Okay. I am willing to keep an open mind about the Mayor’s “Congestion Pricing”. I really am. It supposedly works in London. There are too many vehicles in Manhattan. So, although I am still far from being thoroughly sold on the idea, I am still willing to see both sides. And, yes, we do need to motivate New Yorkers to refrain from driving into, and within, Manhattan. And we certainly have a wonderful mass transit system, even though the anglophile in me prefers the London “tube”

But an article in today’s New York Times concerns me. In “Some Subways Packed Past Capacity” in todays NY/Region section, William Neuman reports that some major subway lines are “maxed out”to a point that the tracks can’t take any more trains. Especially affected are the 1,2,3,4,5, and 6 lines, which are part of the old IRT system.

So there we have it — nowhere to put anyone. If we manage to divert drivers onto the subways, there is no room for them. Even if we manage to convince commuters from the suburbs to take the PATH, LIRR, and Metro North into the city, most of them would need those numbered subway lines to take them to their offices. Any proposed solutions, such as the Second Avenue subway line, or institution of longer trains and the necessary longer platforms to accommodate those longer trains, are in the distant future.