New York City Subway
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The New York City Subway is a large rapid transit system in New York City, New York, United States. It is the most extensive public transportation system in the United States and one one of the largest in the world with 468 stations and 656 miles (1056 km) of mainline track. When non-revenue trackage in shops and yards is included, the total is 842 miles (1355 km). The subway is operated by the New York City Transit Authority, described by its parent Metropolitan Transportation Authority as "MTA New York City Transit"
Though it is known as "the subway," implying underground operations, about forty percent of the system run on above ground rights-of-way, including steel or (rarely) cast iron elevated structures, concrete viaducts, earthen embankments, open cuts and, occasionally, surface routes. All of these modes are completely grade-separated from highway crossings.
History
There have been six distinct eras in New York rapid transit history.
The Private Enterprise Era (1867 - 1900)
During the Private Enterprise Era, the groundwork was laid for what would become the New York City Subway System.
At the outset of this era, New York County (Manhattan Island and part of the Bronx), Kings County (including the Cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburg) and Queens County were separate political entities.
In New York, competing steam-powered elevated railroads were built over major avenues. The first elevated line was constructed in 1867-70 by Charles Harvey and his West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway company along Greenwich Street and 9th Avenue. Later more lines were built on 2nd, 3rd and 6th Avenue. None of these structures remain today, but these lines later shared subway trackage as part of the IRT system.
In Kings County, elevated railroads were also built by several companies, over Park, Lexington and Myrtle Avenues, 5th Avenue to Bay Ridge, Fulton Street and Broadway (all these streets different from similarly named streets in Manhattan). Most of these structures have been dismantled, but some remain in original form, but mostly rebuilt and upgraded.
Also in Kings County, a number of surface steam, primarily excursion, railroads were built, most of which were connected to the elevated system by the end of the Private Enterprise Era, and all still extant, but mostly completely rebuilt.
The First Subway Era (1900 - 1913)
In 1898, New York, Kings and Richmond Counties, and parts of Queens and Westchester Counties and their constituent cities, towns, villages and hamlets were consolidated into the City of Greater New York.
During this era the expanded City of New York resolved that it wanted the core of future rapid transit to be underground subways, but realized that no private company was willing to put up the enormous capital required to build beneath the streets.
The City decided to issue rapid transit bonds outside of its regular bonded debt limit and build the subways itself, and contracted with the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) to equip and operate the subways, sharing the profits with the City and guaranteeing a fixed five-cent fare.
In this era, the original subway was built from City Hall to the Bronx, opening in October 1904, (subway contract 1) and to Atlantic Avenue LIRR terminal in Brooklyn (contract 2).
More subways were planned by the City in what was called the Triborough System and some construction was started. The IRT hoped to capture all of these lucrative lines and began acquiring or neutralizing possible competitors.
In Brooklyn, the various elevated railroads and many of the surface steam railroads, as well as most of the trolley lines, were consolidated under the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT). Some improvements were made to these lines at company expense during this era.
Some of the lines the IRT was seeking would have competed with existing BRT lines and the BRT wanted the opportunity to compete in Manhattan. This led to the City's agreeing to contract for future subways with both the BRT and IRT.
The Dual Contracts Era (1913 - 1929)
Main article: Dual Contracts (New York Subway).
The expansion of rapid transit was greatly facilitated by the signing of the Dual Contracts in 1913 between the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the City of New York (contract 3) on the one hand, and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company and the City of New York (contract 4) on the other. The majority of the present-day NYC subway was either built or improved under these contracts, including most of the current IRT ("A Division")system and most of the BMT ("B1 Division").
The Independent System Era (1929 - 1940)
Main articles: Independent Subway System
The City, bolstered by political claims that the private companies were reaping profits at taxpayer expense, determined that it would build, equip and operate a new system itself, with private investment and without sharing the profits with private entities. This led to the building of the Independent City-Owned Subway (ICOS), though it was also sometimes called the Independent Subway System (ISS), the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad, or simply The Eighth Avenue Subway after the location of its premier Manhattan mainline. After the City acquired the BMT and IRT in 1940, the Independent lines were dubbed "the IND" to follow the three-letter initialisms of the other systems.
