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conuly
My excitement over getting a new station is... incalculable. There's so much room there now! Now all they have to do (which they won't) is extend the 4/5 down to the boat as well. The tracks already run there, they just need to re-open the station for it. You laugh, it's not that far a walk, but it's damn windy all the time!
New Station at South Ferry Opens, but a Main Breaks Upstream
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Just after the turnstiles were opened on a shiny new subway station Monday at South Ferry to replace the existing 104-year-old station in Lower Manhattan, train service to the new station had to be shut down when an even older water main burst near Canal Street.
The first train left the new station at 12:05 p.m.; just 20 minutes later came the announcement that water was on the tracks at Canal Street, some 30 blocks uptown. One more train left before service was halted entirely.
The disruption lasted for about three and a half hours and tangled subway service on the West Side of Manhattan, in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The 12-inch cast iron water main that broke was installed in 1870, according to Steven W. Lawitts, the acting commissioner of the City Department of Environmental Protection.
The spurting water caused a section of Varick Street, just north of Canal Street, to buckle. The water flowed into the subway tunnel, where it rose to the height of the third rail.
Service on the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 trains was disrupted while subway workers at Canal Street pumped the water out and dried out and tested the signals.
Earlier in the day, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials proudly showed off the new South Ferry station during a grand opening ceremony attended by Gov. David A. Paterson.
The new station was meant to eliminate one of the great anachronisms of the subway system.
The old station was opened in 1905, when local trains ran with just four cars. But in the 1940s and ’50s, most stations were enlarged to make room for 10-car trains. But there was no room to do that at South Ferry, where only five cars fit along the platform, because of the station’s layout.
For years, riders have had to move to the first five cars if they wanted to get off at South Ferry, the southern terminus on the No. 1 line. Inevitably, riders would get stuck in the back of the train and found themselves riding around the loop, heading uptown to the next stop at Rector Street.
The South Ferry station also had creaky motorized platform extensions to bridge the big gap to the car doors on the tightly curved platform. (In the old station’s last hours on Monday, one of the moving platforms malfunctioned and service into the station was disrupted for about half an hour.)
The new station cost $527 million. Of that amount, $420 million came from the federal government as part of an injection of money into Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Officials said that the new station would speed travel on the line by eliminating delays at South Ferry.
The project was finished more than a year behind its original schedule. Transit officials had hoped to open the station a few weeks earlier but were delayed when it was discovered that the gap between the platform and the trains at the new station was up to an inch wider than allowed by federal rules. That had to be corrected before Monday’s opening.
The new station brought out many subway buffs, some of whom lamented the passing of the old.
“They’re killing every part of New York,” said Jonathan Fuchs, 44, a lawyer who lives in Brooklyn and who stood in the old station taking photographs. He pointed out the terra-cotta tiles with a bas relief of a sailboat and the decorative tops of station columns. “I’m going to start crying,” he said.
But at the new station, adjacent to the old, many riders marveled at the wide platforms, pristine white walls and bright lights.
“After 104 years to finally get a proper terminal down here,” said Kenneth Barr, 51, of Manhattan, who was first customer through the turnstiles and rode in the first car of the first train out of the station. “It’s beautiful.”
Last week, I was on the bus going home, and we had a passenger from the Upper East Side on with us. It was so cute! Like our own little tourist, standing looking out the windshield, and marveling over the boat ride and how hilly Staten Island is! Adorable!
New Station at South Ferry Opens, but a Main Breaks Upstream
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Just after the turnstiles were opened on a shiny new subway station Monday at South Ferry to replace the existing 104-year-old station in Lower Manhattan, train service to the new station had to be shut down when an even older water main burst near Canal Street.
The first train left the new station at 12:05 p.m.; just 20 minutes later came the announcement that water was on the tracks at Canal Street, some 30 blocks uptown. One more train left before service was halted entirely.
The disruption lasted for about three and a half hours and tangled subway service on the West Side of Manhattan, in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The 12-inch cast iron water main that broke was installed in 1870, according to Steven W. Lawitts, the acting commissioner of the City Department of Environmental Protection.
The spurting water caused a section of Varick Street, just north of Canal Street, to buckle. The water flowed into the subway tunnel, where it rose to the height of the third rail.
Service on the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 trains was disrupted while subway workers at Canal Street pumped the water out and dried out and tested the signals.
Earlier in the day, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials proudly showed off the new South Ferry station during a grand opening ceremony attended by Gov. David A. Paterson.
The new station was meant to eliminate one of the great anachronisms of the subway system.
The old station was opened in 1905, when local trains ran with just four cars. But in the 1940s and ’50s, most stations were enlarged to make room for 10-car trains. But there was no room to do that at South Ferry, where only five cars fit along the platform, because of the station’s layout.
For years, riders have had to move to the first five cars if they wanted to get off at South Ferry, the southern terminus on the No. 1 line. Inevitably, riders would get stuck in the back of the train and found themselves riding around the loop, heading uptown to the next stop at Rector Street.
The South Ferry station also had creaky motorized platform extensions to bridge the big gap to the car doors on the tightly curved platform. (In the old station’s last hours on Monday, one of the moving platforms malfunctioned and service into the station was disrupted for about half an hour.)
The new station cost $527 million. Of that amount, $420 million came from the federal government as part of an injection of money into Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Officials said that the new station would speed travel on the line by eliminating delays at South Ferry.
The project was finished more than a year behind its original schedule. Transit officials had hoped to open the station a few weeks earlier but were delayed when it was discovered that the gap between the platform and the trains at the new station was up to an inch wider than allowed by federal rules. That had to be corrected before Monday’s opening.
The new station brought out many subway buffs, some of whom lamented the passing of the old.
“They’re killing every part of New York,” said Jonathan Fuchs, 44, a lawyer who lives in Brooklyn and who stood in the old station taking photographs. He pointed out the terra-cotta tiles with a bas relief of a sailboat and the decorative tops of station columns. “I’m going to start crying,” he said.
But at the new station, adjacent to the old, many riders marveled at the wide platforms, pristine white walls and bright lights.
“After 104 years to finally get a proper terminal down here,” said Kenneth Barr, 51, of Manhattan, who was first customer through the turnstiles and rode in the first car of the first train out of the station. “It’s beautiful.”
Last week, I was on the bus going home, and we had a passenger from the Upper East Side on with us. It was so cute! Like our own little tourist, standing looking out the windshield, and marveling over the boat ride and how hilly Staten Island is! Adorable!
