Dual Contracts

The Dual Contracts, also known as the Dual Subway System, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in the City of New York. The contracts were signed on March 19, 1913, by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. As part of the Dual Contracts, the IRT and BRT would build or upgrade several subway lines in New York City, then operate them for 49 years.

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Most of the lines of the present-day New York City Subway were built or reconstructed under these contracts. The contracts were "dual" in that they were signed between the City and two separate private companies. Both the IRT and BRT (later Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, or BMT) worked together to make the construction of the Dual Contracts possible.

In the late 19th century and for most of the 20th century, New York was host to millions of immigrants each year. Many of the immigrants crowded into tenements and other apartment buildings in the inner city. This resulted in overpopulation of the buildings, and congestion of city streets. Manhattan's population had risen from 516,000 people in 1850 to 2.33 million people in 1910.^[1] The population of the entire city had grown from 1.17 million people in 1860 to 3.44 million in 1900 and 4.77 million in 1910.^[2] Living in Manhattan was becoming a hazard due to the higher probability of crime and overcrowding, and for the most part, the first subway line only served areas that were already developed.^[3] The first subway lines to the outer boroughs were planned during the early 20th century.^[4] Dispersion resulted in the expansion and development of the boroughs.

In 1906, Charles Evans Hughes was elected as the governor of New York, and the next year, he created the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC). The PSC was responsible for new rapid transit lines in New York City. Although the PSC had created ambitious plans for the expansion of the city's subway system, they only had $200 million on hand.^[5] In 1911, George McAneny was appointed leader of the Transit Committee of the New York City Board of Estimate, which oversaw the subway expansion plans.^[6]

Some opposed the Dual Contracts as they thought that the company owners and city officials were just looking for another way to produce personal revenue.^[6] Reformists like Hughes and McAneny would not have it any other way than to see the expansion of the city and the subway. They wanted to see the inner city become less populated and spread the people to the outer boroughs of the city. They planned to expand the city and disperse the people by building subway lines which would hopefully result in new homes being built near the subway lines and the areas surrounding. This would lower population densities in the city and also made as a good reason to help prove the subway expansion as necessary.

Several provisions were imposed on the companies, which eventually led to their downfall and consolidation into city ownership in 1940:

• The fare was limited to five cents; that led to financial troubles for the two companies after post-World War I inflation. The BMT could charge ten cents for fare to Coney Island Terminal, as well as to stations "where such ten cent fare is now allowed, until the time when trains may be operated for continuous trips over wholly connected portions of the railroad" between Coney Island and the Chambers Street station in Manhattan.^[14]
• The City had the right to "recapture" any of the lines it built and run them as its own.^[14]
• The City was to share in the profits.^[14]

There were other conditions in regards to specific operations of the lines, as part of a deal between the IRT, the BMT, and the Public Service Commission. Many of the conditions applied all across the dual system. For example:

• After the Commission finished constructing the line, the company was to operate it, providing its own rolling stock and furnishings.^[14]
• The companies, if they operated lines temporarily, had to operate them as if they were subway extensions. For subway extensions, if a company accepted the extension, it could operate it as part of its system; if not, the company had to pay a significant amount to the city every three months to operate it. This was implemented as part of the Queensboro Plaza trackage-sharing operation.^[14]
• The companies had operated these lines "according to the highest standards of railway operation and with due regard to the safety of the passengers and employees thereof, and of all other persons."^[14]
• Free transfers would be given at stations where needed, such as transfer stations between lines of the IRT and BMT, bus–subway transfer stations, elevated–subway transfer stations, or streetcar–subway transfer stations, according to the Commission's discretion.^[14]
• Freight, mail and express trains could use these companies' tracks if they did not disrupt passenger operations.^[14]
• Advertising was prohibited in stations, railroad tunnels, elevated structures, or other places. Bulletins telling of service changes were allowed.^[14]
• Selling things in the stations was prohibited, except if it needed for the operation of the subway, or if it was a newspaper, periodical, or magazine that the Commission had permitted.^[14]
• Each company was to post their intentions to operate newsstands in the form of proposals to the Commission.^[14]

Some conditions applied only to certain parts of the system:

• The BMT agreed to hand out transfers at the 86th Street/Gravesend station in Brooklyn to the Third Avenue Line and the Fifth Avenue Line streetcar lines to 86th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway. They were also to extend these streetcar lines to 86th Street and Fourth Avenue, where a transfer could be made at the 86th Street/Fourth Avenue station.^[14]
• The BMT also agreed to make transfers with the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad from the 34th Street subway station to the 33rd Street H&M station. The transfers applied to passengers going to Grand Central Terminal,^[14] since the H&M had originally planned an extension there.^[15]
• The IRT agreed to equip and operate the Steinway Tunnel until it was rebuilt and completed. Then, the Steinway Tunnel was still a trolley tunnel with no subway connection. Transfers were to be made to IRT rapid transit lines at the Grand Central–42nd Street station. The Commission approved single-car rolling stock for the line.^[14]

Under the original system, the original line and early extensions built for the IRT are:

• Eastern Parkway Line from Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center to Borough Hall
• Lexington Avenue Line from Borough Hall to Grand Central–42nd Street
• 42nd Street Shuttle from Grand Central–42nd Street to Times Square
• Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line from Times Square to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street
• Lenox Avenue Line from 96th Street to 145th Street
• White Plains Road Line from 142nd Street Junction to 180th Street–Bronx Park (removed north of 179th Street)

The following lines were built under the Dual Contracts for the IRT:^[7]

• Astoria Line and Flushing Line
• Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line south of Times Square–42nd Street, including the Brooklyn Branch
• Lexington Avenue Line north of Grand Central–42nd Street
• Jerome Avenue Line
• Ninth Avenue Line from 155th Street to the Jerome Avenue Line
• Pelham Line
• White Plains Road Line north of 177th Street (present-day Tremont Avenue)
• Eastern Parkway Line beyond Atlantic Avenue
• Nostrand Avenue Line
• New Lots Line

The following lines were rebuilt with extra tracks:^[7]

• Ninth Avenue Line from Rector Street to 155th Street (one new track)
• Second Avenue and Third Avenue Lines from City Hall station to 129th Street and from 116th Street to 155th Street, respectively.

Some of the IRT lines proposed under the Contracts were not built. Most notably, there were plans to build an IRT line to Marine Park, Brooklyn (at what is now Kings Plaza) under either Utica Avenue, using a brand-new line, or Nostrand Avenue and Flatbush Avenue, using the then-new IRT Nostrand Avenue Line. There were also alternate plans for the Nostrand Avenue Line to continue down Nostrand Avenue to Sheepshead Bay.^[16]

All Manhattan and Queens BMT lines were built under the Dual Contracts, as were all subway and some elevated lines in Brooklyn.^[7]

As reformists predicted, the Dual Contracts resulted in city expansion. People moved to the newly built homes along the newly built subway lines. These homes were affordable, about the same cost as the houses in Brooklyn and Manhattan.^[11] The Dual Contracts were the key to dispersion of the city's congested areas. The Dual Contracts helped lower high population areas and probably helped save lives as people were no longer living in heavily diseased areas. According to the Federal Census of New York City for 1920 the population in Manhattan below 59th Street decreased from 1910 to 1920. The census resulted in the following:

• 1905 State census: 1,271,848
• 1910 United States census: 1,269,591
• 1915 State census: 1,085,308
• 1920 United States census: 1,059,589^[17]

People were allowed to move to better parts the same cost and could have a better and more comfortable life in the suburbs. They could still commute to work every day as most of the better off city workers who moved to the outer boroughs did.^[11] This also helped the business districts as people could still work.