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| Re: Franklin Avenue Shuttle (1509387) | |||
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Re: Franklin Avenue Shuttle |
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Posted by randyo on Sat Apr 6 18:37:45 2019, in response to Re: Franklin Avenue Shuttle, posted by Elkeeper on Sat Apr 6 12:32:14 2019. What doomed the Ashland Pl connection according to a circa 1914 PSC report I read, was a dispute between the city and the BRT as to who would build a new station at Willy B Plaza. The BRT wanted the city to build it and the city wanted the BRT to build. For some reason it was piggy backed with the third tracking of the Fulton el west (RR north) of Nostrand Av and east (RR south) of Hinsdale St. The desire of the city to have the BRT relocate the downtown Bkln portion of the Fulton El off Fulton and onto Adams St was added to the mix. While the dispute was ongoing, no further upgrading of the Fulton el beyond what was already in progress was done. Add to this mix Mayor Hylan’s vendetta against the BRT abd its successors, the reorganized BMT was in no position either financially or politically to build any further lines other than the Nassau St connection. As for Nevins St lower, that was intended to connect to the 4th Av Subway which the IRT hoped to get but which was instead assigned by the pSC to the BRT. Incensed as being denied an additional line in Bkln beyond the E/Pky and Nostrand lines, the iRT withdrew from further dual contract negotiations with the PSC. Faced with this, the PSC had the Lex Ave, Pelham and Jerome Lines originally intended for the IRT constructed to the larger BRT specs and started construction on a lower portion of the Lex subway between Madison Sq (23 St) and Grand Central to connect to what is the existing Lex Line. Since most of the IRT’s existing lines were in Manhattan and the Bronx. the company soon realized that it would be more important to have the additional Bronx lines than an additional line in Bkln and reentered negotiations. The Lex Line N/O G/Cent and the new Bronx lines were again given to the IRT which is why those lines are built to BMT clearances and for many years, you could see metal platform extensions on those lines to fill the gap between the original platform construction and the smaller car bodies of the IRT. The larger clearances were also taken into consideration when later, the city made plans top connect the SAS to the Pelham Line in the Bronx if the lie had been built as originally planned. Since the BRT/BMT clearance had become state of the art by the time of the dual contracts, it was also intended to have the 7 Av IRT Subway built to the larger clearances. I was soon realize, however that it would be useless to have a larger subway connected to the original (or “First Subway”) since newer cars of a larger design could not fit in the older tunnels. Thus while the lower portion of the west side IRT was built to slightly larger clearances than the original subway, it was not built to full BRT/BMT specs. |
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