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Re: My Route Suggestion of the Old Abandoned LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch

Posted by David of Broadway on Fri Jul 28 19:23:03 2006, in response to Re: My Route Suggestion of the Old Abandoned LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch, posted by BrooklynBus on Wed Jul 26 20:32:00 2006.

The basic route would be something like this.

Start at Sheepshead Bay, inside fare control. (Whether it's above, below, or somewhere else depends in part on the next bit.)

Get it across the Belt somehow. I haven't decided what's best. Maybe run it parallel to the Brighton line. Maybe run it across Voorhies at grade, then along the edge of the Belt and through the existing SBR underpass. The latter is probably cheaper and not much more time-consuming, but the turn onto SBR might be too tight.

For the sake of argument, I'll assume the SBR routing.

The rest is straightforward. Run it across a widened and strengthened Ocean Avenue footbridge (too bad they just rebuilt it!) and along the south edge of the Bay (along the double Shore Boulevard sidewalk, as you suggest). Install switches near the KCC gate to turn LRV's when the campus is closed. At other times, LRV's will run on a wide loop around the campus, stopping near each of the buildings. (If intra-campus demand is sufficient, perhaps the college could also pay for some LRV's that simply circle around campus without ever leaving.)

Fares would be handled by electronic POP: unless you board at Sheepshead Bay, you dip or swipe your MetroCard at an encoder on the LRV. The fare is valid for 30 minutes, or for 2 hours if you entered at a subway station other than Sheepshead Bay. Holders of activated unlimited cards need not swipe. Fare inspectors will carry handheld MetroCard checkers.

There are really three problems with the B1 and B49. First, they're crowded, but as you point out, that can be solved by running more buses (or by improving the dispatching system). Second, the B49 (not the B1) takes a circuitous route between the station and the college. Third, the transfer points aren't designed as transfer facilities (the same criticism applies to nearly every other bus-subway transfer point in the system, but it's still a criticism) and the KCC end of the line is in a ridiculous location, as though there's a major traffic generator on Mackenzie Street.

The second and third problems won't be solved by simply running more buses.

I don't see the point of a light rail line that runs exclusively or primarily along a street. In that case, it might as well be a bus line, at far lower capital cost. Light rail can be useful when it goes places that buses can't go.

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