The Secret Subway That Could Save New York
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.พ. 2022
- The Interborough Express would fill a huge gap in the city’s transit needs.
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Really like how much you guys have been touching more on the politics and socioeconomic impacts of infrastructure. Really gives great perspective for how these projects help shape our lives.
I'm continuously impressed by the quality of these videos.
Thank you so much!! Our goal is to get the whole world to realise how impactful this industry is and to take it more seriously. We hope that attracts today's best talent to chose a career in construction. You can literally shape the world here!! More deets - www.theb1m.com/about
I honestly wish B1M would stay away from the subject of “socioeconomic impacts”. When it comes to major projects, there will always be a negative component. I watch this channel to feel hopeful for the future, not to have more “western culture sucks, we should hate it” rhetoric that we get all day, every day, from all angles. Keep that stuff out of our science and engineering channels, please. Science and engineering channels are a respite from a world that makes us feel guilty for daring to exist as a civilization.
The daily ridership of the NYC subway is 5.6 million, so 88,000 isn’t a huge number. And the costs will be stratospheric.
Also, the 2nd Avenue subway is not even close to being finished, which will only be when it reaches downtown, which is decades away.
This is usually a great channel; not so much this time
The channel for whi..ite sa..vages
@@TheB1M don’t over it unless you’re going to truthfully cover the subject. Wokism isn’t going to build anything
It really makes no sense to me that a city with so much money and density as NYC has such a problem funding updating its outdated infrastructure. Basically any halfway sensible project should pay for itself within years.
Liberal cities are a victim of all the self inflicted regulations and environmental laws. Add to the fact the amount of money directed to social welfare programs.
Funding for the MTA is controlled by the state and they love to raid the fund for their pet projects
@@jasonlarsen3515 Yet liberal cities have the best transit systems across the nation compared to that outdated car centric ideology across red states. The idea of having to drive a car to get basic things done such as shopping is absurd
@@Racko. did you read what I wrote?swing and a miss bud.
@@jasonlarsen3515 still better than living with no public transportation
Bronx resident here, and I don't mind it starting in Brooklyn and Queens, but I want it to not just come to the Bronx, but go across it. I live in the Kingsbridge neighborhood, and it takes me about an hour to get to the NY Botanical Gardens by Subway, forty minutes by bus, and just 20 minutes by bike. That is just silly. I can actually walk there in about the same amount of time it takes to take the subway, and if traffic is bad the bus can take way longer. The Bronx has a lot of amazing places, like Orchard Beach and the Bronx Museum of Fine Arts, that I would go to way more often if I didn't have to go through Manhattan to get through.
The original plan was to make the triboro go to Yankee stadium, a major subway exchange, using abandoned freight tunnels. This makes more sense than the new plan to go to coop city. To make a good orbital/circle line, it should go across boroughs, and connect to as many subway lines as possible. The proposed extension to co-op city would make more sense as a new line towards Manhattan like in the Penn access plan, because it only connects to the 6 train, and if you're going north south in the Bronx your destination is most probably midtown
The Bronx also hosts one of the best zoos in the world. The Bronx has a lot of cool stuff despite being Manhattan's mushroom tip.
@@damienpilon9785 This is why people want the MTA to also be extended to Come Op City. It would act as a cross borough for the North part of the Bronx
Going across town in the Bronx is terrible. My wife would take a taxi from Castle Hill to Gun Hill Road to save the hour 1/2 subway ride all the way to Manhattan and back up to the Bronx
The bronx section will never happen. Amtrak will never approve. There is not enough space on the Hell Gate Bridge.
NYC my entire life and I have always thought why we couldn't use the spaces between (that are EVERYWHERE) and repurpose them for public use. Obviously, it comes with a TON of factors and red tape, but it is refreshing to see there are advocates for such projects. I hope it happens!
BULL SHET china while you were watching this just built 50 subways we are doomed this is your future... THREADS
Brooklyn, Queens, and Bronx residents: "We want better train lines outside of the ones that connect to Manhattan."
Staten Island residents: "You guys have train lines that connect to other boroughs?"
Brooklyn, Queens, and Bronx residents: "...OK we want more ferries that connect our boroughs, too!"
BULL SHET china while you were watching this just built 50 subways we are doomed this is your future... THREADS
@@jimmyboy131you have more.....
You could easily connect the IBX to Staten Island. I don't see why not.
I live in South Brooklyn very close to one of these potential train stops and I can tell you outright that this would SIGNIFICANTLY improve so many aspects of life. Having a quick connection between BK and Queens is something we've been missing for a century. Just imagining the ability to get from Sunset Park to somewhere like Bushwick in less than 75 minutes is a dream come true.
Ikr, it'll probably cut the horrendous commute time from lower Brooklyn to flushing in half.
@karlwithak1835you sound like a Manhattanite or somebody from Idaho.
Cao
Cap
@@pannedandcannedLUSH NEW YORK DOWN THE TOILET (FLUSHING)
New York has always had the biggest issues with transportation, it takes at least an 1 hour and 30 minutes, if not more, to get anywhere that is not Manhattan and it's not like living in Manhattan is a choice for everyone.
Unless live in Brooklyn or Queens using the G train which is probably the only Subway line that doesn’t connect to Manhattan where 90% of the subway lines are concentrated. Other than that, The intercity rail will definitely shave off time when you’re not trying to get to Manhattan
Straight facts.
for me its easy because i live in astoria right next to the N/R/W/E so it takes like 10 minutes to get to manhattan
Absolutely agree. All the City boroughs should be connected
I mean there are buses tho
WoW!!!! As a Brooklynite we've been asking for this for years
I live in Queens , NY as millions of other people do. It is a lively, bustling place and certainly much more livable than Manhattan. I love going to Brooklyn. It takes me over an hour to go to Brooklyn even though some parts of Brooklyn is much closer to me than Manhattan. It is incredible to me as a resident here that they did not put even ONE train line that directly connects the outer parts of Queens with the outer parts of Brooklyn. This is a long overdue project I think.
I live in Queens too getting to Brooklyn is hellish .
Well, there is the G train, but we all know that's basically useless.
Lively and bustling for criminals.
It’s pretty obvious why when you see the historical demographics of those places before they were gentrified. More disparities that favor wealthier areas.
