Why cant Eastchester 5 Line be extended to Co-op City?

Matt1168 mentioned above speeds of 55-60MPH between Howard Beach and Broad Channel. Sorry to say that these are speeds of the past.

Many of those who read these messages can tell you that the trains were slowed down some time ago. The fastest I've seen in a long time was 53MPH on a set of R44s with the T/O giving it all he had to move even that fast. My impression is that most trains will get up to between 45 and 50MPH on that stretch with an agressive T/O. But forget 55-60MPH.

Well, they may hoepfully raise the top speed again, to something like 70-75 MPH on that Rockaway Stretch, while 47 MPH for the Rockaway Park Shuttle. I've seen trackwork along that stretch when riding.

To the best of my knowledge, maximum speeds on flat and level ground are kept at between 40-50MPH or maybe a little higher by the disabling of field shunting. I'm not an electrical engineer and so I can't give you much of an explanation behind field shunting other than to say that with field shunting, cars could reach 55-60MPH. But without it, speed and acceleration is significantly reduced.

Field shunting was disabled after a series of accidents that were partially attributed to excessive speed - i.e. Union Square, Williamsburgh Bridge, etc..

At this time, the only way a car is likely to reach a speed as high as 60MPH would be in one of the tubes under the East River - i.e. Cranberry or 60th Street.

Someone asked how much of the NYW&B exists above Dyre Avenue. Well there's large stretches of land where nothing has ever been built upon but in between there are considerable sections of developed area. There is for example the Heathcote Bypass in Scarsdale leading into White Plains. This area and the area leading into White Plains are completely unused land but in Mount Vernon and Eastchester, you can forget about it. In Mount Vernon for example you could probably rebuild without much difficulty up to about Fulton Avenue. After that forget about it until after the right of way clears Eastchester Heights. Until the late 1960's you probably could have rebuilt the NYW&B without too much difficulty but now forget about it.

From my observations, the 5 seems to be the least crowded of the Lexington Avenue lines.

In all scopes, the 5's big purpose is just to provide supplemental service; its only permanent duty is to provide service on the Dyre Line.

So are the q trains (no exclusive trackage), but they run all ze thaime