PHOTOGRAPHY BY DENNIS A. LIVESEY INTRODUCTION BY MATTHEW LIVESEY
T
HE BOUNDLESS EBB AND FLOW OF ANY CITY can be said to have a life of its own. New York City’s steady absorption of commuters, tourists,
and day trippers expands the local population to more than double each day. Then, like a great exhale of breath, it deflates back down at night. This daily migration wouldn’t be possible without a world-class transit system that handles more than 70 percent of that traffic. Little credit is ever given to the workhorse, though. It receives no slack, and little praise, even amongst those who appreciate trains.
When it came to building its transit system,
New York developed its own way of doing things. The diverse elements of New York’s transit infrastructure — the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), Metro-North, New Jersey Transit (NJT), Port Authortity Trans-Hudson (PATH), and the New York City Subway — serve a population of 15.1 million in the 5,000 square miles known as the New York Region. It’s a massive daily undertaking that transports more customers than the rest of the country’s subways and commuter railroads combined. Almost 85 percent of workers in the United States rely on a car for their commute, but rail transit accounts for four out of every five rush hour commuters in the greater New York metropolitan area. Midtown Manhattan is dominated by the commuter rail hubs of Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station. The combined commuter rail lines span more than 1,500 route miles and have an annual ridership of 323 million. Those two numbers alone would make it the largest transit system in the country, but once you include rapid transit lines, the system earns its place on a global
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stage. What makes it even more impressive is that it operates on a 24-hour schedule, although that isn’t unique.
New York is currently the only system with the infrastructure in place to make the safe flow of so many people through the city work on such a large scale. The demands on the trains are higher and expectations are greater. The system runs with the same no-nonsense attitude its customers are often known for. It’s there to get you from point A to point B, nothing more. This workhorse will never be the prettiest of the bunch, but it always gets the job done.
But the trains serve more than just a functional purpose. Apart from moving mass volumes of people to where they need to be every day, New York’s transit system surprisingly offers some of the best views of the city. New Yorkers never stop to smell the roses, but often will take a moment to find beauty in the mundane. Visitors are often surprised to learn there is
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more varied topography to the city than the gritty concrete canyons they find on popular television shows and movies. The trains span deep valleys over tall steel viaducts, the rails following a seemingly roller-coaster profile. Rock cuts, lush forests, and routes that hug the shores of the Atlantic Ocean are all part of the urban landscape. Yet despite this diversity, it’s the urban core that everyone knows that remains a constant part of the scene. New York City is the main character in its own daily drama. These photographs aim to take a look at the often under-appreciated scene surrounding New York City’s trains and transit...
BRONX QUEENS
Crossroads of Million Lives
Grand Central Terminal was my gateway from 1950s suburbia to the magical land of New York City. But as the New York Central and the New Haven railroads spiralled into postwar decline, the terminal suffered as well. Violated by too much dirt, raunchy advertising, homeless individuals, and overall despair, the future of this 1913 monument to past greatness was in question. Then a miracle occurred and a stunning restoration begun in 1994 was completed in 2007. The result is a palace that is in better condition then anyone can remember. More than 750,000 people pass through Grand Central daily, or roughly the population of San Francisco.
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