The whole subway system was designed as a hub and spoke to bring bedroom communities into Manhattan. I live in queens and work in BK and I take the subway reverse direction to the LIRR to avoid Manhattan during rush hour. The system is what it is - too expensive to fix nowadays. Fuggedabout it - either deal or flee. Sorry.
This almost makes too much sense. Another great video, guys!
Cheddar watches B1M videos, that's something new
My two favorite New york infrastructure channels in the same place amazing
My favorite channels, I love it!
Shut up, cheese
Silence, checkmark.
Lived in NYC now in Tokyo...It baffles me how archaic NYC subway looks and functions
NYC is a shithole
Haven't you understood that the Tokyo system is a helluva lot NEWER?!
Tokyo subway is only 20 years newer
Literally praying that New York gets this, I'm not living there, but I hope you guys get blessed with it.
When I lived in Brownsville and worked in queens, it would often take an hour and a half to get to work. Sometimes two hours. I ended up just getting a bike and riding to work, where it would only take 30-45 minutes. The system between Brooklyn and queens is disgustingly bad
@Karl with a K Moving isn't easy in NYC. Not sure where you are from, or if you know how renting in NYC vastly differs from virtually every other city in the U.S. If you're not lucky enough to find one of the rare no broker fee apartments; you're stuck with dealing with brokers who want nothing more than money. The broker fee is between 8% and 15% of the annual rent; but some brokers will automatically charge 15%. Going to buildings and asking will usually yield the answer "we don't rent directly, you have to search online or go to a broker"...and that's if you get an answer at all.
So if you finally find a unit and it's $1,800.00 a month for a 1bd/studio (Average rent in Brooklyn is $3,348...but there a few pre-war gems if you're patient), you have to pay the following:
application fee - usually about $75
Deposit - one month : $1,800
1st month: $1,800
Broker fee: $3,240
So just to get the place you have to shell out $6, 840; that's not including actually moving your things. You have to deal with the Broker telling you to apply, then hitting you with the BS line "that apartment was just taken. Because they held your application and gave the apt to someone who makes more than you (many shady brokers will do this just to collect the application fee). Even worse is that the city proposed a law banning broker fee's because many of the brokers have exclusive contracts with certain buildings; which means the building should be paying the broker. They've been passing this onto renters for years, while still increasing rental prices. So when that bill passed, it was only a few weeks before a real estate lobbyist successfully sued to have it rolled back. Moving to Jersey isn't always better either. So unless you can get a job elsewhere that'll cover you move, and actually have the capability to move; it's a long road.
You have some real courage to bike to work twice a day during rush hours on roads owned by SUVs.
You know what you're talking about. I grew up in Southeast Jamaica off the conduit and as kids we would ride our bikes easily to East NY Brooklyn in 25-30 minutes going slow! My family in BK wouldn't believe me because they only knew the train to dollar van/bus routes
Everyone living in the outer boroughs has wondered at one point why its so hard to get from one to the other without going through Manhattan... this should have been done from the beginning but better late than never. I really hope this happens.
When anyone in the world thinks of New York, they think of Manhatten Island.
Not so much the outer boroughs. A circular subway route around/under the outer boroughs would make sense. A deep tunnel under the Narrows from Brooklyn to Staten Island? Big bucks there! And B1M, what about the proposed twin tube rail tunnel I heard about? From Long Island to New Jersey under the NY harbor?
What is up with that? Another good topic for B1M to cover.
Without L and G trains we’d probably be in an even worse state. We solute you, kind trains for trying to help :)
Anyone using the term outer boroughs isn't from here. Go back to where you came from.
What about Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, Miami etc
@@DarrylBass What are you talking about?! Even the local news in NYC uses the term outer boroughs when talking about traffic.
I hope a public transport renaissance will come about in the US but we're a long way off from that. There's literally right now no big projects in the US cities centered around metro or regional trains, it's dispiriting...
It's sad because the rest of the World is getting ready to go through one with China's Belt and Road initiative.
@@joshuahd1719 In reaction to that, the US will maybe reconsider its car-centric worldview of urbanism. At least I hope.
i mean LA got 2028, but that isn't enough
East Side Access? Gateway? Second Avenue Subway?
There’s some projects going on, like South Coast Rail in Boston or the FrontRunner extension in Utah. Unfortunately there’s no real long term plans to convert either of those to true regional rail from commuter rail
I used to live in Suffolk county and went to college in the Bronx. It was a 38 mile drive over the Throggs Neck bridge to get there. The public transportation alternative to get there was a nightmare. You had to take the LIRR to Queens. Then you either had to get on the E train to Manhattan and switch to the 6 train or switch trains to get to Woodside and switch to the 7 train to get to Flushing, then get on the QBx1 bus over the Whitestone bridge. Lastly, you had to get on the Bx40 bus to get to campus. Then several years later I went back to work at the same campus and was living in Connecticut. It was a 44 mile drive to get there. The public transportation alternative was a nightmare. You had to take the Metro North through the Bronx to get to Harlem, switch to the 6 train to go back to the Bronx and then get on the Bx40 to get to campus.
my school is on the other side of the bronx but i have to take the 4 train all the way to harlem 125th st then take the 6 train to parkchester then the bx36
Boa I’m getting dizzy reading this shit. Thank god. The CTA is wayyyy simpler than this.
And it's for reasons like this I bought a motorcycle when I lived there. Sunnyside to Morningside Heights was 1:10 via the 7 & 1or 9 (this is going back some years 😆) during rush hour and potentially much longer at night. On my motorcycle, it took 20 mins. each way.
@@diplomatson107 I can only agree, having moved to Chicago after living many years in nyc.
Problem is that nyc never wanted to build anything always, money problem I travel before many places is not easy without car bus system just pass from front Queens to the end Queens take 2 hrs long ride The only way Jamaica or Flushing Next Queens to Bronx nightmare to go out special dangerous More crime shooting New York city don't look like 90 years a go Immigrants from south America bring culture that not fit to new york style Long time was much better than today more residents about 9 million end 2023 problem is that sending immigrants from Texas Too much NYC 5 Boroughs doesn't need people anymore Most expensive City biggest tax place in United States of America NYC property taxes the largest in US noting getting cheap prices go up everything change Hard working people don't not get anything a y more money waste from taxes and fees in NYC bye
I’ve learned this need is prevalent in a lot of other cities. Many city’s public transit systems, particularly in the United States, move people between suburbs and downtowns, however, a lot of people tend to commute between suburbs, not just to downtowns. Seeing politicians and urban planners address this would be really nice.
