Because ppl keep bringing up rebuilding the 3 Av El I'd like to go on a little rant.

The 3 Av El once ran all the way from Wakefield to South Ferry. The 2 Av Subway was supposed to replace it, at least in Manhattan. It was ripped down south of 149 St in 1955.

The northern section from 149 to Gun Hill Rd stayed open until 1973. The el had deteriorated along with the neighborhoods through which it ran. The el was built before the turn of the century and ran on a lighter structure, not strong enough for subway cars.

When the MTA was founded they proposed replacing the el with a subway along the Metro North Harlem Line. Presumably they were going to convert two of the commuter rail tracks to subway use (or get a waver to run subway trains on freight rails). Obviously this didn't happen.

The Metro North Harlem Line runs a quarter of a mile to the west of 3 Av. It was once the NY Central RR and had stations at 138 St (pictured) Melrose, Morissania, Claremont Pkwy, Tremont, 183 St, and Fordham. Today *some* trains only stop at Melrose, Tremont and Fordham.

Had the 3 Av El not been torn down it would probably be worth renovating it and connecting it to the 2 Av Subway. But since it's gone we need to look at the current situation to see if rebuilding it is worth the cost.

Looking at the ODX Jobs numbers we see just how many commuters there might be along the old 3 Av El route. Note that the MN Harlem Line is .25mi to the west, within walking distance.

We see a strong north-south corridor with the highest numbers around 149 St and Hunts Point.

There also seem to be strong centers of employment "crosstown" from the 3 Av corridor.

But looking at the raw numbers we see a few hundred jobs, not thousands. In 2019 the Bx15 (3 Av) had 20,579 riders, the Bx41 SBS (Webster Av) had 17,699. Strong but not impressive.

For comparison the M15 SBS had 46,087 riders in '19 and the top bus in the Bronx was the Bx12 SBS with 40,260.

Jumping down to Manhattan we see the typical job centers in Midtown and FiDi. But again, the raw numbers are in the hundreds, not thousands.

So what does this tell us? If the bus lines along the corridor are doing half (or less) than other corridors which might be subway contenders then there isn't much of a reason to be pumping billions of $$$ into the corridor.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't make any investments. The take away from this data is that a new Metro North station at 149th St would see high usage (good transfer point for the 2/4/5) and that crosstown SBS routes would go a long way in moving Bronx workers around their borough.

The next step would be to reopen the abandoned stations on the Harlem Line and implement Regional Rail service levels/fare reform. This would eliminate any need for express tracks on the 2 Av Subway, at least in northern Manhattan, and would reduce crowding on the 4/5.

I'm sure ppl will ask why I am not including the northern section, north of Fordham which connected to the White Plains Rd Line at Gun Hill Rd. That section still has all of the original Harlem Line stations. Adding a reverse branched subway today would just add problems.