As the first line neared completion, New York City offered it, pro forma, for private operation, knowing that no operator would meet its terms, so the city declared that it would operate it itself, formalizing a foregone conclusion. In keeping with the quasi-Socialist spirit of the city at the time, the first line opened without a formal ceremony. The trains began operating their regular schedules ahead of time, and all stations of the Eighth Avenue Line, from 207th Street in Washington Heights to Hudson Terminal (now World Trade Center station), opened simultaneously at one minute after midnight on September 10, 1932.
Magnificently engineered, almost entirely underground, with ~670 foot (~204 m.) platforms and flying junctions throughout, the IND system tripled the City's rapid transit debt, ironically contributing to the demise of plans for an ambitious "second system" proposed before the first line of the "first" system was even opened.
Unification and the Era of Contraction (1940 - 1980)
In June, 1940, the transportation assets of the former BMT and IRT systems were taken over by the City of New York and operated by the City's Board of Transportation, which already operated the IND system.
A combination of factors had this takeover coincide with the end of the major rapid transit building eras in New York City. The City immediately began to eliminate what it considered redundancy in the system, closing the IRT 9th Avenue and most of the 2nd Avenue elevated lines in Manhattan, and the BMT 5th Avenue, 3rd Avenue and most of the Fulton Street elevated lines in Brooklyn.
Even during World War II which gave a reprieve to the closure of most rail transit in the US, some closures continued, including the remainder of the IRT 2nd Avenue el in Manhattan (1942), and the surviving BMT elevated services over the Brooklyn Bridge (1944).
The originally planned IND system was built to the completion of its original plans after World War II ended, but the system then entered an era of deferred maintenance in which infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate, and closures continued. These closures included the entire IRT 3rd Avenue el in Manhattan (1954) and the Bronx (1974); in Brooklyn the BMT Lexington Avenue el (1950), remainder of the Fulton Street el (1956), the downtown Brooklyn part of the Myrtle Avenue el (1969) and the Culver Shuttle (1975).
Only two new lines were opened in this era, the IRT Dyre Avenue Line (1941) and the IND Rockaway Line (1956). Both of these lines were rehabilitations of existing railroad rights-of-way rather than new construction. The former line was the City portion of the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway and the latter a line obtained from the Long Island Rail Road. While the Rockaway Line is a long and substantial line, it consists mostly of a long right-of-way crossing Jamaica Bay with a single station on Broad Channel island and two branches on a peninsula that is only several City blocks wide.
In 1951 a half-billion dollar bond issue was passed to build the Second Avenue Subway, but money from this issue was used for other priorities and the building of short connector lines, including the 60th Street Tunnel Connection (1955), linking the BMT Broadway Line to the IND Queens Boulevard Line, the Chrystie Street Connection (1967), linking the BMT southern and eastern Brooklyn Lines to the IND Sixth Avenue Subway, and completion of a connection between the IND Brooklyn Line and the BMT Culver Line at Ditmars and MacDonald Avenues in Brooklyn (1954), allowing IND subway service to operate to Coney Island for the first time.
The Era of Reconstruction and Incremental Advance (1980 - Present)
More details to come.
The Three Systems and the One
The subway as it exists today is a consolidation of three separate and competing systems.
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
The Interborough Rapid Transit or IRT was the first of these systems to operate subway service, following more than twenty years of public debate on the merits of subways versus the existing elevated rail system and on various proposed routes. It opened on October 27, 1904. The first IRT line to open ran between City Hall and Broadway at 145th Street.
It acquired the pre-existing Manhattan Elevated by lease, gaining a monopoly on rapid transit in Manhattan. The Manhattan el was the operator of four elevated railways in Manhattan with an extension into The Bronx. The IRT coordinated some services between what became its subway and elevated divisions, but all the lines of the former Manhattan el have since been dismantled.