Edit: typo.
Abolish all suburbs ez
Paris currently is with the Grand Paris Express
2:10 Munich has the same issue. All S-Bahn-Lines go thru one single tunnel. If something fails in there, everything stands still.
If you wanna go anywhere, you almost always have to go to the city center...
Yeah but there are some kick ass bars in Munich centre.
That's why they currently built a second central tunnel through the city.
You have a line going around the city centre but its only used during constructions on the main line, freight transport and regional and long distance trains :).
Because DB knows heavily concentrated areas go through the central anyways
Aren’t there regional rail ring lines there?
As a Brooklyn resident with family in Queens, having the Interborough Express will be much appreciated. I'm glad that we have some of the infrastructure (pre-existing tracks) built already. Hopefully, that would make the project much more feasible to build over the next 5 years.
Same here
They need more than just one line. Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx are huge compared to Manhattan.
I was in new york last week, for the first time and i can confirm it's a beautiful city. I was amazed how many people from around the world visit that city. But they need to work on the cleanliness of the city, as well the homeless situation. In 4 days, we visited every single town by riding the subway!
I use to live in Brooklyn and go to high school in queens, and I had to change 3 trains L, G and the 7 train to get there. Took me more than an hr everyday one way, commuting 2+ hrs everyday. This will make a lot of peoples life easier. God Speed.
0:51 The freight railway isn't abandoned. A couple of freight trains per day still use it, and MTA, Port Authority, and some electeds have repeatedly brought up building a tunnel across the Hudson so many more freight trains can come through and replace trucks.
I appreciate that the proposal as is is to quad-track everything, for that reason.
Here’s one idea. If they did eventually build a Cross Narrows Rail Tunnel perhaps the Interborough Line and the Staten Island Railway merge and maybe even build a spur to Bayonne NJ. You could then get Port Authority funding and could even rebrand the project as part of the PATH network.
Would it necessarily mean the end of freight?. You will have seen here the comments about Londons Overground network which adopted a similar approach of repurposing freight lines for passengers to improve cross city passenger movement. These converted lines in London still run a few freight trains a day, mainly containers, intermodal, bulk oil or bulk building materials. I even rode around the North London Overground line on a through city steam charter four years ago, the look on some of the 9am commuters faces was a sight to behold !!
@@Pesmog The problem in New York is we don't really have a freight rail network. We are disconnected from the rest of the country's network. Thus, most of our freight comes by truck. If we want to change that, we need to make room for many freight trains. Not just a handful a day that you can count with your fingers.
@@samuelitooooo it’s true NYC doesn’t move much of its freight by rail. But this could jump start that transition. “If You build it they will come”. Also if you make it economical to have shipping companies use the rail corridor to move their products knowing that there’s an alternative route to get to Long Island and all points north of the Northeast Corridor you’ll see money.
Most importantly you get trucks off the road. And smooth pothole free roads and New York City are not synonymous. lol
5:42
I’ve been playing the hell out of a game called NIMBY Rails that allows you to build rail lines using real life maps and the Interbourough line has by far the highest ridership out of my NYC subway creation so this is badly needed
what platform?
@@aaravworah2971 Looks like Windows only, through Steam.
You can't compare a game to real life...
@@danielchou5895 You can, you should just also contrast
@@danielchou5895 It's more of a transit-design simulator. Far from perfect, but also still useful comparison
It makes sense to build the Interborough Express. Much of the MTA right of way already exists. Maybe a few improvements would have to be made. The signaling systems and the electrification brought up to date. Thank You for this video, it was very well done !
The picture at 1:33: A thriving metropolis
The picture it's from: *Detroit Publishing Co*
Not a surprise Detroit is jealous of the prosperity NYC has compared to them
Detroit being a car city, shunned any rail transport. They suffered. Same with Birmingham in England.
5:27-5:41 is where I was born & raised. Brownsville, Brooklyn to the left (Mike Tyson also grew up there). The elevated train tracks is the L subway line, and I always wondered why they never use the freight tracks (Bay Ridge Branch) next to the L Train in the ditch as a commuter service line at the least. It was just sitting there for decades not really being used.
I wish they had gone into the existing stations on the L, the G, the J/M/Z .. the 7? that it might connect to, saving so many people a three seat ride!
I live in Brownsville too. 100+ steps to get to the L line. My mom told me when I was younger. A gang threw a boy over the bridge onto the tracks. I think in the seventies. They then made the fence higher to stop that
Fr I feel like a station there would be nice since it would be an easy transfer to either the L or the 3/4 trains
The most sensible thing is to repurpose existing lines for transit. Its too valuable to be sold off for private development or sold off for "air rights", whatever those are.
Yeah as someone who has lived near the flatbush part of the track i always wondered what it was for
Using abandoned railroad lines would be a great idea. Making the Interborough Express would be very economical and can be done within a shorter amount of time. I like the addition of another transportation network that is not in Manhattan, and I hope it will be either a heavy or a light railroad. Build it at full speed ahead!
This was something I noticed on my first visit. It’s extremely needed
New York City needs more mass transit. I hope this actually get done in my lifetime, but we are dealing with New York here. I am 39 years old, think there's a chance?
Is blood thicker than water?
Nope…..
It's so puzzling why construction companies in the US can't be as fast as those in Asia, where they can churn out entire rail lines in just five years.
The US has a shit ton of money, I am sure it can pull it off. But somehow, they don't.
It'll be ready by the time you get pensioners rebate on the ticket price...
@@ianhomerpura8937 maybe politicals need's to understand that states interest must be over privated interest and them thing can move faster.
I must say that the new clipped picture did make me click on the video while the old one did not… interesting actually because the content of the video is very good and it goes to show how important that image is in attracting viewers.
