Mike Rubin <rubin%rigel@columbia.arpa> (02/01/85)
The Dyre Avenue (IRT #5 line) subway in the Bronx is what's left of the defunct New York, Westchester & Boston Railroad. This was built in 1912 by the New York, New Haven & Hartford as a ritzy four-track electric commuter line as far as White Plains, NY, in Westchester County; the "Boston" was in the name because they planned to eventually extend it a few more miles to meet some small line in Connecticut, by which a train could theoretically get to Boston. Its southern terminal was at the south tip of the Bronx, instead of connecting to Grand Central, because they figured Manhattan's business district would keep moving north until it reached 125th Street, just a few blocks away. Unfortunately New York invented zoning a few years later, confining the business district to south of 59th Street, and the NY,W & B went belly-up in 1937. In 1941 New York bought the tracks as far as the city line for a song (well, $1.8 million) and ran it as a shuttle until 1957, when it was connected to the rest of the system. Much of it is still a beautiful ride through woods. The rest of the line (about fifteen miles in Westchester County) has been built over in a few places, has a couple miles of road over another segment, and the rest is overgrown; I think the land is owned by the towns now. Most of the stations, which were big and opulent, have been converted to other uses; a few are are rotting in the woods. I used to live in the vicinity of the Westchester segment, and once looked at whether tracks could be put back on it; unfortunately there are a few strategically located spots where houses have been built in the roadbed and there's no empty space nearby. It might almost be feasible for light rail, but the MTA isn't exactly flush with money for capital projects nowadays.... --Mike Rubin <Rubin@Columbia-20.arpa>