Railroad Station where he catches his train to Penn Station on Manhattan's West Side. He now takes two subway trains to get to his place of work-the IRT West Side Line to Times Square, then the shuttle to Grand Central Station; and then, if his office is much above 42d Street, he may take either the Lexington Avenue subway or a Madison Avenue bus. During rush hours another way for him to get to the East Side would eliminate the backtrack from Penn Station. He can take a Long Island train to the Hunters Point terminal in Queens; from there walk up a long flight of stairs and cross the street to the IRT Flushing Line. Upon reaching Grand Central, he must again change trains to travel north or south along the East Side or walk. A commuter from Westchester or Connecticut to Manhattan's West Side faces the same problem as the commuter from Long Island to the East Side. Furthermore, he must put up with the storied unpredictability of the New Haven Railroad. Perhaps the worst traveling problem is faced by commuters who take the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad from New Jersey. A traveler who works in midtown and uses this line is carried to Hoboken, N.J., where he must switch to a ferry or a Port Authority Trans-Hudson train. For all points on Manhattan's East Side and all points north of 34th Street on the West Side, he probably will use a subway or a bus also. The illustrations only describe the day-to-day dependence of commuters on New York City's transportation facilities. I submit that the dependence goes well beyond the immediate service the commuter can obtain for a token. Many commuters owe their livelihoods to New York City's rapid transit system. The affluence of Manhattan's business district has its roots underground, in the subways that deliver the bodies and the brains to the steel and glass towers representing the city's wealth. The subways carry the manpower and the skills needed to maintain and stimulate the economy of a city and of a metropolitan region. When subsidies to the subway system are under consideration, it should be noted that for many years the subways have been subsidizing New York City and the three-State area surrounding it. The present state of the system suggests that the scale of its subsidy to Metropolitan New York has, if anything, been too generous. I shall conclude quickly: Federal assistance to the Nation's public transportation systems is long overdue; it is vital to the economic health and social well-being of the two of every three Americans who already live in and around our cities. If Hertz can put the motorist in the driver's seat, the least the Federal Government can do is to give the straphanger a fighting chance at a subway seat. Thank you for permitting me to testify. New York City wishes you luck in presenting this legislation to the Senate. (Additional material submitted by Mayor Lindsay follows:) |