2:15 actually, Moscow just completed its third concentric ring. It was one of the best subway systems in the world. Trains arrive every 2 minutes. The stations are architectural masterpieces of art deco design.
Moscow circles are not really concentric, two outer ones intersect but the most central ring indeed doesn’t intersect with other rings. Amazing part is that one of the outer rings was a freight line converted to a ground line and it took just several years to do so.
America builds rings too, Houston has 3 "interstate" beltways.
(Now if only we could figure out how to build transit loops, or just proper transit at all)
@@jasonreed7522 only one of them is an interstate (610 which is the innermost ring). the second and third rings are state highways (the outermost of which, state highway 99, isn't even finished yet)
@@jasonreed7522yeah, it literally beat it’s own record for the longest beltway.
At the beginning it was mentioned about ways to get from Bushwick to Midwood and forgot to mention the bases as there is one direct bus route that takes you from a section of Bushwick to Midwood, the B7 bus and there are other bus connections as well as the J/Z trains that connect to the B7, plus the L train connects to the B6 and B82 busses in Canarsie that take you to different parts of Midwood
Finally, it's Wednesday!!
"It is Wednesday my dudes"
YOU KNOW IT
@@XDarkGreyX "It is Wednesday my dudes"
(*Belated* “Twosday” greetings to everyone, BTW…)
@@TheB1M 😳
Only in the US...
"We have a former rail right-of-way with existing tracks that we can use as a new subway line."
"I think this would be great for BRT!"
Well OF COURSE that is gonna happen. It's America after all. If it ain't got pneumatic tires an ICU and runs on steel tracks rather then tarmac it ain't welcome in the good 'ol US of A.
US Transit be like:
-Plan for metro system to reduce traffic proposed
-Rejected for being too expensive, replaced with light rail plan
-Light rail plan rejected in a vote by NIMBYs for 'disruption'
-Light rail replaced with Bus Rapid Transit, gets approved with a budget of $100 million
-Ends up exceeding the budget ten times, costing $1B+
-Scale of project reduced
-Length of route shortened, frequency reduced, literally just ends up being a normal bus service with less stops
-Nobody uses it and closes down after a few years
-Project funds re-invested into widening local highway by 4 lanes
@reubenmatthews5615And due to rebound congestion on the stuperhighway, the same old circular "thinking" is endlessly repeated.
In Moscow today we have THREE metro rings - one (old and small) underground and a bigger one on the surface. The third one, the biggest, is half-finished and is planned to open this year.
I went to school along the LIRR Bay Ridge branch. It's underused, but not abandoned. This is not the first time I've heard of ideas about expanding the use of the trench that crosses Brooklyn. Robert Moses wanted to put an expressway through it, and something similar to the Interborough Express was raised a few years ago. It could be very useful, but there are houses and communities that can fairly raise a NIMBY complaint, and these have to be taken into account.
It's called "Environmental Justice" and even if the communities were to benefit from the project, there are plenty of rabid attorneys willing to shake down the taxpayers for "compensation". The politicians don't care and will promote the fleecing as long as they get to get a photo op, ribbon cutting and donations from their lobbyists.
Moscow’s high capacity public transit system includes not 1 but 3 circle lines:
1. “Circle line” as depicted in the video, underground
2. “Moscow central circle” - above-ground, repurposed freight right of way, in operation
3. “Big circle line” - underground, construction finishes in 2022
And the second circle is an old repurposed freight rail line.
america does it for highways just not trains
@@Fidel_cashfloSTUPID, huh?!
It makes sense to have a "beltway" type of train line to allow connections between the spokes of the hub-and-spoke system, which NYC has. I'm surprised they haven't started one already.
What about the NYC Subway's G train?
@@lzh4950 the only subway line that doesn't go thru Manhattan
More than we can keep track of? I’ve got most of it memorized. I really hope this is built in my life time. I live in Flatbush and work in Bay Ridge. It takes at least an hour to go to work and I have to head towards Manhattan with all the city bound commuters. It’s extra difficult as a person with disabilities, which the MTA typically overlook. The whole city needs improvement on many stations, especially in Brooklyn. And we need those protective gates that cities like Paris have so people don’t get pushed or fall on the tracks. We definitely need this new line, plus so much more.
Rio de Janeiro has a similar problem, but worst yet, the city has virtually no metro system (there's only 2 very limited, slow and ticket expensive lines), while having a vast network of urban train tracks, that should serve as a “surface metro”, like the London overground, but not only is the system too slow for that, as there's not a single point of connection without having to go the the Central of Brazil station (so, for example, transit between 2 points in the north zone between 2 lines would take (at least) TWO hours.
i honestly love refreshing my subscriptions and seeing a new video of yours on any account u have and ugh i just love learning about the world through your vids
As a person who lives in Stockholm, yeah we need a line like this. We have a tram called ”tvärbanan” literally “the crossing line, but it is super slow and only goes on one side of the metro system
In Washington DC we are building something exactly like that. The Purple Line light rail will connect the outer metro lines in Maryland. But the project has had many issues with funding and construction and it will be a few years before it is opened
I like tvärbanan and I think the section between Gullmars and Alvik is quite fast. But yeah it would have been amazing if it was a full-on metro line and complete circle instead of light rail.
The Fridhemsplan-Älvsjö metro plan could solve this, its potential could be so much bigger though if the line to Karolinska and Arenastaden would be connected to it
As someone who just visited for an extended weekend. I was in Brooklyn going to Queens for a Mets game. Similar to their initial example. One hour and 30 mins on the subway. You start by having to go in the opposite direction for a third of the trip. I stared at the subway map and noticed the MASSIVE gap in lines between the two locations. It's crazy that earlier in the week I was able to go from Brooklyn to Newark, NJ in the same time frame for a hockey game. Yet for a mets game, it took just as long for a quarter of the distance.
They try making up the lack of subway lines there with bus routes, but it takes just as long seeing as they are using surface streets, even tho they have access to "bus only" bus lanes.
I use the LIRR for Queens-Brooklyn commuting combined with subway.
That's a great addition, Moscow recently opened a second ring line and it's amazing to move people across vast suburbs
Infrastructure projects and the challenges surrounding them are absolutely my jam. Loved this video and how it touched on some of the key issues.
as a Melbournian, this is incredibly relatable. and what a coincidence, we have our own plans for a outer line that connects the suburbs.