The IRT today operates as a subway in Manhattan, except for a short stretch across Harlem at 125th Street and in northernmost Manhattan. Its many lines in the Bronx are predominantly elevated, with some subway, and some railroad-style right-of-way inherited from the defunct New York, Westchester and Boston Railway, which now comprises the Dyre Avenue Line. Its two Brooklyn lines are in subway with a single elevated extension that reaches into Queens, and the Flushing Line, its sole major Queens line is entirely elevated except for a short portion approaching its East River tunnel and its terminal in Flushing. The Flushing Line has had no physical connection to the rest of the IRT since 1942. It is connected to the BMT at Queensborough Plaza and major servicing in done at the BMT's Coney Island Yard.
The IRT was taken over by the City of New York in June 1940.
Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation
The Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation or BMT was a holding company that operated both elevated trains (els) and subways through its subsidiary New York Rapid Transit Corporation, mostly within Brooklyn or connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan and Queens. It succeeded the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) but was renamed when the latter company was released from bankruptcy in 1923.
The predecessor BRT opened its first short subway segment, consisting only of an underground terminal at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge at Delancey and Essex Streets in Manhattan on June 16, 1908. This line was extended three stations to Chambers Street beneath the Municipal Building at the foot of Brooklyn Bridge on August 4, 1913. The BRT opened its first Brooklyn subway under 4th Avenue on June 22, 1915, running over the Manhattan Bridge to reach the aforementioned Chambers Street station. The BRT opened the first segment of its Manhattan main line subway, the Broadway Line, as far as Union Square on September 4, 1917.
Some of the former elevated system of the BRT, dating to 1885, remains in use today, though most of the surviving structure was either built new or rehabilitated between 1915 and 1922. One piece of structure, the elevated portion of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, built in 1896 and 1905, was extensively rebuilt in 1999.
The BRT also succeeded to the property of a number of surface railroads, the earliest of which, the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad or West End Line, opened for passenger service on October 9, 1863 between Fifth Avenue at 36th Street at the then border of Brooklyn City and Bath Beach in the Town of Gravesend, New York. A short piece of surface route of this railroad, near Coney Island Creek, is the oldest existing piece of rapid transit right-of-way in New York City, and in the U.S., having opened on June 8, 1864.
Current BMT lines in Manhattan are exclusively subway. Its Brooklyn lines include one long subway line, the Fourth Avenue Line, and one subway connector, hooking the pre-existing Brighton Beach Line to the main subway at a large flying junction at DeKalb and Flatbush Avenues. The remaining Brooklyn lines are on elevated structures, in open cuts or on embankments, or on short portions of surface trackage. Several Brooklyn lines extend into Queens, and these are elevated, except for the final station on the Myrtle Avenue Line, which is on the surface, and the last two stations of the Jamaica Avenue Line, which is in a new (1989) subway. The BMT's only line in Queens which comes directly from Manhattan, the Astoria Line, is all elevated.
Like the IRT, the BMT was taken over by the City of New York in 1940.
Independent City-Owned Subway System
The Independent Subway System or IND first opened on September 10, 1932, as a municipally-owned alternate to the two earlier private systems. The first IND line to open was the 8th Avenue line between 207th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, and Hudson Terminal (later renamed World Trade Center station) downtown.
The entire original IND system, as built, was entirely underground in the four boroughs that it served, with the exception of a section of track containing two stations spanning the Gowanus Canal in the Red Hook/South Brooklyn section of Brooklyn.
The IND was extended over two pieces of elevated line that were disconnected from the original BMT system: the Culver Line in 1954, and the Liberty Avenue extension of the Fulton Street Elevated in 1956. The IND had surface running to and across Jamaica Bay, along with elevated tracks on the viaduct on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, the same year. The Queens additions occurred when a sizable portion of the Long Island Rail Road was added to the division.
In 1929, plans were drawn for an ambitious "Second System" that would have added massively to the original lines. Provision was made at several key crossing points for some of these lines, but they never advanced further.
The Independent System was not called the IND until after Unification in 1940. Previously it was known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOS), Independent Subway System (ISS) or Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad. However, most people simply called it the Eighth Avenue Subway from the beginning of operation and for many years after Unification.
