14 NOVEMBER 14, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
The high-speed ‘Train to the Plane’
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Over the next two weeks, we’re
going to take a look back at
two projects that could have
dramatically altered the landscape of
Our Neighborhood in Queens — but
never came to be.
The fi rst project looked like an almost
certainty when the Ridgewood
Times published a front page article
about it in the Aug. 22, 1974, issue.
For fi ve years, up to that point, the
city had its eye on creating a highspeed
rail link between Manhattan
and John F. Kennedy International
Airport. According to a 1969 plan, the
city wanted this line to run primarily
along the Rockaway Beach branch
of the Long Island Rail Road, which
was taken out of commission back in
1962.
To complete the link, however, the
city planned on digging a huge tunnel
through Forest Park connecting the
defunct Rockaway Branch with the
LIRR’s Montauk Branch in Glendale.
The proposal raised the ire of community
residents, who saw the idea as
something that would forever change
Forest Park’s ecology — and not for
the better.
But it was then-Mayor Abraham
Beame who had the fi nal word about
the project’s fate — and on Aug. 22,
The old rails of the Rockaway Beach Long Island Rail Road branch -- which haven’t been used in more than 50
years -- remain among the line’s naturally reforested right-of-way through Forest Park. Photo via Flickr/Genial23
1974, the Ridgewood Times reported
that Beame was ready to move on the
plan, whether the community liked
it or not.
Here’s an excerpt of the story:
Despite the protests of area organizations
and residents, legislators and
Parks and Recreation Administrator
Edwin Weisl against the proposed
speed rail route to Kennedy Airport via
Forest Park, Mayor Beame practically
removed the fi nal obstacle to construction
by requesting the Parks Department
to issue necessary permits.
Weisl has held up the permits and
tried to convince the mayor the spur
would be ecologically damaging and
would rob the residents of the area of
needed park property. He brought a
dish of wild blackberries to the mayor
aft er packing them along the Forest
Park route of the spur.
It is expected it will take 42 months
to complete the railroad spur at a cost
of $369,000,000.
Weisl called the park spur ill-conceived
and said there are alternatives
which have been ignored.
The connection would be made
through construction of a tunnel under
Myrtle Avenue into the park, and from
that point through digging another
1,000 yards to the point of intersection
with the Montauk branch, so that airline
passengers from Queens and Long
Island would have direct rail access to
the airport.
Even though it would later be covered,
it is the cut that has aroused the ire of
not only Park Department and conservation
offi cials, but also ecologists and
ecological organizations from throughout
the metropolitan area, including
the powerful Sierra Club.
The mayor, however, said in his
statement that the route under the
park “has overwhelming advantages
over any alternatives.”
Around the same time, The New
York Times reported about the proposed
high-speed rail line to JFK and
included comments from residents in
Glendale and Forest Hills who were
opposed to the plan.
The New York Times article noted
that the Forest Park tunnel would
have cut through a bridle path used
by hundreds of people going horseback
riding through the park from
the nearby Park Side Stables on 70th
Road.
Residents of the high-rise Forest
Park Crescents co-op also feared
the project, The New York Times
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