Staten Island Fantasy System Useful for Future BVE

I am currently coming up with a detailed plan for Staten Island. I believe it's quite ingenious as I am using scribble maps to snake the routes through neighborhoods. The assumption is that these routes were built from the time frame when they were proposed in the years before WWII. Additional routes were added after WWII. The point here is that non underground routes may be in place of existing residential structures. It also assumes that Staten Island is more urban in 2015 as a result of these routes. Here is the fantasy Staten Island of 2015.

• Mid and high rise development is in place on Richmond Avenue north of Arthur Kill Road.
• The mall complex exists at its current location.
• Travis and Mariners Harbor have a mix of row houses and newer high risers.
• The Saint George area is Downtown Staten Island.
• The urban area along Bay Street is more organized.
• The Verrazano Bridge exists and was opened in 1951 in conjunction with the building of the Gowanus Expressway and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The Richmond Parkway, Willowbrook Parkway, and Shore Front Parkway are built as originally proposed. South Beach and Midland Beach are destination hot spots.
• High risers stretch from the Verrazano Bridge south to New Dorp Beach.
• The hills of Staten Island retain their exclusivity and the area south of New Dorp to Tottenville retains its suburban nature albeit a little denser than what it is currently.
• There are NO wetlands designations or ridiculous parklands to preserve woodlands that nobody uses. And lastly NO Gateway National Park.
• The 2015 population is 1,250,000.

The connection to the subway system implies 2 tunnels to Brooklyn. The first is the existing proposal from 67th  Street and Owls Head Park to Tompkinsville, Staten Island. This tunnel realizes the original proposal to connect to the 4th Avenue subway.  However a there is new a connection to the Triboro RX which was also built around 1950. The other is a longer tunnel from Saint George to Red Hook Brooklyn. The longer tunnel anchors Governors Island as a fast route to Manhattan and connecting to the 2nd Avenue subway originating on Water Street. It also extends to the Smith Street IND subway for quick connections from Staten Island to the 6th and 8th Avenue subways and the crosstown subway to Queens.

Here are the details:

• On Staten Island the North Shore SIRT is disconnected from the subway and used entirely as freight.
• A 4 track subway runs along a route on Castleton Avenue west to Forest Avenue along Port Richmond Avenue and then along Forest Avenue ending in Mariners Harbor at South Avenue. This route extends the IND Crosstown line which uses the Red Hook Tunnel and the Triboro RX which uses the Owls Head Tunnel.  Another branch of the line branches off in Brooklyn to Governors Island and terminates there.
• A 2 track route runs along Victory Blvd and ends at Travis Avenue. This route extends the IND 6th Avenue line which uses the Red Hook Tunnel and runs as a subway to Willowbrook road. It exists the tunnel and runs open cut from Willowbrook Road to Travis.
• A route uses the existing South Shore SIRT from Rosebank to Tottenville. North of Rosebank the route enters a tunnel. The current stations of St. George, Tompkinsville, Stapleton, and Clifton are disconnected from the subway system and are part of the North Shore freight system.  A subway along Bay Street takes the place of these stations.  Two lines use this route and the existing right of way is expanded to 4 tracks south to Great Kills. These lines are the new 2nd Avenue Express which runs from Tottenville to 125th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. This runs as an express and uses the Red Hook Tunnel.  There are no stops in Brooklyn, but there is a stop on Governors Island before running to Manhattan. The other line is the extension of the BMT 4th Avenue line which terminates in Great Kills. This runs as a local and used the Owls Head Tunnel.
• Another route replaces the South Beach SIRT except for the right of way from the Verrazano toll plaza to Sand Lane. This line runs from Vanderbilt Avenue in Clifton as a subway along Bay Street, then uses the above mentioned right of way exiting the tunnel south of the toll plaza then and running as Staten Island's only true elevated line along Capodanno Blvd to Lincoln Avenue where it then runs at street level to Ebbitts Street in New Dorp. This line operates as a shuttle to Clifton except for rush hours when some 2nd Avenue trains run along this route.
• The Triboro RX branches off Forest Avenue and Richmond Avenue to run along Richmond Avenue to meet up with the 2nd Avenue line in Eltingville on the SIRT right of way. This line exits the tunnel and runs on 2 tracks along a median on Richmond Avenue up to just north of the Fresh Kills Bridge. At that point it runs on a berm consistent with the elevated style of the South Shore SIRT. The berm is situated east of Richmond Avenue.
• The Hudson Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) is extended over the Bayonne Bridge to meet up with the lines at Richmond and Forest Avenues.  Another fantasy version could scrap the HBLR all together and replace it with the PATH system.  With the raising of the Bayonne Bridge it would be best to have the PATH run under the Kill van Kull.
• The 2nd Avenue Local runs exclusively in Manhattan.
• Train yards exist in New Dorp Beach, Tottenville, and Travis.

This is quite complex and was given a lot of thought, leveraging current street maps as well as a knowledge of Staten Island.  I would like to sometime in the future to incorporate this into BVE. I will soon be posting a number of detailed maps illustrating this design.