Brooklyn native and resident here. I’ve been dreaming of a line that runs this route. From southwest Brooklyn, through the middle and into queens. Always wondered why it didn’t exist
a good, SAFE, PROTECTED bike roadway network ought to be seriously considered to be implemented citywide and beyond. not only would that infrastructure be relatively cheap to build, but the maintenance costs would be a small % of what traditional autos and rail infrastructure costs.
bikes are light and don't destroy their lanes at all. and if we have safe and protected bike lane network, millions of people could get around cheap and easy and with mental and physical health benefits which are hard to quantify.
Not to mention financially solvent.
We have had the same situation in Perth (Australia), you have to catch a train into the city to head back out again. Worse so in my opinion the bus routes do the same, even living in the inner city. They are finally building a ring train line albeit slowly. It’s called metronet, I’d love to see you guys cover it.
Anyway great work, always look forward to a b1m upload!
Could you do a video explaing what Vienna and Zurich are doing differntly in terms of public transport?
They time and again are finding themselfes on the top spots of public transit rankings...
Great video as usual! =)
Both are mostly decentralized, dense, high frequency networks of bus, tram, subway, "light rail" with lots of interconnections between all modes.
@@0ptera Yesyes I know them both very well and have used them. Still it would be interesting to get the experts take on what makes them so uniquely good... can't be as easy as "big network and affordability"
@@markusz4447 I mean big network and affordability is pretty much it. Both are also operated pretty much as a public service.
Though I wouldn't say they are unique in their excellence they are both very very good.
Chicago has a very similar problem. All the trains do a great job of getting you to downtown, but going between neighborhoods is a lot harder
What's hilarious to me is that even though this solves so many problems including there finally being a subway line near Maspeth, Maspeth itself is still basically a subway desert lmao.
This video is excellent. Also, thank you so much for mentioning the status of the Bronx in this too.
Bring the 8 3rd Avenue Elevated south Bronx subway line back where it was between Gun hill road Clearmount Avenue Webster Ave Bronx and 125 street connecting to the 4 5 6 Q T lines and the Metro North railroad trains. Bring the 10 trains between Hunts point and throggs Neck Avenue Throggs Neck village Ave roshavill Avenue Bronx. Focus on the interborough Express light rail between Brooklyn and Queens. You know that Brooklyn and Queens does not have no extra subway or buses over there. Another thing that definitely needs to happen again is the Third Ave Elevated line south Bronx Clearmount Avenue Webster Ave Bronx. The south Bronx is definitely suffering without the Third Ave Elevated line if people like it or not.
Yes! I am so glad you decided to cover this.
I really hope this goes through. It would be so helpful and make transit so easy.
“It would break New York’s pattern of subway lines radiating out from Manhattan.”
G Line “Am I a joke to you?”
LOL Also ignores all the avenues/arteries that with major bus routes connect the 'spokes' in our hub-and-spoke system. There is a method to the madness.
Yes the G Line IS a joke to me. My Queens-Brooklyn commute with the G line would save zero time compared to going through manhattan on the F or E line and crossing the East River twice. They also shortened the G line to terminate in LIC, which used to go all the way to Continental Avenue.
@@spindriftdrinker the G just sucks, its like the slowest train in the city
Its trains are only half the length of any other train in the system, a measly 5 cars versus 8 or 10 (depending on car model) for every other train line in the system. Yes, it's a bit of a joke. But anyway, he guarded himself by saying "mostly", because there are also the three shuttles.
G line has always been a joke. However with the explosion in the Greenpoint area in the last decade people are demanding better
A ring subway/rail in DC would be great too. in fact most US cities with rail/subway would do good with some sort of ring route.
Look up the purple line in DC ! It gives us hope also kind of the LA Crenshaw line is not a ring but at least connecting neighborhoods and not downtown.
there's something like that being approved, it's called the purple line
The city that needs an orbital line most out of any in the US is Chicago. At least New York and DC have some transit lines that don't just go from suburbs to downtown. Chicago desperately needs a ring line.
This perfectly illustrates the sad lack of anything resembling urban planning in the US.
It is interesting to see how other large cities solve this problem, from Moscow's ring line to Paris new tram network running mostly just outside of Boulevard périphérique connecting many "city gates", and the planned (and partially already under construction) Grand Paris Express.
You have to understand theses subway lines were privately owned and managed before the MTA took over. The IND line stands for independent and they were not kidding.
@@stevenkopsick4874 I know that. London tube lines were also owned and built by the variety of private companies, but still have sightly more rational network.Paris had notoriously "radial" network, but are fixing that.
I could have renovated the whole system with what they wanted to charge me at the food carts lmao
NYC didn’t pop up fully formed. The current configuration is due to centuries of organic growth that couldn’t be predicted much outside of the grid street system unique to Manhattan. The outer boroughs aren’t too far removed from being farmland.
@@woodcider Neither did other cities.
I live about 200 yards from this freight line in Elmhurst, Queens, and for years have been talking about and hoping for this to happen. I was very excited to hear about real movement!
One correction, you said that the freight train line is abandoned, and I know some parts in Brooklyn certainly are (I think I remember seeing on google earth there are parking lots on it) but here in Queens it very much isn't, see freight trains moving on it semi-regularly.
This was an amazing and very informative video. Thank you.
Lived in Ridgewood. Worked in Coney Island. Took 3 hours finding a parking spot after an hour to 2 hour drive. Lol. This subway would of been amazing.
If they extended/restoted the G to its former route going into Queens and created a connection to Atlantic Avenue many of these problems would be addressed quicker and more cost-effective. I am not against the interbourough express, i do hope it happens but it'll be a while before then.
The G wouldn't speed up the commute between outer sections of Queens and Brooklyn. The G is slow and in order to reach it, you have to travel to Downtown Brooklyn. So the G isn't a good option. It's primary function is to get people from areas like Greenpoint or Fort Greene to transfer points to Manhattan bound trains
@@jakubhanak41 of course not, that's why I said many of the problems, I live closer to the outer edges of Brooklyn and know well how bad it is to travel from let's say Bay Ridge to Brooklyn College.
