Why was the construction of the subway for a long time in New York?

byjgarciausa

New York City MetroIs a subway network with the fourth largest scale in the world, next to Beijing, Shanghai and London, which is operated in New York around Manhattan. Although it is a subway in New York where construction began from the beginning of the 20th century, in reality the construction has been stagnating for nearly 80 years, and CityLab is summarizing "Why was the construction of the subway in New York stopped?" .

Why Did New York City Stop Building Subways? - CityLab
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/04/why-new-york-city-stopped-building-subways/557567/

The New York subway network boasts an extension of the route of 375 kilometers and the annual number of users exceeds 1.7 billion people and is one of the largest in the world. Since only 9.1 miles (about 14.6 km) routes opened in Manhattan island in 1904, the total extension has extended by dozens of times between the 1920s, the subway network centered on Manhattan island expanded at a stretch It was.

However, since December 16, 1940, the construction of the subway in New York has not opened new routes, except for small expansion and connection work. Despite the fact that the city of New York has undergone a major change in the past 80 years, the system of the subway, which is a leg of citizens, has hardly changed.

Users of about 6 million people a day are forced to face the daily delays of the subway, equipment failures, and surprising congestion every day. So, why the New York subway is not newly constructed, there are several factors such as expansion of the city to suburbs and increase of cars, administrative and private conflicts over the rights of the subway, sharp rise in maintenance costs, etc. He seems to be intertwined.

byOscar F. Hevia

In 1904, private enterprisesInterborough · Rapid Transit (IRT)The New York subway line 1 was opened by. This line almost monopolized the high-speed transport from the existing elevated railway to the preceding Manhattan island Bronx, but the transport network of Manhattan island is a competitor of IRTBrooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT)It dominated.

In 1913, we contracted IRT and BRT to drastically expand the subway system in New York in the form of "double contract". After that, the administrative side began to regret "I should not let go of the subway to the private sector", and I will try to rule the private company so that I can not get a profit from the subway. Private companies were unable to voluntarily raise fares due to the contract with the government side, so even if there was inflation, it was not possible to raise prices accordingly and in 1948 the freight actually became less than half of the fare in 1904 It is said that.

In 1922, New York City announces the construction of an independent subway system owned by the administration. It was announced that it will be newly constructedIND Concourse LineWas planned as a competitive route running parallel to existing lines of private companies. However, at this time real estate companies that raise land prices with eyes on the construction of the subway also begin to appear, and gradually begin to emerge as "the construction of the subway will increase tax burden only?" And since the late 1930's, individuals began to own cars and the importance of the local subway network centered on Manhattan island declined as people's eyes faced the suburbs from the city center .

byMetropolitan Transportation Authority of the State

In 1940, the management of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Transit, which is the backbone of IRT and BRT, was in a collapse situation, New York City decided to buy a private subway. The acquisition cost is so high that it is almost the same as the cost necessary for making the IND concourse line, and New York City was not even able to even extend the subway line that I purchased.

On December 15, 1940, the same as New York City bought a private subway, out of the concept of the IND Concourse LineIND 6th Street LineIt was opened. Immediately after thisIND 2nd Street LineAlthough construction of the IND No. 2 street line was being considered, it was tangled until 2017 when more than 70 years passed since construction. In order to build a subway in New York at that time, a huge cost of an average of 9 million dollars per mile (about 30 million yen at the time value, more than about 3 billion yen at present) is necessary, He said that he had had a major impact on construction delay.

byDaniel Mennerich

Since the late 1940s the rise in the fare of the subway and the decrease in the number of users overlapped, the fact that the fiscal situation of New York crisis situation also affected, the profits obtained from the subway began to decline. Therefore, New York City tried to raise funds by issuing "transit claims" to collect funds for IND 2nd Street Line, but the majority of funds seems to have been hampered by maintenance of the facilities of the subway.

In the 1950s the highway network of New York developed rapidly, people's residence began to relocate to the suburbs. Despite the fact that the number of people who supported the construction of the subway in Manhattan is decreasing in this way, New York City was still not giving up the construction of the IND 2nd Street Line. In 1965Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityA corporation that gathers public transportation in New York State was established, but unfortunately it did not reach the attempt to make a complex regional transportation system linking Manhattan Island by connecting the New York subway to the existing railroad .

In the 1970s, the number of subway users is increasingly decreasing, and the construction plan of the IND 2nd Street line is completely stopped. The limited funds available are devoted to the maintenance of existing facilities and it seems that there is no longer room to extend a very new line. You can see from the following map that the subway line constructed after the Second World War is only a few.


Since the 1990s the number of subway users has finally started to increase, a new construction plan for IND No. 2 street line was announced in 2007. Ten years later in 2017, the IND 2nd street line was opened beyond 70 years, but the expenses of the subway construction has become enormous each year, so even if it is seen worldwide The construction cost of the subway is amazing. Today the financial situation of New York City is improving, but just maintenance of the subway network requires substantial expenses, and it is likely that the construction of new routes will be a further story.