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Originally Posted by RoldanTTLB
But the plan was to prevent cross platform transfers, which may or may not be a bad idea (I believe it was a good one), and in that sense, success. Both the 7th (1,2,3) and 8th (A,C,E) ave lines have the separate local and express platforms.
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I use that line from Penn Station all the time, and it's a bad idea. You take a gamble, and try to guess which one will be coming first before you go up. A station away, at 42nd St, the platforms are more crowded, and transfering from local to express is no problem.
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As for the uptown to downtown 1 transfer, even with the 2 island setup, this wouldn't be easy. One of the reasons they are renovating 59th st as such is to greatly simplify the ut->dt 1 transfer. For a cross platform local->express, though, you need only ride 1 stop north from either station, or in the case of the 7th ave line, 3 stops south or 2 stops south on the 8th ave line. It's really not such a big deal. Based on the mess at Grand Central from cross platform transfers, this arrangement is much smoother.
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I would say it's not a big deal if the subway system wasn't arranged with local and express subway stops. But it is. There's nothing reasonable about taking a train just a stop away to change to another when both trains ride side by side and stop in the same station. It's what makes the New York City subway system so great. There are options, and in most cases, you can choose between whatever comes first at those express stops if it suits you. We won't even get into the inconvenience of when the express has switched to the local at 34th St - unannounced - and you have no chance of running downstairs and running back up another flight of stairs to catch it, something you need not be concerned with at a typical local/express stop. But we are getting too far off track here.
The bottom line is that although the 7 line extension was primarily to jumpstart commercial growth on the far west side, the 10th Ave stop would serve a portion of "Hell's Kitchen" that doesn't have it.