From: grammatim@verizon.net   
      
   On Monday, September 14, 2015 at 12:14:47 PM UTC-4, hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:   
   > On Monday, September 14, 2015 at 7:42:08 AM UTC-4, Peter T. Daniels wrote:   
   >   
   > > The Chicago "L"s originally had stations two blocks (1/4 mile) apart,   
   > > because they were competing with streetcars -- only a very few of those   
   > > very short gaps remain, though I don't know when the 4-block distance   
   > > became the new normal.   
   > >   
   > > That may have been the case on the Flushing line, but it wasn't for the   
   > > Manhattan subways, which _replaced_ the streetcars (see Doug Most, *The   
   > > Race Underground* -- he hates els, though, and gives no information at   
   > > all about their introduction).   
   >   
   > The book, Subway Style, has various maps in it.  The old maps show both   
   subway and elevated lines.  The old el lines seemed to have closer station   
   spacing than the newer subway lines.   
   >   
   > I understand that the old el lines weren't that fast, that is, a Lex espress   
   train would beat a Third Ave express train.  That's apparently why that it   
   took the subways--rather than the older el lines--to truly expand the city   
   into the outer areas.   
      
   That's one of the reasons Most hates them ...   
      
   ... but the book is about both the technical and economic conditions that   
   went into the building of the first Boston and NY subways (the Whitney   
   brothers were separately involved in the two projects). There's much about   
   the streetcar industry but nothing at all about the el industry.   
      
   > I wonder if Third Avenue would've developed to the extent that it did if the   
   el remained on it.   
      
   Of course not. But the replacement subway should have been installed _before_   
   the el was removed -- but they used the money allocated for it to lengthen   
   the IRT stations for 8-car trains.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)