Freakonomics pondered an interesting question this week:
The Chinese city of Guangzhou is set to double the size of its subway system by 2010, with 83 new miles of track at a cost of about $100 million a mile. In New York City, construction of a 1.7-mile tunnel for the Second Avenue subway line, first proposed in 1929, could be completed eight years from now, at a cost of $2.4 billion a mile. The Second Avenue line was stalled by the Great Depression and then by budget crises in the 1950’s and 1970’s before ground was broken again in 2007. Facing yet another financial meltdown, which city do you think will finish its subway first?
Besides the obvious factors — labor laws, environmental concerns — China probably has a leg up. They’ve built in an entire subway system in a few years, and while ours totters on the brink of fiscal ruin, China has recognized that a subway system is key to building and maintaining a global presence.
Anyway, as Albany twiddles its thumbs and the fare hike moves ever closer, let’s look at the weekend service.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, uptown 1 trains skip 96th Street due to station rehabilitation at 96th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, 2 trains from Manhattan run to Crown Heights-Utica Avenue due to a concrete pour at President Street.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, April 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, free shuttle buses replace 2 trains between Franklin Avenue and Brooklyn College-Flatbush Avenue due to a concrete pour at President Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, uptown 2 & 3 trains run local from 72nd to 86th Streets, then skip 96th Street due to track tunnel lighting and station rehabilitation at 96th Street. Note: Overnight, uptown 3 trains run local from 42nd to 86th Streets, then skip 96th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, downtown 2 & 3 trains run local from 96th Street to Chambers Street due to track tunnel lighting and station rehabilitation at 96th Street. Note: Overnight, downtown 3 trains run local from 96th to 42nd Streets.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 5, Bronx-bound 4 trains run express from 167th Street to Mosholu Parkway due to switch work north of Burnside Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. to 7 a.m. Saturday, April 4, from 12:01 a.m. to 8 a.m. Sunday, April 5 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, Brooklyn-bound 4 trains run local from Grand Central-42nd Street to Brooklyn Bridge due to rail installation.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, April 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, free shuttle buses replace 5 trains between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street due to structural and steel track work.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, Bronx-bound 6 trains run express from 3rd Avenue to Hunts Point Avenue due to platform edge rehabilitation at the Cypress Avenue, East 143rd Street, East 149th Street and Longwood Avenue stations.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday, April 5, Manhattan-bound 6 trains run express from Pelham Bay Park to Parkchester due to track panel installation from Castle Hill Avenue to Parkchester.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday, April 5, the last stop for some Bronx-bound 6 trains is 3rd Avenue-138th Street due to track panel installation from Castle Hill Avenue to Parkchester.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, April 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, free shuttle buses replace A trains between Jay Street-Borough Hall and Utica Avenue due to the Jay Street rehabilitation project.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, there is no C train service. Uptown A trains run local from Euclid Avenue to 168th Street with free shuttle buses replacing A trains between Utica Avenue and Jay Street-Borough Hall. Downtown A trains run local from 168th Street to Euclid Avenue. Note: Overnight, downtown A trains run express from 125th to 59th Streets. These changes are due to the Jay Street station rehabilitation project and rail work.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, D trains run local between West 4th Street and 34th Street due to cable and conduit work.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, Manhattan-bound D trains run express from 36th Street to Pacific Street, then skip DeKalb Avenue due to tunnel work near the old Myrtle Avenue station.
From 12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, EF trains run local between Roosevelt Avenue and Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to a track chip-out north of Grand Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, Queens-bound F trains run on the A line from Jay Street to West 4th Street, then on the E line to Roosevelt Avenue due to Broadway-Lafayette to Bleecker Street transfer construction.
From 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6 (until further notice), there are no G trains between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Court Square. Customers should take the E or R instead. This is due to a track chip out north of Grand Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, N trains run local between 59th Street and Pacific Street due to tunnel work near the old Myrtle Avenue station.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, N trains run on the R line between Canal Street and DeKalb Avenue due to tunnel work near the old Myrtle Avenue station.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, Manhattan-bound Q trains run on the R line from DeKalb Avenue to Canal Street due to tunnel work near the old Myrtle Avenue station.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 6, midnight R shuttle trains terminate at 59th Street due to tunnel work near the old Myrtle Avenue station.
From 5 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5, R trains are extended to the 179th Street F station due to a track chip-out north of Grand Avenue.
5 comments
The answer is, we don’t know. This crisis could do to Chinese cities’ subway expansion plans what the Great Depression did to New York’s. Common wisdom on China seems to be that it needs to grow at 7% a year just to absorb the increases in the urban workforce. Anything less than that and it can’t really afford to spend that much money on capital projects. The very reason it could build so rapidly in the first place was that it on the one hand is rich enough to afford the technology costs, on the other is poor enough to have low labor costs, and on the third has enough growth to be able to spend a high portion of its budget on capital projects rather than on maintaining current standards of living.
I’ve been on the Guangzhou Metro before and it’s a very fast and efficient system. Aesthetically, it’s not as good as Hong Kong or Tokyo but they make up for it with extra wide platforms, platform screen doors, exit-only side platforms, and large escalator banks. The fare is extremely cheap too ranging between $0.50 and $2, depending on your travel zones. They also have utilize plastic tokens and cards embedded with smart cards for their payment system…still wish the MTA would look into this instead of dragging their feet and worrying about “security” issues.
They’re not “security” issues. They’re real honest to god Security Issues, which are very difficult to get right, as many transit agencies (such as the MBTA) found out after the fact. And in NYC especially, if there were a way to cheat the fare system, you know that people people WILL find it and WILL use it, while the MTA will lose fare revenue. Look at the design of the Metrocard: they got that one basically right, and even if it’s not 100% fraud-proof, there’s very little that you can get away with, and they need to keep trying until any potential replacement system can have at least that level of security.
Clearly the situation is different over in China, but I still can’t help but dream about the IND Second System…
*sigh*
I’m a bit late, but I’d like to chime in on this one.China today is roughly at the same point as NYC was in 1905 after the completion of the original IRT subway lines. In the two decades that followed, people in NYC (like the rest of America) became infatuated with cars, thus fatally compromising the establishment and the polity’s demand for mass transit improvements vs. automobile-centered improvements. And this is where we in America are today. Many of us the subways, but many of us also drives. I’m convinced that this split devotion to mass and personal transit is the reason why mass transit gets the short end of the stick, even in a transit-dependent city such as ours.I think the more interesting question is whether the Chinese become as infatuated with cars in the next 20 years as Americans did during the first quarter of the 20th century. I’m not sure that this will even be possible given today’s oil prices. But if the Chinese somehow follow the same path as the Americans in the next 20 years, then the Chinese subway boom will probably end just as NYC’s subway boom ended. Only time will tell…