The Marin BART extension. We could have had BART service down Geary, growth in SF's north and west, reduced car-dependence in Marin, and beautiful GG views for pax
BART was supposed to go all the way around the Bay. Santa Clara county said no because, at the time they thought of themselves as a rural area that did not need more transit… San Mateo county pulled out due to lobbying by a real estate developer whose projects might be impacted…
Livermore, as part of Alameda County, was not given that option; Livermore has been paying taxes for a system for generations that does not service Livermore.
The Baltimore Red Line, and I don't even live there anymore. They were so close, had an awesome route all designed & approved, acquired the necessary land, had almost a billion dollars in federal funding lined up...and Larry Hogan threw it away to widen highways.
The project also would have enabled folks to travel between DC and the headquarters of both the Social Security Administration and CMS (Medicare/Medicaid) on rail instead of by car as they're all but forced to do now.
Pittsburgh's Spine Line... An LRT trunk linking Downtown to Oakland, serving up to different 5 universities was studied in the early 1990s. They are only now beginning to construct a BRT in that corridor 🙃
Queenslink, and expanding the Crosstown Group would do the same thing but better, it would extend the M train down the Rockaway Branch, and could be paired with a connection between the Franklin avenue Shuttle and the Crosstown line allowing an H train to run up the Brighton line onto the Crosstown
The BRT line (Tempo) that got built in east Oakland was supposed to continue all the way to downtown Berkeley. But some businesses complained about loosing loading zones and so Berkeley backed out in like 2007. One of the big shops (a bookstore) was out of business by the time it got built anyways.
Montréal, pink line. Never seriously considered, but it would have better connected the northeast end of the city, been another line connecting downtown to desaturate other lines, and most importantly... Well it would have cut through my borough and changed transit in my area drastically.
In Mpls/StPaul, it's more that we had an extensive streetcar system that, at its peak, had 524 miles of track over an approximate 20 mile radius. But in Nov 1949, a group of outside investors took control & phased out the streetcars in favor of buses with lower overhead.
Much of this map in London, Ontario. The orange line was supposed to be LRT. two corridors got axed and we are just building BRT on the south and east corridors.
When I moved here the dream of LRT was still in the air. I miss those days, and rue the fact that we are getting so much worse than we should and could have got.
New Hampshire leaving federal money for commuter rail to extend from Boston to Concord, that could happen within a few years as there are stations drawn up and everything
That also would have given more push to restore Boston-Montreal rail service
Two new rail tunnels connecting NJ with NYC beneath the Hudson River (ARC) would have been completed by now. But Gov. Christie cancelled it back in 2010, despite the fact that it had Federal funding. The replacement (Gateway) won't be done for another 10 years.
There a Hell of a lot, Milwaukee Road Electrification Bridge, the IND Second System in New York, Seattle Area Rapid Transit (1960s proposal), the Original GO Train plan of 1968, the Original Los Angeles Subway plans, Denver's Suburban Rail plans (only a Third of it got built), and many more
PATH to Plainfield via EWR, Elizabeth, and Cranford would’ve been cool, especially because the knock-on effect of a PATH capacity crunch would’ve forced investment in a third rapid transit tunnel under the Hudson.
A splendid plan for a Detroit Metro from the late 1960s. With spokes radiating out on major arteries from downtown including a line to the airport, it would have made Detroit a vastly more inviting destination for new kinds of businesses when deindustrialization hit. Tragic failure.
Southwest LRT should have been a cut and cover tunnel through Uptown in Minneapolis. Instead a ginourmously expensive tunnel was built through wetlands in lightly populated areas.
Valencia - Santander (Mediterranean to Atlantic) in Spain.
Left unfinished by the Francoist regime with a 7km tunnel almost complete. It was only 20km from completion in the Atlantic side. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enga%C3%B1a_Tunnel?wprov=sfti1
Finally listening to the Power Broker and so many have come up. Putting tracks over the Narrows, Whitestone, and Throggs Neck Bridges, or on the medians for the LIE and Van Wyck, isn't even a drop in the bucket somehow.
Baltimore Red Line had more impact on me before the move to Seattle, but understanding the history of the proposed rail transit expansion and what Seattle missed out certainly takes top dog now.
I could fill multiple blog posts with these... the 1960s Tel Aviv subway proposal, RER F, U10, the usual NY package (Utica, Nostrand, etc.), early-20c NSRL proposal, 1920s LA subway, Downtown Relief Line, 1890s LIRR proposal to build a GCT-Brooklyn S-Bahn connection...
Comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Line_%28Baltimore%29?wprov=sfla1
We seriously need a quick way off this planet.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/government-officially-cancels-15-billion-auckland-light-rail-as-part-of-100-day-plan/QPMW7N743FDBXHDFNY7XWBA2OE/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetroMoves
It would've been pretty convenient for me getting from where I live to the centre quickly and efficiently, but the route only went as far as Brixton
There's still commuter rail, but it's not as good IMHO
(Source: MN Streetcar Museum, https://old.trolleyride.org/History/Narrative/TC_Transit.html)
That also would have given more push to restore Boston-Montreal rail service
Left unfinished by the Francoist regime with a 7km tunnel almost complete. It was only 20km from completion in the Atlantic side. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enga%C3%B1a_Tunnel?wprov=sfti1
And then there's these 😔