Last Subway is two books in one. On one level, it tells the story of a specific project: the decades-long effort to build a subway under Second Avenue in New York City. At a second level, it illustrates the challenges facing planners everywhere as they seek to build major public works in a country increasingly sceptical of the costs - financial and otherwise - of such megaprojects. The book succeeds impressively at both tasks, making it instructive reading for those who would understand why America struggles to build big things. (Transport Reviews) He has written this fascinating book called Last Subway I really like the way your book opens the window on the MTA in a way that loops in the casual reader in addition to the transit expert. (The Bond Buyer Podcast) In this highly recommended work, Plotch ably leads the reader through the tortured and convoluted history of the effort to build a Second Avenue subway. In Last Subway , Plotch unravels the twisted strands of state and local politics, municipal financing, and special interest groups to tell a compelling story. (Journal of Urban Affairs) What makes Last Subway such an impressive book is the storytelling through different key figures in New York City over the last century.

Plotch does an excellent job of personalizing transportation history through the description of significant planners and politicians. (Carolina Planning Journal) Once again, author Philip Plotch has crafted a compelling story from raw material of infrastructure politics. This time, the setting is decades of events leading to the opening of Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway in Manhattan. Plotch cooked up a rich stew of infrastructure issues: technical complexity, large investments, discord among interest groups, prideful bureaucrats, scheming politicians, and more. (Public Works Management and Policy) I recommend this book to a vast audience: not only transit gurus but also academics, young planners, and policymakers. They will all at least begin to understand how politicians and their personalities influence the administrative structure and the ebbs and flows of large project implementation (Journal of the American Planning Association) The archival research underpinning all chapters is meticulous and wide ranging. (Technology and Culture).