
In the 1960s, the New York metropolitan area had 18 million residents across, and the area's population was expanding greatly at the time, especially in the suburbs, to where many city residents relocated. In 1965, the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority was created by the New York State Legislature to operate the bankrupt Long Island Rail Road. Two years later, voters passed a $2.5 billion bond issue that would pay for transport infrastructure in New York State. The MCTA's chairman at the time, William Ronan, said that any extensions of the New York City Subway that were funded using the bond issue would not be complete for at least another 5 years.In 1968, the MCTA absorbed the New York City Transit Authority of New York City, and began a long-term lease of several lines of the Penn Central that would become the Metro-North Railroad. That year, was made available to the MCTA, as part of a $2.5 billion bond for transportation passed by the New York State legislature. The city was already intending to build line extensions in all four boroughs so that most riders would need at most one transfer to get to their destination. The original plan was to tear down the IRT Third Avenue Line in the Bronx; build the Second Avenue Subway in Manhattan and the Bronx with a 48th Street spur; extend the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line down Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn; build a 63rd Street Tunnel for the Long Island Rail Road ; and create a LIRR rail link to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens.
Report publication
On February 29, 1968, the MCTA published a 56-page report for New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, and in it, proposed several subway and railroad improvements under the name "Metropolitan Transportation, a Program for Action". Executives involved with the proposal included New York baseball executive William Shea. The Program for Action was put forward simultaneously with other development and transportation plans under the administration of Mayor John Lindsay. This included Lindsay's Linear City plan for housing and educational facilities, and the projected construction of several Interstate Highways, many of which were originally proposed by Robert Moses. On March 1, a day after the release of the plans, the MCTA became the MTA.In its rationale for the Program for Action, the MCTA stated, "By 1985, this region will have 25 million people.... The prospects, based upon the best available projections, are that the population growth will take place principally in the suburbs. New York City is not expected to grow much by 1985. Its dwelling population will redistribute somewhat, however, with the outer areas of the city — Staten Island, Queens, parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx — growing, while the older areas closer to the core remain relatively stable in population." The city was expected to gain 2.5 million jobs in these two decades, and the Manhattan central business district already had 7.8 million employees.
The two-phase Program for Action would cost $2.9 billion in total. The MTA had over $1 billion on hand allocated for the program, and a large portion of this money had come from the bond issue in 1967. A lot of this funding would also come from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, which was running large surpluses of $25 million per year. As part of the Program for Action, existing elevated structures considered obsolete or dilapidated were to be replaced with new subways, in part to encourage development in those neighborhoods. The eastern end of the BMT Jamaica Line in the Jamaica, Queens business district was to be replaced with the BMT Archer Avenue Line, while the remainder of the IRT Third Avenue Line in the Bronx was to be torn down in favor of a new subway line running adjacent to the Metro-North Harlem Line tracks under Park Avenue. As with the city's original plan, new subway lines would provide transit access to areas previously underserved by public transport, while railroad improvements would improve Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road service. Stations at Grand Street and 57th Street on the IND Sixth Avenue Line, completed in 1967–1968 as part of the Chrystie Street Connection—the precursor project to the Program for Action—were to be tied into lines built under the new program. A subway map was also drawn up to illustrate planned service patterns upon the program's completion. The new extensions totaled over of new route miles.
MTA Chairman Ronan pushed for the MTA to pursue the Program for Action, saying, "We're making up for 30 years of do-nothingism". In July 1968, the Regional Plan Association released a separate report supporting the planned expansion. Two months later, on September 20, 1968, the New York City Board of Estimate and Mayor John Lindsay approved six of the Transit Authority's eight recommended routes at the cost of $1.3 billion.
