34th Street LRV and Mall

The idea of a 34th Street Line combines several new ideas.
  • First it is an elevated LRV line.
  • Second, it is part of a street long shopping mall.
  • Third, it connects to huge Park-and-Ride facilities on Long Island and in New Jersey
  • Fourth, it is free. (sort of.)
  • It crosses the East River on a new built for the purpose exclusive use bridge.
  • It crosses the Hudson River through a newly built tube.
  • Trains are automated and run on a 40 second headway.

The heart of the system is the 34th Street Mall. It is above all else, a realestate development, owned by the adjacent landlords. It is not built flush to the building line, but fully on the street ROW. Landlords may attach their buildings to the mall structure at the platform, mall, or promonade levels as they see fit and as approved by the cooperative of 34th Street Landowners. It is these landlords who will lease out this new space developed in front of their properties, presumably to tennants in their buildings. Most of the access, is through these buildings, though the structure does have its own access from the street, including handicapped access to all levels.

Service on these lines is free. This is seen as a local midtown service circulating people trhough the city. For transit users, it will be presumed that they had already paid their fare on a bus or subway train. For Park and Ride users the round-trip express bus fare is included in their parking fee. Since this line does not connect to bus or subway service in Queens or in New Jersey, it is not seen as a major transporter of pedestrians, but if such people do wish to ride from Queens or New Jersey, the fare is $5.00 inbound and free to return. (Round-trip express bus fare, discounted.)

The routes and sites of the Park-and-Ride facilities suggested here are by way of example only, and will need to be worked out in detail when the service is built. The most costly part of the project is the trans Hudson tunnel, a two track line exclusive to this service. The Bridge across the East River is only as far off the river MHW as needs to be and is envisioned as a slender, graceful arch of some sort. There may or may not be a pedestrian crossing. Leave that up to the bridge archetect.