Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 6, 2018

Metropolitan Transportation: A Program for Action, also known as simply the Program for Action or the New Routes Program, was a proposal in the mid-1960s for a large expansion of mass transit in New York City, created under then-Mayor John Lindsay. It was one of the most ambitious expansion plans in the history of the New York City Subway, with 40 mi of track miles to be added to the New York City Subway within Queens alone. The $2.9 billion plan also called for improvements to other modes of mass transit, such as the present-day Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, and further integration between mass transit and the New York City-area airport system. Transport improvements built under the Program for Action were supposed to relieve overcrowding on existing transit modes in the New York City area. However, even though many of the lines and transport connections proposed in the Program for Action were approved, New York City nearly went bankrupt in 1975, causing all but two of these projects to be canceled due to a lack of funds. The remaining projects, the 63rd Street and Archer Avenue lines, were both dramatically truncated from their original lengths, and both lines opened much later than originally projected. In total, only six stations and 15 mi of tracks were added under the Program for Action.