ASTORIA ELS

by Kevin Walsh

I am always seeking out mass transit “missed opportunities.” I think one of these is at the north end of the elevated Astoria Line, which runs above 31st Street in Astoria and stops just short of Ditmars Boulevard. According to transit lore, that “short stop” is there because the line was eventually going to be extended east to where LaGuardia Airport would eventually be built, along Ditmars Boulevard. Today, the boulevard is a bustling business section and restaurant row.

Both the Astoria Line and the Hell Gate Bridge carrying Amtrak trains to areas north and east were built at about the same time in 1917. Passenger trains crossing the Hell Gate today all run express from Penn Station east through Sunnyside Yards and then north and west across the Hell Gate, but I would have thought that Astoria residents would have a golden opportunity to board northbound Amtrak trains today had a transfer station, a la the one at Woodside, could have been built so that passengers could debark from the Astoria Line and ride an escalator to an Amtrak station. I don’t know if space exists today for such a connection today…but as a transit buff, I can fantasize.

As it turns out, there are plans to build a new Metro-North station in Astoria as part of East Side and West Side Access, but I’m now 65 and whether this station opens while I’m alive is worthy of conjecture.

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7/8/23

6 comments

therealguyfaux July 8, 2023 - 11:21 am

For the work and money that it would take to create such a connection, it probably wouldn’t be worth it unless it became a stop on Penn Station Access, the complementary two-terminal versatility project to Grand Central Madison, i.e., the new New Haven Line through the East Bronx along the Northeast Corridor trains would stop there, but the plans are to put such a Queens stop near Queensboro Plaza, where, let’s be honest, there would be far more demand with all the construction in Long Island City.

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Kevin Walsh July 8, 2023 - 2:27 pm

Apparently there is now a plan to place a stop somewhere on the Hell Gate Bridge approach. Whether it opens in our lifetimes is conjecturable.

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Eric Costello July 8, 2023 - 12:23 pm

According to the February 2, 1917 Times, when the Astoria Line was opened, and the official party reached Ditmars Avenue, “the Committee took them four blocks away to Steinway and showed them how easy it would be to extend the subway there.” Different direction, a bit, than going to where LaGuardia is now, though I think that would have connected up with the power plants/parking lots/waste treatment there now. A direct subway line to LaGuardia would have been a wonderful thing.

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David Montgomery July 8, 2023 - 7:24 pm

A Metro North stop in Astoria would be pretty amazing- I’m not holding my breath but we can dream

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Kenneth Buettner July 10, 2023 - 5:03 am

Immediately following WWII, plans for the 2nd Avenue Subway were resurrected once again. The Queens business community offered support, with its hope that part of the subway system expansion would extend the Astoria line to the New York Municipal Airport (now LaGuardia Airport) in East Elmhurst. As we know, neither was built.

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Craig F. Thompson January 30, 2024 - 12:56 am

A favorite pet project of mine would be to not only extend the Ditmars line to La Guardia airport, but to continue the line down a railroad right-of-way close to the end of the Myrtle Avenue line at the Metropolitan Avenue terminal. Further down Myrtle, the line would then curve south, going down Franklin Avenue (the buildings at Franklin and Myrtle would have to be rebuilt to allow for the curvature), and connecting tothe present end of the shuttle, which would be fully rebuilt with two tracks. The dangerous sharp curve at Empire Blvd. would be “flattened out” to allow for a higher speed connection to the Brighton line local tracks. Once reaching Coney Island, the line would then change over to the Sea Beach express tracks, with the station at New Utrecht Avenue rebuilt for express platforms. This would mean a circular line covering three boroughs; hence, it COULD be dubbed the “O” train.

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