When Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway opens in 2012 2016 2018, the turquoise T won’t be a part of the subway system quite yet. The first part will simply extend the Q line north from 57th St. and Broadway underneath Central Park to the F stop at 63rd St. and then up to 96th St. and Second Ave. In fact, Phase 2, an extension from 96th to 125th Sts. won’t see the birth of the T either. Instead, the new train bullet will make its debut when — or is that if? — the MTA completes the full four phases of Second Ave. Subway, and the train reaches its way down to Hanover Square.
That won’t, however, stop the MTA from cashing in on the new train. Earlier this morning, the Transit Museum posted via Twitter an image of its latest and greatest addition to the subway bullet t-shirt line. That newcomer is none other than the turquoise T with the words “2nd Av Local” underneath. Phases 2-4 may not be up for funding yet, but no one ever said New Yorkers weren’t ambitious. “Wear it,” the museum said, “before you ride it.”
The image of the t-shirt atop the post comes via the Transit Museum. The shirts are available for sale right here.
33 comments
Hehe! I bought this shirt a couple of months ago. And yes, I have worn it out in social settings. Great icebreaker!
In the completion date, the 0 and the 1 are switched.
I see what you did there.
haha nice one
It’s destined to be a collectible. The only subway line T shirt for a line that was never built is what they’ll say in 100 years.
Eventually New York will get a real state govenment and a common-sense MTA. The T will not end dowtown at phase 4, but proceed on in phase 5 to Boro Hall, Atlantic Terminal, Park Slope and then hang a left into a non-stop high speed straightaway rigjht up to the terminals at JFK.
I won’t live to see it, but at my age it’s still it’s fun to dream.
Bleh. The Manhattan-Brooklyn route doesn’t need any extra subway links. The northern end, on the other hand, has that 125th Crosstown plus University Avenue as potential extensions.
The JFK access thing is a canard; the LIRR already provides good access to where most people want to go, i.e. Midtown. The problem is that the LIRR/AirTrain link is annoying.
An extension at the Brooklyn end would be useful if it ran somewhere not currently served by the subway. (Southeast Brooklyn, anyone?)
University Avenue? I’m not sure why that’s necessary – it’s a short walk from Jerome Avenue.
Otherwise, I agree.
Bleh, indeed! People who work downtown, or who live in the gentrified / gentrifying part of Brooklyn sometimes referred to as “outer Manhattan” would gladly choose a fast, cheap, convenient T train to JFK over any inconvenient, expensive and time-consuming combination of a) getting first to the LIRR, then b) LIRR to the air train, and finally c) air train to JFK.
Of course they would. But an airport doesn’t generate nearly enough traffic to fill up a subway train at frequent headways – and if it’s running nonstop past Park Slope, it’s not picking up anybody else.
If fares from JFK alone are going to support a long subway line, then fares from JFK are going to have to be very, very high.
You don’t need to take the LIRR. If the A train is more convenient, it connects to AirTrain as well. If Howard Beach can deal with the long, slow A train on a daily commute, then Park Slope can deal with the long, slow A train for an occasional flight.
I’d love to make up a shirt that says “T West End.”
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?12808
Brooklyn childhood nostalgia!
I can remember the T West End Express, and the TT West End Local.
Phase 3 aint neva even goin to happen. No money for dat either!
Hard to say – we could be in boom years when the first or second phases are done. Right now it looks bad, but it also did in the 80s.
Actually the T will debut with the opening of Phase 3 from 63rd Street to Houston St. It will run on the already completed Phase 2 and 1 from 125th Street to Houston Street.
That’s pretty… cheeky of them. I might just get one.
For $20 a pop they’re not exactly capitalizing on a fervor… for something that may never happen. They should at least decorate them with the date of manufacture; that way in 2019 they’ll still be laughing all the way to the bank and so will you.
Will the money raised from the sale of these shirts go towards the completion of the “T” line? It could be a new form of fundrasing.
