Re: (rshsdepot) NYC 30th Street Station . . .

["James R. Guthrie" <jguthrie_@_pipeline.com>]

rshsdepot
Paul wrote:

> I was just wondering. It might seem that not only when the El went
up, but
> after Penn Station opened that, ok, maybe just a few people would
have used
> it  for continuing travel in a good way...Are you saying that 30th
Street

Remember that Penn Station served  commuters from Long Island, and
long distance travelers from the west and south. PRR commuters nearly
all continued on to Exchange Place and the Ferries/Tubes until after
WWII.

> Station (and this would apply to the old terminal at Hudson/St. John
where
> the early engraving distinctly show steam trains pulling coaches
with
> passengers in and out of it) station was utterly minimal after the
very
> first Grand Central went up in 1878 (date?), , or after the merger
and this
> would apply to the station at Madison Square (I won't say Park
Row!!)
> as well??????
>
St. John's Park passenger service seems to have disappeared abut 1879.
Having said that, Seth with tell us he has a timetable for 1888 <g>
and I'd be happy to be proved wrong -- but I have not seen any
evidence to the contrary,

> A 1880's timetable for trains to 30th (& Hudson terminal?) would
show what?
> What date was it that only a change at Spuyten Duyvel (Devil's Gate)
would
> get you to 30th? And when did that become a rare event or similar to
going

It was only two trains each way by the 1890s in the timetables I've
seen, one shortly after the IRT opened until the Depression -- and
then one weekly until the 1960s.

> to LIC on the LIRR after Penn Station opened up?
>
LIC continued as a major terminal for some years after Penn Station
opened. The extension of the Steinway subway, the 60th St tunnel, and
th subway to Flushing,
killed off LIC very quickly, however. But Penn Station by itself,
didn't make much of a dent in LIRR ferry traffic.

Cheers,
Jim

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