What I am referring to though is effectively connecting Brooklyn to Queens by pushing the G into Queens the way it used to run. Plus the newer G trains have improved reliability and I'd argue shorten commute times.
@@TwoNote the issue with the G extension is the track capacity on Queens Blvd line. The local tracks are used by the R and M trains and during rush hours, they are at or near capacity. So the G would be able to run to Forest Hills only during evenings and weekends. Is that worth it?
G train is my jam to travel from Queens to Brooklyn but I almost always have to transfer out of station. It's wild how many lines it crosses without connection.
The G train can see an expansion into outer Queens almost how the F train does into Jamaica Ave
I love all the videos you have on subways/trains/high speed rail and anything a like. After touring some of europes larger cities like Berlin and Stockholm, I'm sort of addicted by them and I fell in love with transit infrastructure like that.
As a life long NYC resident, the hope of this ever happening is laughable, a 3 to 5 year construction time frame is downright brain meltingly hilarious.
Been saying for years, NYC and Chicago could use this. This project in NYC and Chicago as a semi ring to hits the more outer neighborhoods. It would take both the first and 2nd city transit systems to new heights.
Chicago is not going to do anything like that...
Cta is the 3 largest system
@@hoodboyzAtl they should though.
I remember as a kid having to visit my father in Queens on the weekends. It took me and my sister almost 3 hours to get from Wakefield in the north of the Bronx to Jamaica, Queens, where our father lived. We had to take the bus and a couple of subway lines. It was horrible! I wish someone had come up with this idea back then.
Not investing, until now, was the point in making your life harder. What's changed since then that now that decided to invest in the community.
@@deweylazy7853 what was he supposed to do as a child?
I’m about to move to a place in Queens, and I’m applying for a job in Brooklyn. I was literally just wondering how best to get from one place to another if I get this job, since I’d have to take the M into Manhattan and the B/D back. Wild that TH-cam happened to recommend this video, and exciting to hear there might be a solution in the works!
I take the LIRR but it obviously costs a lot more.
Berlin has a line that goes in a loop around the city. You use it to connect to multiple lines at different points. It cuts down on time and congestion too.
Does anyone know if this idea was thought up by the english dude who used to run the London underground and then moved to NYC Subway? I think he ended up leaving because the mayor wouldnt fund anything, but it would be cool if this was his idea.
It wasn't his idea.
The City doesn't fund any part of the MTA. Its the State and Fed who do that.
He left because ex-gov Cuomo, along with mta unions afraid of getting useless jobs cut. They were keeping him OUT of important meetings (extremely unprofessional) so nobody can blame him for leaving.
This proposal wasn’t a creation of Andy Byford. It was first proposed by the Regional Planning Association (a NYC area non-profit urban planning organization) back in the 1990s.
@@cityseby The useless jobs are not the union jobs
It baffles me how large cities still operate a centralised train system.
There is already the G line, from Brooklyn to Queens
@@DonGivani and it sucks
@@DonGivani it didn't extend to the eastern part of brooklyn and queens enough
@@danendrahartawan9268 you're right, they should make the G line more worthwhile by intensifying useful extensions to North Queens, but this new interborough is also a good start
At least in the case of NYC, the reason is cost. The 2nd ave subway cost about $2.5 billion per mile meaning any significant expansion to the system could easily cost well into 11 digits. That being said if you'd like to drool over what could have been, google "IND second system."
Born and bred New Yorker here. The part that is unsaid and little understood is that the NYC subway system was built by private companies trying to make money. Was successful for half a century and got a superb transportation system built.
Anything the government builds will cost 1000x more per mile and be 1/10th as effective.
Here's a radical idea: as a native New Yorker who follows the new trends and innovations in public transportation, how about a light metro, a la the new REM, which has just opened revenue service in Montreal? The new Interborough Express, if done right, would have to run between all four outer boroughs - Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. The Interborough Express could take many years to build, but the time and money needed for this project would be worth it.
B1M is really Good !!
Video quality has always and will always be impeccable. So much love and respect for this Channel.
Greetings from NewYork :)
New York only needs to see how the London Overground network expansions have joined up in non central areas of London. There is no need to use the Underground or go into busy central stations in East London, for example. Using many existing viaducts and old disused lines.
This goes for DLR too in many places
I started using the North London line back in 2006 to commute to Gunnersbury from Camden Road. The improvements that I saw when it transferred over to TFL and the creation of London Overground have been amazing and in my opinion money well spent.
I was immediately thinking of the London Overground during this. It's basically what London did -- upgraded a bunch of underused rail lines to move people around the city more effectively.
(I'm American and never been anywhere near the UK, but I've followed Geoff Marshall's and Jago Hazzard's TH-cam channels for years.)
@@AaronOfMpls Jago is one of my favourite TH-cam channels. You are a man of good taste.
And London is still planning to repurpose freight lines to take passengers. Converting the Duddinghill freight line to feed the massive new Old Oak Common station and incorporating it into the west London orbital line project is a no brainer.
@@Pesmog I saw a proposal a few years ago of creating a line using the Hounslow Loop, North London Line and Dudding Hill line. As all the connections are in place.
From experience getting from West London to Wembley or Brent Cross is a nightmare using public transport. And while driving is currently the best option it still involves using the North Circular with that horrible bottleneck at Hanger Lane.
I lived in Sunnyside which borders Greenpoint Brooklyn, and Williamsburg Brooklyn for several years. I called Greenpoint & Williamsburg "Brooklyn lite" because they're so isolated from the rest of Brooklyn. The G train could help, but the service at the time would get a C- grade at best (during the week, during the day, during a full moon, etc.). Buses were an option, but does it go where you need it to? So maybe this would be a good idea. I'll check back in 2050 👍🏼
why not expand upon the G line which bypasses Manhattan?
I hope this pushes through. It takes a really long time from Woodside to the Coney Island area.
It really boggles my mind that a megacity like New York doesn't have something as basic as a circular public transit line.
London has the Circle line, Paris is constructing the Grand Paris Express and Berlin has the Ringbahn.
1. It is not a megacity. Go one hour outside Manhattan and you come face to face with bucktoothed Pineys and artificially tanned Strong Islanders. NYC is actually quite compact compared to other cities.