In all honesty though, given the current route configuration, I’m surprised no one challenged the statement that the first two phases will just be an extension of the Q. Unless the Q’s current configuration is reverted, the first T might just be a short route between 57th/7th and 96th/2nd.
Current thinking is that it would still be the Q for Phase 1 and Phase 2 in spite of the June 2010 changes.
And cue the rebirth of the W line to Astoria.
Yay! I already miss that direct route from Wall Street to Astoria. Always a seat and no fighting the crowds at 59th & Lex.
At the World Science Festival in June, I saw a guy with a T-shirt like this. But if I remember right, it was gray fabric and it said “Harlem to Hanover Square” under the bullet. I thought it was cute and meant to look it up online later, but now I can’t find any evidence of it. Maybe it was a one-off thing he made.
Since the Second Avenue Subway will be a *2-track* line, the ‘T’ will neither be an express or a local, so the term ‘2nd Avenue Local” is really not accurate.
The L is called the “14th Street–Canarsie Local” and it’s a 2-track line with no express service either. I think the announcements even state “this is a Rockaway Parkway-bound L local train”? If the MTA is being consistent here, trains are “local” if they make all stops on the line, as opposed to express trains which skip stops. I’d assume that this is to reassure new riders that the train will in fact make all stops, instead of skipping some.
The announcements don’t state it because it’s superfluous, but yes, local-only lines are still described as local.
I was bothered by that too, but yeah, I agree with the others that they do seem to describe routes as “express” or “local” even when only the one option actually exists. Just another quirky complication of the system that I would rather do without but will probably linger on forever.
Maybe they have secret plans to start the T upon Phase 1 completion, and the T will run to 2nd Ave via 6th Ave Local. Then they can also realize in part Pahses 1, 2 & 3!
Hopefully they’ll implement some kind of skip-stop service, otherwise the point of the entire building of this entire line will be moot. It’ll have less stops than the 6, but more than double the stops of a 4 or 5 train. No one is going to bother to transfer trains if they can get downtown 10-20 minutes quicker on an express train. It is absolutely ludicrous. I’ve never heard of a major branch line being built without express tracks or even provisions for express tracks! Every subway line, except BMT Canarsie, BMT Jamaica, and IND Crosstown has active or dormant express tracks or room for express tracks. Even the SIR operates express service! Even the 3rd Avenue and 2nd Avenue El’s had express tracks. And here we are in 2010, and we can’t even build a subway line correctly. Go figure.
Lots of people will ride the 2nd Avenue subway, we all know that. But more people will have more motivation to ride it if a T/U Skip-Stop service is implemented rather than just the T. Think about it.
Express service doesn’t save as much time as you seem to think. Certainly not 10-20 minutes, especially not on the rush hour Lex, where the local is often faster than the express due to congestion!
Skip-stop isn’t a good idea. Running times would only be marginally shorter, but wait times would be twice as long. And anybody going from a T-only station to a U-only station would have to transfer.
For people who live on the far East Side, the SAS will get them to the Times Square area or (once the lower SAS opens) to lower Manhattan a lot faster than walking over to Lex and taking the express there.
But didn’t they burn their bridges by deliberately making the construction of any future express service impossible? Something to do with track configuration or station shells? Even my R in Bay Ridge has some provisions, built almost 100 years ago, for express service which never happened but could theoretically. The short-sightedness of certain recent projects – cutting corners by rendering any future expansion possible – is very troubling.
sorry, that should read “by rendering any future expansion IMpossible”.
Express service wouldn’t make any sense with the currently planned station spacing – the stations are too far apart.
It’s a lot easier to include provisions for conversion to express service on a cut-and-cover line in a lightly populated area than on a bored line in Manhattan. The TBM’s are digging two tubes; do you think we should be paying for four now just in case?
[…] August, I wrote about the T train-themed merchandise for sale at the Transit Museum gift shop, and this week, Christine Haughney reports that the Second […]