WITH proponents of the so-called QueensLink, a proposed rail line revival that would link subways or LIRR lines in Rego Park to a subway in Woodhaven, rallying once more at City Hall on September 7, 2023, my thoughts turned one again to an exploration of the right of way I did in early 2000. The revival has some popular support as well as “tactical air support” from politicians of widely diverging opinions on everything else. Some wish to turn the space into a rail line, some into a linear park, similar in layout but not esthetics to the High Line in Chelsea, Manhattan. Others believe both can be done at once. Anything can happen, but even if environmental studies and property acquisitions and construction happen, any rail would appear in 15-20 years. I may or may not be around.
A park proposal is not unprecedented. I was last in Chicago in 2001 but I would like to return to take a walk on that city’s The 606 linear park, a former rail line along Bloomingdale Avenue in the city’s northwest sector. Paris has a similar project. My preference would be the hybrid plan to bring both rail and a park atop the tracks.
The Long Island Railroad’s Rockaway Beach Branch diverged from the LIRR’s Main Line in Rego Park at about 66th Ave. at what was called Whitepot Junction. It ran south through the neighborhoods of Middle Village, Woodhaven, Ozone Park, Howard Beach, across Jamaica Bay and through Broad Channel, and on to the Rockaway Peninsula, where one spur continued east and rejoined the LIRR in Far Rockaway, and the other went west and dead-ended at Beach 116th St. at the Rockaway Park station. The LIRR discontinued service across Jamaica Bay in 1950 after a fire, and then ended service between Rego Park and Ozone Park in 1962. The Transit Authority stepped in and restored the Jamaica Bay connection in 1956, connecting the peninsula to the Liberty Avenue el, but the rest of the line has been allowed to deteriorate in place.
For the past couple of decades, two proposals have arisen to deal with that remaining right-of-way. The Queensway proposal would convert it to a linear park in the same way that the old West Side Freight Railway became High Line Park; similar conversions have been done in Philadelphia and Chicago. A second proposal (that I lean toward) would rebuild the rails and connect them to the IND Queens Boulevard Line, with a new subway line connecting the IND Rockaway connection at Liberty Avenue to Queens Boulevard or a new LIRR line connecting Atlantic Avenue with the main branch. Both would require a massive outlay in funds and support from local communities. Call me a cynic, but neither will happen and I predict nothing will happen along the old railroad branch anytime soon. (I’d like to connect it to the Queens Boulevard line.)
in March 2000 I set out with a band of urban explorers that walked the old LIRR Rockaway Branch from Rego Park to Woodhaven. The group included the late photographer and urban chronicler Bernard Ente (left); the MTA’s Mark Wolodarsky (reflector jacket) and my friend Vincent Losinno (right). In 2019 I published the photos in newly rescanned versions. Mark had previously led us into the abandoned Ninth Avenue El tunnel that connected the el in Manhattan under a hilly area in the western Bronx with the Jerome Avenue El.
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9/7/23
6 comments
Typical New York Incompetence.
Timelapse construction video of the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Tesla Gigafactory in Texas. This is how big projects *can* be done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpvKw-MqgRM
Christopher Robert:
The Law of Diminishing Returns on Transportation Investments:
1828 Delaware & Hudson Canal – 108 miles, 108 locks built in 3 years with hand tools.
1904 First NYC Subway – City Hall to 145th Street built in 5 years.
1906 Penn Station Tunnels- 2 tunnels under the North River and 4 tunnels under the East River built in 2 years.
1955 IND Rockaway Line – Two drawbridges, two artificial islands, 4 miles of track built in 5 years.
1969 Penn Station Access project proposed to add commuter train service to Penn Station via West 30th Street Branch and New York Connecting RR.
1989 Jamaica Ave Subway – 10 years to build 2 subway stations.
1991 Empire Connection – 4 years to connect an already built railroad line to Penn Station through an already built tunnel.
1996 6 years and $55 million to paint Hell Gate Bridge that ended up being a patchwork of various shades of red and pink.
2000 The Final Scoping Document for the Penn Station Access project filed 31 years after it was initially proposed.
2001 63rd Street Tunnel – 33 years to build 3 miles of tunnel and 3 subway stations
2010 ARC Tunnel – Project cancelled shortly after construction began.
2010 NY Governor Andrew Cuomo supports budgeting $695 million toward the Penn Station Access project.
2017 Gateway Project – Add a tunnel and tracks to Penn Station. After 6 years they built a concrete box. Construction is presently stalled.
2019 OMNY contactless fare collection launched on the subways
2021 Moynihan Train Hall – $3 billion and 11 years to turn a post office into train station while doing nothing to improve train service.
2021 OMNY launch date missed on the LIRR and Metro-North
2021 Amtrak budgets $932 million toward Penn Station Access Project on top of the $695 million from NY.
2022 IND Winfield Spur – After over 60 years of no progress, the city gave up and is making the right-of-way into a park.
2022 Ground broken on the Penn Station Access project that was proposed in 1969, but the construction start is postponed.
2023 East Side Access – 54 years and $11.6 billion to build one mile of tunnel to connect to an already built tunnel (see 2001) and 1 station.
2023 Broadway Junction Rehab – Planned completion date in 2030.
2023 OMNY launch on the LIRR and Metro-North postponed until 2025 and the program is now $130 million over budget.
2023 $7 billion plan to rework Penn Station anounced, but will only improve aesthetics and not service.
2023 Amtrak refuses to temporarily close the Hell Gate Line and hampers the (already stalled) construction of the Penn Station Access project.
2023 NY Governor Hochul directs the MTA to move forward with the Penn Station Access project (postponed in 2022) and add a station in Astoria. With a proposed completion date of October 2027.
XXXX IND Second System – This old gag?
The line should continue across the Hell Gate Bridge making it a loop from Brooklyn direclty to upper New York. Truncating it at Northern Blvd makes no sense.
This will briing in developement into these areas and a loop would be great to link northern Manhattan directly to Queens so that all areas benefit.
I grew up with that line running behind my house. Would not the Crescent Apts prevent it from being reutilized
The Crescent Apts parking lot and the parking lot across the street on the western edge of the mini strip mall both encroach on the right-of-way. I parked in the strip mall lot many years ago when those buildings were the old Coca-Cola warehouse (which has merged with their Maspeth location). For more info go here: https://web.archive.org/web/20130511213354/http://www.oldnyc.com/rockaway/contents/rockaway.html and scroll to and select Montauk Branch to Forest Park on the left side of the page.
I will be surprised if any of us will live long enough to see what gets placed there.