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TRAIN OF THOUGHTJoseph Tiraco |
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What's all the hubbub over renovating three miles of track? The neglected
LIRR Rockaway Beach Line, traversing Queens parallel to, and slightly east of
Woodhaven Boulevard, has been out of service for the past 40 years, though the
roadbed for the right of way is still very much in tact. No new property is required to
reestablish both express and local service.
Are you aware that Western Queens had better transportation facilities in
your grandfather's time then today? That it was easier and quicker to get from Western
Queens to midtown Manhattan in 1947 then in 1997? Taking into account what are
now two fare zones but were then single seat rides, it was more then an hour shorter
each way. Did you know there is no longer any way to get from the northern part of
Queens to the southern part by train? And that a day at the beach requires a long,
torturous, multi seat bus ride from anywhere in central, and northern Queens. Did you
know that change was coming for the railroad properties, and it's better to get
something good then bad?
Daily, during rush hours and in the sweltering summer months, this train
can take thousands of cars a day off Woodhaven-Crossbay Boulevard, and further
remove even greater amounts of traffic from the Van Wyck Expressway bound to and
from Kennedy Airport. In terms of community values, contrast the benefits of
reopening the Rockaway Beach Line against the mayor's plan to sell this railroad
property to various megastore developers (who are heavily financing his reelection
campaign.) Consider an abatement of traffic instead of the immense amounts of traffic
the stores would dump onto the already saturated north-south thoroughfares of western
Queens. Weigh the higher property values convenience of rail travel affords to all the
communities serviced, against falling property values in the vicinities of the mayor's
megastores. Weigh prosperity from increased commerce stimulated by rail passenger
customers - especially the new tourist trade, (tourism has become the city's life giving
blood), tourists carried by the train from Kennedy on their way to Manhattan but now
available to all the communities along the route, against the further hardships imposed
on small business by the mayor's megastores. Weigh the city's ridiculous plans to
provide airport access using various schemes, one worse then the other, including a
plan to ship people by boat, against the quick and efficient one seat service that can
be provided by the Rockaway Beach Line.
The political argument currently in vouge is that the Metropolitan Transit
Authority, which carries 5,667,819 passengers a day, over 915 miles of track,
maintains 745 stations, 7,811 rail cars, operates seven suspension bridges, and two
tunnels, finds reopening this three miles of track a task so daunting, they have
abandoned all hope for the project, and so the property should be sold off. (And, just incidentally, to the mayor's largest campaign supporters.) When the
naked truth is that a failure of politics has led to the lack of decent mass transit service
for western Queens. Politicians are more concerned with perpetuating their own
personality cults then in solving problems. It is easier to simply procrastinate, or better
yet, pass valuable property to hungry developers who are quite willing to finance a
politician's fifteen minutes of fame. Asking pols to actually make hard decisions, and
expedite policies required to advance the public good is like talking to a wall. The result, 40 years of inconvenience, and drudgery, and tens of
millions of hours pissed away, time and money wasted for the people of Queens.
Granted, government cannot be trusted to build a railroad technologically
acceptable to people living in close proximity to the right of way. The use of modern
technology would cost more then traditional design methods - and would consequently
be resisted by railroad planers who give little credence to quality of life issues. For
instance, the general reluctance of the railroad industry to dampen harsh sounds from
existing service, like the Montauk Line, a noisy, diesel powered, rattletrap that's
always blasting its whistle and now wants to haul garbage through the communities,
doesn't inspire confidence in new railway projects. Left to their own devices, the city,
if pressed to reopen the Rockaway Beach Line, would build a 19th Century, clackity-clack, railroad - albite new and shinny - and pass it off as "a modern wonder."
The importance of reopening rail service for western Queens, and the
imperative need for an unintrusive, aesthetically pleasing design, has given rise to a
citizen's regional planning committee comprised from a broad coalition of civic groups
representing communities all along the proposed route. The committee is working with
various experts, civil engineers, academics, and universities specializing in modern
railroad design, compiling a proposal for the city on a workable plan to reinstate mass
transit for western Queens. Community groups are urged to join the coalition.
Individuals who wish to place business before the committee should attend the next
public meeting, which will be convened on May 5, 1997 at 8:00 P.M., the Park Place
Theater, 148 Beach 116 Street, Rockaway Park, NY 11694. (Address your
correspondence to, Ms. Mary Park, Member, Western Queens Regional Planning
Committee, at the above address.)
Oh yeah, if your traveling to the meeting from central or northern Queens
by public conveyance, give yourself plenty of time. You're in for one hell-of-a trip.
April 10, 1997
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