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SEPTEMBER 21, 1912





NEW SUBWAYS WILL SHOW GREAT IMPROVEMENT





No Stations to be Built on Curves—Elevated Structures More Sightly and
the Operation of Trains Less Noisy—First Complete Map of Dual System.





IN a special pamphlet just issued, enti¬
tled "The Dual System of Rapid Tran¬
sit for 'New York City," the Public Service
Commission gives many details regarding
the new work. The pamphlet was com¬
piled by Assistant Secretary J. B. Walker.
The total cost of the new system, it is
stated, will be about $347,000,000, and its
total length will be 629.7 miles of single
track. This will include 296 miles of single
track of existing rapid transit lines. While
the existing rabid transit lines are carry¬
ing about 800,000,000 passengers a year, the
new system will have a capacity of 3,000,-
000,000 a year, although it is not expected
that such capacity will be demanded for
some years after the opening of the new
lines.

The new subwao's will show great im¬
provements over the existing subway in
many details.    The existing subway was





tions, for the whole stretch of four-track
subway from Brooklyn Bridge north to
96th street. Actual operation showed that
this arrangement interfered with the ef¬
fectiveness of the train movement upon
ventilation. While the frequent passage
of trains stirred up the air, it did not in¬
sure the renewal of it, and in consequence
the city had to spend a great deal of
money to put in ventilating devices. The
commission's engineers believe they have
greatly simplified the problem ol ventila¬
tion by constructing the new subways
with separate tunnels, so that the passage
of trains will produce a piston action,
driving the air out ahead of them and
caiusing the inrush of fresh air by suction
from the rear. It is hardly accurate to
say that there will be four separate tun¬
nels for the four-track sections of the new
subways.    Rather, there will be one tun¬





as will also the new subway south from
Times square through Seventh avenue and
other streets to Park place. South of Park
place the road will be a two-track line. In
The Bronx, where the Lexington avenue
line divides into two branches, each branch
will be a three-track line. North of 157th
street on the Jerome avenue branch and
north of a point between Aldus and Ban¬
croft streets the Southern Boulevard and
A\'estchester avenue branch will be eleva¬
ted  construction.

The White Plains road extension of the
West Farms branch of the existing sub¬
way will also be a three-track elevated
line.

The Interborough subway from Park
place and West Broadway to and under
the East River to Brooklyn will be a two-
track line. The extension of the Brooklyn
system, however, from Atlantic avenue out















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DESIGN    FOR   ORNAMENTAL    ELEVATED   STRUCTURE   AT   STATION.





the first underground road ever operated
in New York city, and necessarily in some
particulars was more or less experimental
Actual operation of it disclosed several
features which experience proved undesir-
atile, and the engineers ot the Public Ser¬
vice Commission have eliminated such
features from the plans for the new work.
For instance, some of the stations in the
existing subway are built upon curves,
which causes undesirable conditions when
trains are loading and unloading at these
curved platforms, ajid also makes it ne¬
cessary for all trains approaching such
stations to slow down to avoid danger.
While these curved platforms are pro¬
tected by an excellent signal system, the
commission's engineers believe that the
safety of operation will be promoted by
eliminating curved platforms. Therefore
all stations upon the new subways will be
located on straight stretches of track, and
so far as possible sharp curves will be
avelded on all lines.

Another feature of the existing subway
which has been found inferior is the
placing of all four tracks in one tunnel.
This condition prevails, with few excep-





nel for the four tracks, but there will be
a partition wall between each pair of
tracks, so that the effect of having one
tunnel for each pair of tracks will be pro¬
duced.

Ornamental Elevated Structures.

The new elevated railroad construction
also will show marked improvement over
the type heretofore used in New York City.
The elevated structures will be more
sightly, and the roadbed so built as to
make the operation of trains less noisy.
In pertaiin places, like the Queens Boule-
A'ard in Queens Borough, where the city
authorities are striving for beauty effects
in street construction, the elevated struc¬
ture will be of ornamental design. One
of these designs is illustrated on this
page.

Parts of the new system will be two-
track, parts three-track and parts four-
track lines. In the case of the lines to be
operated by the Interborough Rapid Tran¬
sit Company, the new subway up Lexing¬
ton avenue from 42d street to beyond the
Harlem  River,  will be a four-track line.





Flatbush avenue to Eastern Parkway and
out Eaetern Parkway to Buffalo avenue
will be a four-track road. The branch
down Nostrand avenue will be a two-track
subway and the extension out Livonia
avenue will be a three-track elevated line.

As the Steinway Tunnell is a two-track
line, its extensions, in Manhattan from
Grand Central .Station to Times Square and
in Queens from the end of the tunnel to
Queensboro Bridge Plaza will also be two-
track lines. The Manhattan extension will
be a subway under 42d street and the
Queens extension will be both subway and
elevated. The elevated lines from Queens¬
boro Bridge Plaza to Astoria and to Co¬
rona will be three-track roads.

Of the lines to be operated by the Brook¬
lyn Rapid Transit Company the Broadway
Subwaly from Park place north to 59th
street will be a. four-track road. Its 59th
street extension from Seventh avenue to
and over the Queensboro Bridge will be a
two-track road. South of Park place and
through the new tunnel under the East
River to Brooklyn it will be a two-track
road.

The Centre Street Loop Subway In Mail-