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SSG 6: The Rego Park Provision (Updated)

Another prominent provision along the IND Queens Blvd Line—though lesser known than the Winfield Spur at Roosevelt Ave—the Rego Park provision was planned to serve a very similar route to the Winfield Spur. Sitting between 63rd Dr and 67th Ave are several bellmouths to provide for an extension south via the LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch right of way, without having to reconstruct the entire surrounding tunnel on QBL (similar to other Second System provisions around the city). It’s unclear to me what exactly the progression of plans for this branch of the line was, but in 1929 only an extension branching from Roosevelt Ave had been planned, and by 1939 the extension was only planned to go from this provision.

Southern bellmouth between 63rd Dr and 67th Ave, QBL

Regardless, this line would have brought full time subway service to underserved or unserved neighborhoods and made use of the now decaying LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch (a land of many mosquitoes). Recently, there have been several proposals to utilize this line, but unfortunately, none have gained any traction.

North bellmouth near 63rd Dr

There isn’t much to the tunnel itself at a glance: the provisions are in a standard IND tunnel, cut and cover (boxy) construction, between two local stations. However, a nearby local station, Woodhaven Blvd, actually would have been converted into an express stop during the construction of this line. Furthermore, an additional under-river tunnel between Queens and Manhattan was proposed to supplement service to this line. Originally, the under-river tunnel was planned to be at 61st St, but by 1939 it was moved to 76th St, to join the Queens Blvd Line at Broadway and Steinway St in Queens. This under-river tunnel did actually later materialize as the 63rd St Tunnel.