OPINION: Select Bus Service, a welcome addition to Brooklyn’s transit scene
If you look behind the recent hoopla over the opening of the Second Avenue Subway in Manhattan, you’ll find that the real story is the slow pace at which it was constructed and the high cost of construction. The first section, from 63rd to 96th Street, took 10 years to build, and serious planning has yet to begin on the second phase, from 96th to 125th streets.
Compare this to the four years in which the city’s original subway line, from City Hall to 145th Street, was completed and to the seven years it took to construct the A train from 207th to Chambers streets, both in the early 20th century. The only conclusion we can draw is that things are much more complicated today. While new subways should and probably will be built, the process can take years.
Thankfully, a new alternative has emerged in Brooklyn and elsewhere to make bus service faster in the absence of an aggressive new subway-building program. That alternative is bus rapid transit, which combines some of the features of mass transit with the flexibility of buses.