Talk:History of the BRT and BMT

1913? service change

This is from Reports of Decisions of the Public Service Commission, First District of the State of New York, 1922. Judging from [1], it probably happened in 1913.

At the time of the institution of this hearing, the New York Consolidated Railroad Company operated four kinds of trains from Park Row, Manhattan, through Fifth avenue to and beyond 36th street, Brooklyn. These were the Bay Ridge, Sea Beach, West End and Culver trains. The Culver trains are not involved in this pro-ceeding, and will not be further considered. At 36th street the Bay Ridge trains turned to the west and went down Third avenue to 65th street and the Sea Beach and West End trains turned to the east and went down New Utrecht avenue to 62d street, at which point they diverged, the Sea Beach trains turning to the east and going thence to Coney Island over their own route and the West End trains keep-ing to the west and continuing on to Coney Island over their route

The Bay Ridge and Sea Beach trains were operated to their respec-tive destinations by the New York Consolidated Railroad Company, but the West End trains were operated by that company only as far south as 38th street. From that point south, they were operated by The Nassau Electric Railroad Company. Between 38th street and 62d street the Sea Beach trains were operated over the tracks of The Nassau Electric Railroad Company under a trackage agree-ment. There was also a line of surface cars operated by the New York Consolidated Railroad Company between 65th street and Third avenue on the west and 62d street and New Utrecht avenue (Bath junction) on the east.

The manner in which the West End line became involved was as follows:— On the hearing the New York Consolidated Railroad Company made application for authority to discontinue the operation of Sea Beach trains south of Bath junction, and to substitute trolley cars therefor.

[page 518] the hearing, it was thought best to extend the scope of the hearing sufficiently to permit the application to be made and considered in this proceeding. The reason given for this proposed change was that the construction work on the new rapid transit line along the same route would interfere with train operation, and that trolley cars could be operated to better advantage. As this reason seemed to be a valid one, the Commission tacitly acquiesced in the change, al-though it granted no formal authority to make the change. However, the company not only took off its Sea Beach trains south of Bath junction and substituted trolley cars therefor, but it also took off its Sea Beach trains north of Bath junction and substituted nothing therefor. The result was that the only service furnished between Bath junction and 38th street was furnished by West End trains, and the headway between trains became very much greater, in some cases 30 minutes where formerly it had been 15 minutes. Thus, it became necessary to inquire into the service afforded by the West End line and to make The Nassau Electric Railroad Company, which operates that line, a party to the proceeding. This was done by stipu-lation. The service was found inadequate. An order should be made requiring an increase in such service. The complainants asked:— (1) That the New York Consolidated Railroad Company be re-quired to increase the service of shuttle cars so as to provide a schedule headway of 10 minutes during all hours from 6:00 AM to 10 PM daily, instead of a scheduled headway of sometimes 10 minutes and sometimes 20 minutes; (2) That said company be required to operate shuttle cars on said line during the hours of the night during which no cars were then operated; (3) That said company be required to make changes in its method of issuing and delivering transfers to passengers at Bath junction for use upon westbound shuttle cars at that point; (4) That said company be required to furnish transfers on east- bound shuttle cars on said line which will be honored at Bath junc-tion on trains going either north or south of that point, instead of transfers that were honored only on trains going south of that point; (5) That said company be required to construct, erect and pro-vide for use a station building or shelter house at 62d street and Fort Hamilton Parkway on said shuttle line. i. The request for additional service was not pressed for the reason that the company agreed to furnish additional transfer privi-leges, the effect of which would be equivalent to providing more efficient service. (See 4, infra.

This is incomplete because of the annoying "snippet view". --NE2 22:59, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Which lines used elevated trains?

Brighton Beach Line

• part of the elevated system (only?) since 1896

Canarsie Line

• part of the elevated system only since 1906?

Culver Line

• 1906: trolleys from many places
• 1907: els only 36th Street only? trolleys from many places
• all-year el service (no trolleys?) after March 1907 [2]
• 1916: trolleys from many places; not sure about els

Sea Beach Line

• 1906: trolleys in summer via Third Avenue
• 1907: trolleys via Third Avenue and els via West End
• 1916: els only (current line opened in 1915)

West End Line

• 1906: els from Park Row
• 1907: els only north of Bath? trolleys via 86th only?
• all-year el service (no trolleys?) after March 1907 [3]
• 1916: els only