Re: (rshsdepot) A Trolley Grows in Brooklyn

["Steven Delibert" <stevdel_@_prodigy.net>]

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Paul S. Luchter <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>

If we're not outstretching our welcome on this DEPOT list (maybe we are
within the limits of discussion of depot functionality, or something) . . .

>Why is this trolley (!) going downtown when it could go to the highest
>station on the F train at 9th Street, I wonder...?
Because if it could go there (via what?) no one would ride it == 4th Ave &
9th St  would not be a "destination" for most people, but would  put
passengers through one of the most inconvenient transfers anywhere in the
city, up that huge escalator, to a freezing or boiling or sleety platform,
to wait to get on the F train which itself tends to avoid business /
commerce centers for a dozen stops until it gets to West 4th St.  Going to
Borough Hall means going somewhere that many people want to go for its own
sake (downtown Brooklyn/Brooklyn Heights), and next to EASY transfers to
half-a-dozen or more subway lines

>How in the world is this trolley supposed to enter the short piece of the
>Atlantic Avenue LIRR tunnel, that seems unlike;y, especially since it is so
>short, where exactly would those trolleys go from there?

Coming up Columbia St a block in from the waterfront, it would hit the west
(water) end of Atlantic Ave, where the tunnel used to end, and where there's
relatively little auto traffic now, probably little enough that you could
engineer a new tunnel entrance; the trick would be turning north at the east
end, now at Court St.,which is MUCH too crowded already to put trolley
tracks on unless you ban cars, which won't happen; figure out a way to go
another block east to Boerum Pl/Adams St, which is hugely wide and laid out
wastefully, and you may be able to pick out enough space to bring the tracks
up the W side of the street to Joralemon, around in front of Borough Hall
and curve up in front of the courts EXACTLY where old pictures show the
elevated curving up what used to be the continuation of Fulton St - come to
think of it, you could keep going up there, to "Old Fulton St", and come out
at Fulton Ferry Landing under the Brooklyn Bridge.  A real nice route, if it
comes down to it, for commerce and tourists alike -- good enough to think it
would be worth it for the city or the chamber of commerce to subsidize it
down to a nickel or a free ride, in fact.

Steve Delibert

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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