The Unified System and its Problems
The three systems were unified and then operated by the City of New York through its Board of Transportation in 1940, which was succeeded in 1953 by the New York City Transit Authority, a state agency incorporated for the benefit of the city, now known to the public as MTA New York City Transit. However, a distinction between the three systems survives in the line numbering: IRT lines (now referred to as "Division A") have numbers, BMT/IND (now collectively "Division B") uses letters. There's also a more physical but less obvious difference. Division A (IRT) cars are narrower than Division B (BMT and IND) ones by 18 inches (~45cm) and shorter by 9 to 24 feet (~2.7 to 7.3m).
The original IRT subway lines were built to elevated line dimensions. The clearances and curves on these lines are too narrow and too sharp for any IND or BMT equipment. The later extensions of the IRT, constituting the bulk of the system, were built to BMT dimensions, and so are of a profile that could use IND/BMT sized equipment. In other words, Division B equipment could operate on much of Division A if station platforms were trimmed and wayside (trackside) furniture moved. Being able to do so would increase the capacity of Division A. However, there is virtually no chance of this happening because the portions of Division A that could not accommodate Division B equipment without major physical reconstruction are situated in such a way that it would be impossible to put together coherent through services. The most that can be reasonably hoped for is that some branch lines of Division A might be resized and attached to Division B lines. This was done with the Astoria Line in Queens, and has been proposed for the Pelham Bay Line in the Bronx.
Because the Division A lines are of lower capacity for a given capital investment, all new extensions and lines built since World War II have been for Division B.
Division A cars can travel on Division B lines when necessary, but are not used for passenger service on those lines due to the dangerously wide gap between the car and the station platform.
Though widely used and an essential part of urban life for New York City, the unified system's turbulent history has left other challenges for the modern New York City subway. First of all, the subway system began at a time when Thomas Edison and his opponents in the electricity industry were trying to decide whether or to accept alternating current or, as Edison wanted, direct current as the standard way to deliver electricity. Edison lost the battle and alternating current became the standard, but not before the New York City subway system adopted direct current. As a result, to this day, the city has to convert alternating current to direct current when it buys electricity to power the trains. Secondly, because the early subway systems competed with each other, they tended to cover the same areas of the city, leading to much overlapping service. The amount of service has actually decreased since the 1940s as the rail concourses over New York City's avenues were torn down, and finding funding for underground replacements has proven difficult.
The subway system today
The New York City Subway is designed for carrying large numbers of people during working days. A typical subway station has waiting platforms ranging from 400 to 700 feet (122 to 213 m) long to accommodate large numbers of people. Passengers enter a subway station through stairs towards station booths and vending machines to buy their fare, currently the MetroCard. After swiping at a turnstile, customers walk down to the waiting platforms below. Some subway lines in the outer boroughs have elevated tracks with stations that passengers climb up to. With some exceptions, subway tunnels between stations are rectangular in shape.
In many stations there is both express and local service. These lines generally have four tracks-the outer two for local trains, and inner two for express trains. Express lines have subway trains that pick up and unload passengers at specific stations, particularly transfer stations (special stations where passengers can walk from one line to another for free), while skipping less frequently used local stations.
A typical subway train has from 8 to 11 cars (shuttles as short as 2), when put together the train can range from 150 to 600 feet (46 to 183 m) long. As a general rule the IRT trains are shorter and narrower than the IND/BMT trains, the result being that each line uses different types of subway cars. Between 1985 and 1989 some trains on the IRT lines were painted red, giving them the name redbirds. Most of them were replaced by new, more modern subway trains between 2000 and 2004.
Subway stations are located throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Nearly all subway lines cross through these boroughs, and they also possess a majority of transfer stations. All lines pass through Manhattan, except one major line, the 'G' Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown Local, which directly connects Brooklyn and Queens without entering Manhattan.
In 1994 the subway system introduced a special fare-paying system called the MetroCard, which allows riders to use cards that store money paid to a token booth clerk or to a vending machine. The MetroCard was further enhanced in 1997 to allow passengers to make free transfers from subway to bus and vice versa within two hours. The world-famous token was phased out in 2003, the same year the MTA raised the basic fare to $2, amid angry protests from passenger and advocacy groups such as the Straphangers Campaign.
In 2002 an average of 4.5 million passengers used the subways every weekday.