2. Geography and interstate borders. Ocean front cities have a tough time getting a semi-circle line in place to begin with, but for NYC it is even tougher because they have the weird uncle living next door in the form of NJ. To this date there are only two transit passages between the two because of interstate politics.
3. Funding. If NY and surrounding states were separated from the rest of the USA, this problem would not exist. Unfortunately, being linked at the hip to states who do not like you and who have a say in how much money you get is a very serious problem. A congressman from somewhere out in the middle of buttfuck can screw over a city of 8 million people and get away with it because “it’s everyone’s money.”
@@Brianz99 The MTA is almost as old as the tube and Paris metro though, and London, Paris and Berlin were all flattened and laid to waste during WW2, so the age difference between them and NYC shouldn't matter as much since most of the architecture these cities have today were rebuilt post 1945. I understand where you're coming from though.
@@Brianz99 What does that even mean? I see you inverted nipples come out with that nonsense all the time but you never actually explain how the age of a country relates to the subject that is being discussed.
"You ever notice how cars used to be bigger in America?"
"We're a much younger country."
"Isn't it weird how almost every American house has a basement?"
"Well we're a much younger country."
"Why do Americans weigh around 100lbs more than Europeans?"
"It's because we're a much younger country."
even delhi has one
although its not very used by indian standards
@@starventure New York has a population of about 20 million people and is considered a megacity by every conceivable standard. It isn't often called "capital of the world" for no reason.
And if you think having New Jersey as a neighbor is bad, then consider Berlin during the Cold War. The city was separated by a literal death strip for decades. It had soldiers in tanks aiming at each other, about to start WW3.
And regarding coastal cities and semi-circles: you're imagining ocean front cities as sitting on a straight coastal line and since there's no need to build a subway underwater, you're going to end up with only half a circle. But in reality, many coastal cities are located a bit inland for better protection. This includes New York, which is protected by Long Island and that is where Brooklyn and Queens are located, meaning the Interborough Express covered by this very video is on the seaward side of Manhattan. And you could easily extend it in the South to connect Brooklyn with Staten Island and in the North to connect Queens with the Bronx. The entire missing half would be located in New Jersey, towards the continent. That does put it in another federal state, but as I pointed out above, those border issues pale in comparison to having something like the Iron Curtain going through your city. Do you think America is the only country with internal borders?
Thanks for sharing, as always high quality content.
My cousin and I used to go urban spelunking along this rail corridor, even making a few trips to the roof of the Hell Gate bridge and to the tunnel under East New York. I can tell you this much from personal experience: the ROW is plenty wide and tall enough for any trainset the MTA might envision; there's no need to go to street level at any point, as the current busway or light rail alternatives propose. The current freight service is a joke, and is mostly a shunter service operating out of Oak Point Yard in the Bronx; there's no need to preserve freight access, it's a branch, not a main corridor. This should give the MTA more leeway in choosing a technology. I would advise that this corridor should be served by a fully automated, high speed, high frequency, lightweight metro such as they're currently building in Quebec and Sydney. Anything less would be at capacity on day 1, with no room for future growth.
The freight must stay. The commodities that the railroad hauls such as lumber and gravel for Long Island and trainloads of trash out would not do well by truck.
@@alwhalen3488 Why not run the freight service at night when the commuter trains aren't needed and the lines are underutilised.
My dad was born in the 1920s in Brooklyn and milkman other things were still being delivered by horse. He remembered well into childhood in the 1930s horses in the city.
This would be revolutionary.
I wish there were a highspeed loop around the city. Even just connecting all 3 airports would eliminate so much cross traffic.
Wouldn’t be something to just build a second AirTrain line connecting JFK and LGA. It would mean rebuilding the Jamaica Station terminus and would actually act as the Super Express the City envisioned building back in the 1960’s to take pressure off Queens Blvd services.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video and I'm a new sub. 👍🏾👍🏾
Chicago really hurts too. If you live in one cardinal direction and want to go to a perpendicular cardinal direction (say live on the South and work in the West), you have to go downtown first then take a line out west and then usually a bus in between. There are express lines that run from deep south and north to downtown with minimal stops, that saves a few minutes at best.
There should be a diagonal line that runs southwest to northeast, crossing the pink line, green line, the blue line twice (!), the brown line, and the red line. I don't drive much, but a road going this route would also be helpful, keeping some traffic out of downtown.
London adds a new metro line every few years. It's really frustrating to watch how incompetent America let itself become.
Yes! A sinking ship the USA is.
LA and Seattle have some significant expansion plans for their respective metros in the coming years. LA should be opening 2 projects this year.
For incompetence see Unfinished London And say hello to Johnson and his Jimmy Savile haircut th-cam.com/play/PLfxy4_sBQdxwf909hUFsM59Y0RC_k9fvV.html
It's a nation that focuses only on war and has a cheems level mindset.
^Oh cool, one of the biggest cities in America is getting an upgrade? What about everyone between the coasts?
I'm a civil engineer that works on transit routes, specifically a lot of trains that are colocating with existing freight. I have major concerns about this. I'm glad they said that MTA already owns the ROW but there are a lot of potential for issues reaching an agreement with the freight railroad. A $2 billion light rail project I worked on flat out got canceled and then realigned due to disagreement with a freight railroad, and another $3 billion light rail had to add a 3 ft wide corridor protection barrier between freight and LRT. This sounds like a super needed connection so I really really hope it gets built. The MTA needs to make sure agreements are in place with the freight railroads before engineering starts. End of rant lol
Wow! Deets please! Was this in the NYC area?
@@michaelrmurphy2734 These projects are in the Twin Cities, MN area. There's a lot of other political drama related to these projects but there are plenty of articles specifically about ROW negotiations with BNSF. Sad because these projects are so wanted and needed but it has definitely put a damper on LRT in Minnesota.
What sections of MTA's ROW are in disagreement with the freight railroad that there needs to be a realignment?
Don't worry, this'll never happen, certainly won't get far enough for freight rail conflicts to matter. The only reason it came up for consideration was due to more gentrification in the adjacent neighborhoods, and the recent L train shutdown (which was averted, with impact reduced). When you factor in the severely reduced commuter load/revenues, and the likelihood that the Federal infrastructure money will dry up, I think this is a non-starter.
