PAYMENTS AUTHORIZED BY THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, TO BE MADE While the First Subway now operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company is to be merged for operating purposes in the Dual System, it will still maintain something of an independent character in so far as accounting is concerned. This line, representing the City's first venture in underground railroad building, was constructed under Contracts Nos. 1 and 2 and extends from Atlantic avenue, Brooklyn, through Manhattan, with two branches into The Bronx. Under the old lease the operating company pays to the City a rental consisting of the annual interest charges on the bonds issued by the City for the construction or permanent improvement of the subway, plus one per cent annually for a sinking fund. The attached table gives the amount of such rental paid to the City during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917, and for the entire period of operation to that date: Certain construction work was carried out on the First Subway during the year, a part of it necessitated by Dual System work.. The expenditures were $128,638.25 under Contract No. 1 and $4,770.03 under Contract No. 2. The total cost of the First Subway, including both Contract No. 1 and Contract No. 2 up to December 31, 1917, was $56,597,447.16. Under company contracts the two operating companies furnish the equipment, consisting of cars, third rail, switches and signals and many other items upon all of the Dual System lines irrespective of whether City or company-owned. The companies also meet the total construction cost upon company-owned lines, including extensions, third-tracking and other improvements. The Commission passed upon practically all such contracts awarded by the companies, which had either completed or under construction at the end of the year improvements to their elevated railroads amounting to $52,000,000. There is also under way provision for equipment for all lines, amounting to $56,000,000. NEW LINES OPENED The traveling public is now enjoying the transit benefits derived from several new lines of the Dual System placed in partial or complete operation during the year. The list includes both City-owned and company-owned portions of the new system, and is as follows: Astoria branch of the Queensboro subway from Bridge Plaza station, Long Island City, to Ditmars avenue, Astoria - February 1, 1917. White Plains Road extension of First Subway, partial operation from 177th street to 219th street, The Bronx - March 3, 1917; from 219th street to 238th street, The Bronx - March 31, 1917. Corona branch of the Queensboro subway from Bridge Plaza station, Long Island City, to Alburtis avenue, Corona April 21, 1917. Brighton Beach line, reconstructed portion from Sheepshead Bay to Ocean parkway, Brooklyn - April 22, 1917; from Ocean parkway to Gravesend avenue, Brooklyn - May 30, 1917. Jamaica Avenue extension of Broadway Elevated railroad, Brooklyn, partial operation from Cypress Hills to 111th street (Greenwood avenue), Queens - May 28, 1917. Jerome Avenue branch of Lexington Avenue subway, partial operation from 149th street and Mott avenue to Kingsbridge road, The Bronx June 2, 1917. Seventh Avenue subway, partial operation from Times square to 34th street and Pennsylvania station, Manhattan - June 3, 1917. West Farms Subway connection between east side elevated lines and West Farms branch of First Subway at 143d street and Brook avenue, The Bronx - July 1, 1917. New Utrecht Avenue line, Brooklyn, from 25th avenue to Coney Island temporary terminal, completing through operation to Coney Island — July 20, 1917. Queensboro Bridge Elevated line from Second avenue and 57th street, Manhattan, to Queensboro Bridge Plaza station and Ditmars avenue, Astoria - July 23, 1917. Broadway subway, Manhattan, from Flatbush avenue extension, Brooklyn, via Manhattan bridge, Canal street and Broadway line to Union square, Manhattan - September 4, 1917. BROADWAY SUBWAY With through operation from central Manhattan to Coney Island, the Broadway subway, operated by the Brooklyn company, was placed in service between Union square, Manhattan, and Brooklyn by way of the Broadway, Canal Street and Manhattan Bridge lines on September 4, 1917. This event marked a new era in rapid transit annals in The City of New York, the two great boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn being for the first time linked together by a rapid transit line which penetrated from the heart of one borough, through and to the extreme limits of the other. Hitherto each of the two great operating companies has only touched the fringe of the territory served by the other. One great purpose of the Dual System of rapid transit was to so co-ordinate the boroughs of the Greater City as to merge them into a concrete whole and furthermore to do away with the great congestion of traffic, which in former times marked the use of ferries and bridges at borough boundaries. The extension of the First Subway into Brooklyn satisfied in a measure the demands for closer union of the boroughs, but the full measure of benefit will be had later from a through operation between the great community centers of the city. Furthermore, and not by any means least of importance, was the extension of the five-cent fare zone from Brooklyn to central Manhattan. Thousands of dollars annually have been saved and will be saved to passengers in the future as the limits of operation of the new lines are extended. The portion of the Broadway line placed in service is fourtracked from Union square to Canal street and thence two-tracked to and across the Manhattan bridge to a point where connection on the Brooklyn side is had with the four-tracked Fourth Avenue subway. The Canal Street line and the Manhattan Bridge route form one of the two connections effected under Dual System arrangements between the Fourth Avenue line in Brooklyn and the Broadway line in Manhattan. The other connection, now under construction and which may be ready for service by the end of 1918, is known as the Whitehall-Montague Street line and consists of two tracks extending from a point near the Battery, Manhattan, underneath the East river by tunnel and under Brooklyn streets to the Fourth Avenue subway in Flatbush avenue extension. A physical connection was not originally contemplated between the Canal Street line and the Broadway subway. The connection, however, has brought about through operation between Manhattan and Brooklyn more than a year earlier than would otherwise have been possible. The celebration which marked the opening of this new transit facility was in part under the supervision of the Commission, which issued nearly a thousand invitations for the special train. This train carried the official party from Union square, Manhattan, to Coney Island, where exercises were held under the direction of the Borough Park Heights Civic Association, of which Mr. Maxwell H. Harris is President. Many civic bodies and taxpayers' organizations participated, together with members of the Commission and of its staff, City officials and numerous private guests. Speakers at the exercises included Commissioner William Hayward, Commissioner Travis H. Whitney, Borough President Lewis H. Pounds, ex-Justice William L. Ransom, Chief Counsel to the Commission, Chief Engineer Daniel L. Turner, Superintendent John J. Dempsey of the elevated and subway lines of the B. R. T. system, and others. The trip of the official train from Union square to Coney Island was made in 272 minutes, a fulfillment of the promise of real rapid transit under the Dual System. While the special train made few stops and the running time of the train was somewhat better than that of trains in ordinary service, operating officials promised a regular service with trains operating on a schedule of from thirty to thirty-five minutes between Union square, Manhattan, and the sea. It is needless to state that the time of the official train was, so far as is known, the fastest ever recorded of train service from Union square to Coney Island. The portion of the Broadway subway included in the above operation between Union square and Brooklyn cost about $8,000,000 for construction. The work was begun in 1912. Other portions of the line in Manhattan are nearly ready for trains and operation will be begun at an early date. QUEENS LINES Of the foremost importance among the other lines placed in service in 1917 were the two Queens lines, consisting of the socalled Astoria Elevated branch of the Queensboro subway, extending from the Queensboro Bridge plaza to Ditmars avenue, Astoria, and the Corona Elevated branch of the same subway, extending from the Queensboro Bridge Plaza station to Alburtis avenue, Corona. Both are three-track lines and each was built through districts not heretofore served by transit facilities other than surface railroad lines, except that the Corona line was paralleled for part of its distance by a branch of the Long Island Railroad. The opening of each line meant the extension of the five-cent fare zone with swift trains into great and expansive areas, in part sparsely settled but awaiting only good transit facilities and a reasonable fare for the development of new home and business sections. |