I didn’t point to the age of the system as a positive, just the opposite. It’s old infrastructure running 24/7 and my point was to give the people running it credit for making it work at all. Just recently did signaling options advance out of the early 1900s.

I grew up in southeast Brooklyn and not a subway in sight. I had to take the bus to D for my early job in the city. So I feel you. The issue is the absolute ridiculous cost of building new lines - just look at the 2.5 billion per mile to build the 2 on UES. Building subways in NYC is more than twice as expensive as building subways in other places in the world. Labor unions, environmental impact and guess like everything NYC - just expensive.

As I think I said earlier, the money used to build this LIRR GCT station, tunnels and track, should have been used to the long planned light rail line between Brooklyn and Queens.

If this gets done, it will help. Still a bus from southeast Brooklyn to the light rail but cut the time dramatically.

https://gothamist.com/news/brooklyn-queens-interborough-express-rail-project-quickly-moves-next-phase