Lines and routes
Many rapid transit systems run relatively static routings, so that a train line is more or less synonymous with a train route. In New York, line describes the physical railroad line or series of lines that a train route uses on its way from one terminal to another.
Routes are distinguished by a letter or a number.
Lines have names.
For example, the D Train or D Route, though collequially the D Line runs over the following lines on its journey:
- In the Bronx, the Grand Councourse Line;
- In Manhattan, the 8th Avenue Line and 6th Avenue Line;
- In Brooklyn, the Fourth Avenue Line and the West End Line.
Subway routes
There are 27 train routes in the NYCT system, including several shuttles. Each route has a color, representing the Manhattan trunk line of the particular service, but a different color is assigned to the G-Brooklyn Queens Crosstown Route, since it does not operate in Manhattan.
Trains are marked by the route letter in either black or white (for appropriate contrast) on a field in the color of its mainline. The field is enclosed in a circle for most services, or a diamond for special services, such as rush-hour only expresses on a route that ordinarily runs local.
| Route | Line(s) | Terminals | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRT (Division A) | |||
| 1 | Broadway-7th Avenue Local | Broadway-7th Avenue Line (Bronx and Manhattan) | Van Cortlandt Park-242nd Street - South Ferry |
| 2 | 7th Avenue Express | White Plains Road Line (Bronx) Broadway-7th Avenue Line (Manhattan) |
wakefield-241st Street - Brooklyn College-Flatbush Avenue |
| 3 | 7th Avenue Express | Lenox Avenue Line, Broadway-7th Ave. Line (Manhattan) IRT Brooklyn Line, New Lots Ave. Line (Brooklyn & Queens) |
148th St. Harlem - New Lots Avenue |
| 4 | Lexington Avenue Express | Jerome Avenue Line (Bronx) Lexington Avenue Line (Manhattan) |
Woodlawn - New Lots Avenue |
| 5 | Lexington Avenue Express | Dyre Ave. Line, White Plains Rd. Line (Bronx) Lexington Avenue Line (Manhattan) |
Eastchester-Dyre Avenue - Brooklyn College-Flatbush Avenue |
| 6 | Lexington Avenue/Pelham Local Lexington Avenue Local/Pelham Express |
Pelham Bay Line (Bronx) Lexington Avenue Line (Manhattan) |
Pelham Bay Park - Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall |
| 7 | Flushing Local Flushing Express |
Flushing Line (Manhattan and Queens) | Flushing-Main Street - Times Square-42nd Street |
| 9 | Broadway-7th Avenue Local | Service as a skip-stop of 1 route to be discontinued in 2005 |
Same as 1 service |
| S | 42nd Street Shuttle | 42nd Street Shuttle Line (Manhattan) | 42nd Street-Times Square - 42nd Street-Grand Central |
| IND/BMT (Division B) | |||
| A | 8th Avenue Express | Washington Heights Line & 8th Avenue Line (Manhattan) Fulton Street Line (Brooklyn) |
Inwood-207th Street - Ozone Park-Lefferts Boulevard / Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue / Rockaway Park Beach-116th Street |
| B | 6th Avenue Express | Grand Concourse Line (Bronx) 8th Avenue Line & 6th Avenue Line (Manhattan) |
Bedford Park Boulevard - Brighton Beach |
| C | 8th Avenue Local | Washington Heights Line & 8th Avenue Line (Manhattan) Fulton Street Line (Brooklyn) |
Washington Heights-168th Street - Euclid Avenue |
| D | 6th Avenue Express | Grand Concourse Line (Bronx) 8th Avenue Line & 6th Avenue Line (Manhattan) |
205th Street - Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue |
| E | 8th Avenue Local | Queens Boulevard Line (Queens) 8th Avenue Line (Manhattan) |
Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer - World Trade Center |
| F | Queens Boulevard Express/6th Avenue Local | Queens Boulevard Line (Queens) 6th Avenue Line & Houston St. Line(Manhattan) |
Jamaica-179th Street - Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue |
| G | Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown | Crosstown Line (Queens & Brooklyn) IND Brooklyn Line (Brooklyn) |
Court Square, Long Island City - Smith-9th Street, Red Hook |
