From: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Subject: Re: Staten Island Rapid Transit
Reply-To: brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 19:24:46 GMT

santafe@watserv.ucr.edu (michael a parisi) asked about SIRT on Staten
Island in New York.

>magazine article about SIRT for that matter).  Could someone please tell me  
>about SIRT? (E.g.-what are their trains and stations like, fares, schedules,
>route(s), etc.)

Jon Bell summarized but with some inaccuracy.  SIRT is operated by its
own public agency, the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority,
controlled by the MTA.  The electric MUs are slightly modified R44
subway cars (some details had to be changed to meet ICC standards--
not sure what).

The line begins in a large terminal under the bus ramps at the Staten
Island Ferry Terminal (built around 1960) at St George, the northeast
corner of Staten Island.  It runs through a very short tunnel and then
on a concrete elevated along the dock area to Clifton, a few miles
southeast, where the repair shop is.  Then it turns inland and follows
the long southeast shore of the island about 1 mile in from the shore.
The line is completely grade-separated, the last of the crossings
having been eliminated in the mid-1960's, and runs in cuts or on fills
as the slightly hilly ground level changes.  At the end the line runs
along the shore of Arthur Kill and ends at Tottenville near the
southwest corner of the island.  Fare is now the same as the bus or
subway, $1.25, collected on the train or at St George station.

Mark Foggin displayed quite a memory in listing all but one of the
stations if -my- memory is right.  He omitted Princes Bay, a name that
is a corruption of Prince's or Princess, no one is sure; that's after
Huguenot I think.

14 miles is correct.  The line is very analogous to the Norristown
line outside Philadelphia in length and character.  Both do not enter
the city center but connect with another mode that does (the Staten
Island Ferry or the Market-Frankford El).  Both run through mostly
suburban territory of individual houses.  It's too bad SIRT is
operated with the overheavy staffing of a "mainline" railroad; someday
that is going to be the end of it, if anyone costs out the operation.
Cars like the Brill Bullets would have been ideal on the SIRT, which
except for rush hours could run with single cars and one-person
operation.

The Staten Island Railroad dates from the 1860's as a steam railroad
from Clifton (New York Bay) to Tottenville (far west end of the island).
The Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad dates from the 1880's and built
two routes out of a common terminal at St George, the present ferry
location: the North Shore line to Arlington for passengers and on to
New Jersey for freight, and the South Beach line along the Bay past
Clifton and to South Beach.  SIRT acquired the SIR around the time it
opened, and ran the SIR mainline as a third line.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad acquired the SIRT around 1898 as a 
New York terminal.  This is not as silly as it may sound since freight
was normally carried across the harbor by lighter (barge) and Staten
Island is only a bit south of the other lighterage docks in New Jersey.
B&O passenger service did not go here but to the Central of New Jersey
terminal in Jersey City (most years).

The SIRT system was electrified with 3d rail around 1925 anticipating
a tunnel across the Narrows to connect with the subway in Brooklyn.
The original EMUs ran to about 1980 and were heavy steel cars similar
to BMT subway cars of that time.  The tunnel proposals were apparently
pretty serious-- I have seen engineering drawings for them!-- but the
City gave up the scheme by 1929.

The North Shore and South Beach lines were hard hit by bus competition
during the 1930's but passenger service hung on until 1954.  The South
Beach line was completely abandoned while the North Shore remained in
use for freight until last year.  Only the main St George--Tottenville
line remained.  By 1960 the ferry connection from Tottenville to Perth
Amboy was abandoned.

The B & O sold the SIRT passenger line to the City in the late 1970's
(I think then) and it has been run by SIRTOA ever since.  The freight
operation was sold to the Susquehanna in the mid-1980's and they have
just given it up.

It's a nice ride.  Tottenville is small-town America; it's pretty
weird to see New York City Police cars cruising.  You can eat in a
diner and go look at the Revolutionary-era Conference House on the
shore.

--Joe Brennan

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