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Comment by al_gore | Hacker News Reader

The common argument against overnight service in non-New York cities is "only two tracks! no time to do maintenance!": http://www.bart.gov/guide/latenight

This seems to just completely ignore the existence of the 14th Street-Canarsie and Crosstown lines (L and G services), both of which are dual tracked, yet provide 24/7 service most of the time. The Second Avenue Subway will also be dual tracked (unfortunately).

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> The Second Avenue Subway will also be dual tracked (unfortunately).

When I worked in NYC, it always amazed me that people 100 years ago had the foresight to build a 4-track system to allow for express trains. A century later...

100 years ago, you could use cut and cover without enraging a bunch of UES rich people. Oh well.

Thank the invisible hand of capitalism for that one. The NYC subway started as multiple private companies, who had to compete to offer customers good service, which included express trains.

A century later, transportation is de facto a centrally planned command economy, with no competition to create any incentives towards quality service.

Most of the NYC subway was built under a series of four contracts. Generally, these contracts involved the city designing and building (or contracting to build) the lines, and leasing to the IRT and BRT for operation. The four-track design dates to the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioner's original plan for the IRT. The IND was always built and operated by the city.

Wait the 2nd ave subway will really only be two tracks? Why? How much could it have possibly added to the cost to make it four? Once you're digging the tunnel why no do it right?

Blargh.

Billions of dollars of "studies" and such, I'm sure. NIMBYs hate cut and cover, so we end up digging absurdly expensive deep tunnels that are just worse to use once finished (they take forever to get into, compare deep stations in Washington Heights to Astor Place).

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