The Dual Contracts of 1913

The Dual Contracts of 1913 were the public-private partnerships between the City of New York and two private subway operators, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (later Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Corporation). This is a brief look into the terms of the contract and some of the reasons they failed leading to the city takeover of the entire system in 1940.

[@trainluvr]

The dual contracts were signed in the nick of time. Same year the 'Federal' Reserve was created, cornerstone of the process of undermining real money and enabling wartime inflation (never knew it was double digit for multiple years!). If the dual system was delayed another few years, some lines would never have been built. The daily crush of overloaded trains and stations forced the issue. I consider it a miracle that as much as we have today actually got built at all. However, In hindsight I feel most of the proposed lines of the second IND system would likely have been underutilized and financially unsustainable. The Second Ave line was the one that should have been built by the 1950s and was most sorely missed. Of course there were cheaper alternatives to conventional rapid transit that should have been pursued, like LRT in street medians and coordination with and recycling of commuter and freight lines to fill in the gaps in subway coverage today.

[@believer5497]

Many routes weren't built. The failure was giving the IRT the Lexington Avenue subway as a whole, and not building the line from the lower BMT Broadway line. However, the other routes, such as the Third Avenue subway should have been built from the Manhattan Bridge to the Bronx.

[@believer5497]

Cool