Even the Penn Station / East Side Access project has been ages in the making (I remember discussing it 20yrs ago when I worked for Metro-North). And they technically haven't broken ground in the Bronx for that yet.
Agree. This has already happened to the MTA on the East Side Access project in Sunnyside Yards. Amtrak played hardball and dictated where and where not work could be performed, after supposedly having an "agreement" with Long Island Railroad. Same problems in Grand Central Terminal with Metro North and NYCT when you are up against their property. Even though MN and NYCT came under the same MTA umbrella, they were relentless in maintaining their fiefdoms and cost the project dozens of millions in added costs. So yes, not as easy as it seems in this video.
This project has a lot going for it. For the most part, no tunneling needed and no displacing large numbers of residents (which would incur major expenses to re-settle people). Thus, two of the costliest aspects of providing new transportation routes would be eliminated. It would also help relieve pressure on the crumbling section of the BQE. Brooklyn & Queens are experiencing strong growth and are expecting continued growth, so the IE would fill a growing need.
Thanks! Good Video.
I live in East Bushwick and my parents live in Forest Hills. It's a 25 minute bike ride and an hour or more subway ride. It would be so awesome to hop on the Interborough Express and transfer at Roosevelt instead of having to go all the way into Manhattan or taking 3 trains.
love the channel. you should look into the Singapore MRT expansion plans if you have time. They planned, built, and executed one of the most impressive mass transit systems in the world.
Singapore’s MRT is impressive. I hope to see it one day. It gets so many things right. Full automation. Full step free access. All stations have platform screen gates/doors. All underground stations are air conditioned and double as air raid bunkers. The system is fairy clean and there are STEEP penalties for vandalism. NONE OF THAT EXISIT IN NEW YORK CITY! Granted their system is about 30 plus years old compared to the nearly 120 year old New York Subway (or at least the oldest segments of the system). And unlike the USA, Singapore can get things done faster because of their system of government (you can thank Lee Kuan Yew for that). A project like the IBX would have been built far sooner over there because of less red tape.
2:00 That line you drew from South Ferry to Staten Island isn't a subway line, in fact it never was, as the name South Ferry suggests it's for the Staten Island Ferry. And there is no line connecting Brooklyn to Staten Island either. A tunnel's construction began in 1923 but was cancelled two years later. You also included SIR's North Shore Branch which has yet to be restored, and made the 2/5 a little longer in Brooklyn than they actually are. And you say no line connects the outer boroughs but the G connects Brooklyn and Queens only, plus it doesn't radiate out of Manhattan!
Also, you don't need to go through Manhattan on the subway to go from Bushwick (East Bushwick isn't a thing, it's just Bushwick) to Midwood. If you take the J from let's say Chauncey Street, you can get off at Lorimer Street and it's a very short walk to the G at Broadway. Then take the G from Broadway to any of its F connecting stations to go to Avenue I or Bay Parkway which are within Midwood. It's not a free transfer between the J and the G (it used to be though during the L train shutdown), it's also over an hour, but at least you can avoid Manhattan.
The transfer is not free, which is why most just travel through Manhattan anyway. I’ve had to travel from Midwood to a friends volleyball game in Williamsburg and I had to travel through Manhattan to get to the game near Grand Street.
You think the city has a lot of money?
Man, this pisses me off for several reasons.
1. I’m a Staten Islander
2. We have plenty of abandoned rail that could be fixed up by the MTA.
3. We’re treated like garbage by the rest of the city.
The B1m is the my favourite you tube channel
Circular lines are the most common feature of any developed subway/ metro system. It took NYC 120 years to figure it out. I had to buy a car because there is no connection exists between Queens, Brooklyn and Staten island.
You gave yourself the answer of why it have taken so long to NYC figured out that circular lines are good. Because less people will buy a vehicles from automotive companies.
@@importgfs7363 The decline of Automobile purchase is beautiful to watch
There are legitimate issues associated with circular lines though. For example, parts don't wear evenly, etc. etc. Though it could be remediated by having trains alternate directions, but then you'd have to keep tabs of which trains ran in which direction on which day etc.
@@taoliu3949 That sounds really hard to do, I can't think of a way anyone could figure it out
@@rorychivers8769 Not saying it's impossible, but it introduces complications in the operations. Also, different parts of the circle might have different ridership demand, meaning it might not make sense to run the same amount of trains along the entire stretch.
Note this is moreso for complete loops. Partial loops are in essence still a singular line from an operational standpoint.
Staten Islander here. I, and everyone i know would love the island to be part of the subway system.
From what I was told car lobbyists stopped a lot of public transportation projects in this borough. Makes not having a car here suck.
Interesting video plus U had no unnecessary ads in the middle.Subscribed.
Very interesting video, showing that sometimes existing and underused infrastructure can be a path to a better transportation system. It also reminds me of the "Ligne de la Petite Ceinture" in Paris that was abandoned roughly a century ago and is now a natural reserve on its larger part, even though a part of the line was reused for the RER C line.
I'm wondering if you'll be covering aerial cable car transit in a future episode. More and more cities consider cable car as new "cheap" alternatives for transport as building tunnels is very expensive. And seeing networks like in Medellin or La Paz gives a glimpse of the potential this mode can have - however, it raises many questions about flying over private property, and land value. I live in Lyon, France and a cable car project was massively rejected by the people that could have benefitted from it mostly due to the visual impact of 130-to-160 feet pylons and cables (and won't be made as a result).
It reminded me of Grand Paris Express which also aims to connect the suburbs between each other rather than passing through the center of Paris.
The people are the biggest hindrance to progress. When they are no more, their next generation or the generation after are going to suffer the consequences of all these transport issues, putting back the blame to their previous generations for being shallow minded.
I remember the video made by The Tim Traveller about this topic. 😀
👏 Excellent video, thanks... 👍
I live in Queens and go to college in Brooklyn. Finding parking in Brooklyn is a nightmare and would be much more costly than taking the subway every day. The commute from Queens to Brooklyn is an hour and 15 mins via F train. Driving isn’t an option. And the buses are so slow here. We need things to flow faster!!
Cool that you mentioned Manhattan beach. So much history there.