Phase I
Phase I consisted of new subway lines to supplement the IND Queens Boulevard Line and the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, as well as new interlockings and modernized station termini to increase train capacity. It would also comprise the renovation of deteriorating transit routes. Originally, Phase I was to cost $961 million, but costs went up to $1.6 billion. Phase I would have been completed over the span of a decade.Queens lines
63rd Street–Southeast Queens line
Phase I's flagship project was the 63rd Street–Southeast Queens line, which would stretch from the existing 57th Street subway station in Midtown Manhattan to the existing Laurelton LIRR station in Springfield Gardens. The construction of this line was to be split up into three parts. The first part, Route 131–A, would run from Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Manhattan below 63rd Street and the East River to Northern Boulevard. The next part, Route 131–B, the Super–Express Bypass Line, would continue along the LIRR right-of-way to Forest Hills. And finally, Route 131–D, the Southeastern Queens Line, would build a branch of the Queens Boulevard Line at Briarwood through Downtown Jamaica to Springfield Gardens via the LIRR's Atlantic Branch, with a ramp to eliminate the Jamaica Avenue elevated structure in Downtown Jamaica.The westernmost part of the line entailed aggressive completion of the 63rd Street Tunnel, as well as the connections from the tunnel to the IND Sixth Avenue Line and the BMT Broadway Line. The 63rd Street tunnel under the East River would have two subway tracks on its upper level and two LIRR tracks on its lower level. The cross-river portion of the line would reduce overcrowding on the IND Queens Boulevard Line, on the IRT Flushing Line, and on the 60th Street Tunnel's services. The 63rd Street tunnel would facilitate service between the Queens Boulevard Line and the Second Avenue Subway, via bellmouths west of Roosevelt Island which turn south towards Midtown and Lower Manhattan; these turnouts may be used for the third and fourth phases of a new Second Avenue Subway project, which started in 2007.
East of Northern Boulevard, where there would be a track junction with the Queens Boulevard Line, the 63rd Street–Southeast Queens line would become a "super-express" bypass of the Queens Boulevard line. This bypass, which was proposed due to the overall congestion of the line during peak hours, was originally a single "high speed express track", with no intermediate stops, in order to allow trains to travel at speeds of up to. The bypass would have used one of the two trackways parallel to, and surrounding, the four-track LIRR Main Line; the trackways, formerly used by the Rockaway Beach Branch, are currently unused. It would stretch from the 63rd Street Line east of 21st Street–Queensbridge near the Sunnyside Yard, with the possibility of access to the 60th Street and 53rd Street Tunnels. At its east end, it would have left the LIRR right-of-way near Whitepot Junction and ran under Yellowstone Boulevard to the Queens Boulevard Line near 71st Avenue station. The 71st Avenue station would have been converted into a bi-level or tri-level station, with the super express tracks using the lower level built south of the current station, before rejoining the main line Queens Boulevard tracks.
Later plans called for two tracks and an intermediate stop next to the current Woodside LIRR station; there would have also been a three-track station along the 63rd Street Line at Northern Boulevard, adjacent to the existing Queens Plaza station. The bypass and proposed Woodside station would have necessitated the widening of the LIRR Main Line right-of-way onto private property west of Winfield Junction, where the Main Line merges with the Port Washington Branch, and reorganization of the track layout in the Sunnyside Yards. The IND Queens Boulevard Line was to be reverse-signaled as well to further increase capacity.
In order to provide enough capacity for the line, the GG would have had to be taken off of the Queens Boulevard Line, and a turnback was necessary to provide a new terminal for the line. When the 63rd Street Connection opened in 2001, the Court Square station was rebuilt to provide a turnback facility for the line, which by then was renamed to G.
The Southeast Queens portion of the line would split from the IND Queens Boulevard Line using pre-existing bellmouths at Briarwood, would go to Springfield Boulevard in southeastern Queens using the LIRR Atlantic Branch, with a transfer to the LIRR at Jamaica. This Southeast Queens extension, which would use the upper level of the planned bi-level Archer Avenue subway, was the most important of several proposed lines along LIRR branches; it was originally intended to extend to the Laurelton LIRR station. While the upper level of the Archer Avenue subway would serve Queens Boulevard trains to Southeast Queens, the lower level for the BMT, which was to be built as part of Phase 2 as Route 133, would extend under Archer Avenue to 188th Street in Hollis. Both lines were only built to Jamaica Center; a LIRR extension would have necessitated the construction of new stations or the conversion of existing facilities along the right-of-way, as well as added additional capacity on which to run trains.