| J | Nassau Street Local | Jamaica Avenue Line (Queens) Broadway-Brooklyn Line (Brooklyn) |
Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer - Broad Street |
| L | 14th Street-Canarsie Local | 14th Street Line (Manhattan) Eastern Line & Canarsie Line (Brooklyn) |
8th Avenue - Canarsie-Rockaway Parkway |
| M | Nassau Street Local | Myrtle Avenue Line (Queens & Brooklyn) Broadway-Brooklyn Line (Brooklyn) |
Middle Village-Metropolitan Avenue - Bay Parkway |
| N | Broadway Express | Astoria Line (Queens) BMT Broadway Line (Manhattan) |
Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard - Gravesend-86th Street |
| Q | Broadway Express | BMT Broadway Line (Manhattan) Brighton Beach Line (Brooklyn) |
57th Street - Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue |
| R | Broadway Local | -tk- | Forest Hills/71st Avenue - Bay Ridge-95th Street |
| S | Franklin Avenue Shuttle | -tk- | Franklin Avenue - Prospect Park |
| S | Rockaway Park Shuttle | -tk- | Broad Channel - Rockaway Park Beach-116th Street |
| V | Queens Boulevard/6 Avenue Local | -tk- | Forest Hills-71st Avenue - Lower East Side-2nd Avenue |
| W | Broadway Local | -tk- | Astoria Ditmars Boulevard - Whitehall Street-South Ferry |
| Z | Nassau Street Express | -tk- | Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer - Broad Street |
The Second Avenue Subway was planned, but never built after some initial construction.
The original IND nomenclature (for letters A-H) depicted the Manhattan mainline name as the route name, and included the branch line name with the destination name. For example, the "A-Washington Heights - Fulton Street Express via 8th Avenue" had "A-8th Avenue Express" as the route name, "Washington Heights-207th Street" as the upper destination and "Fulton-Euclid Avenue" as the lower destination.
IND usage classified all routes that entered Manhattan by their mainline routing: A, C, E via 8th Avenue, B, D, F via 6th Avenue; then further grouped the letters by "uptown" destination: A & B to Washington Heights, C & D to Concourse, E & F to Queens. As a final touch, single letters (A train) denoted an express, double letters (AA) a local on the same route.
BMT prior to IND integration
Once integration with the BMT system began in earnest in 1967, the coherence of this lettering scheme was first corrupted, then pretty much thrown out the window, with trains running express on part of a route, local on another part. Terminals were swapped, and new letters introduced without any particular underlying logic. The double letter system was played around with: in addition to the original "neat" AA, BB, CC, etc., classifications, there were QB, QT, QJ, RJ, MJ, and NX, the latter an express; and then the system was abandoned entirely, all lines receiving a single letter or number.
The original BMT nomenclature didn't use route letters, though it sometimes used numbers. The "W-West End Express via Broadway Express" routing above was simply the "West End Express."
BMT route numbers, used on some equipment until 1967, were:
- 1—Brighton Beach Line (now B & Q)†
- 2—Fourth Avenue Line (now R)
- 3—West End Line (now D & M)†
- 4—Sea Beach Line (now N)
- 5—Culver Line (now F)
- 6—Fifth Avenue (Brooklyn)-Bay Ridge Line (abandoned 1940)
- 7—Brighton-Franklin Line (now S, as a shuttle only)
- 8—Astoria Line (now covered by N and W services)
- 9—Flushing Line (now IRT 7 Line)
- 10—Myrtle-Chambers Line (now M)
- 11—Myrtle Avenue Line (abandoned 1969)
- 12—Lexington Avenue (Brooklyn) Line (abandoned 1950)
- 13—Fulton Street Line (abandoned 1940 (part) and 1956)
- 14—Broadway Brooklyn Line (now covered by M, J and L services)
- 15—Jamaica Line (now J)
- 16—14th St.-Canarsie Line (now L)
†As of 2/23/2004
With the beginning of major route integration of the IND and BMT in 1967, an attempt was made to eliminate the traditional BMT route names, like Brighton Beach, Culver and Sea Beach, in favor of the more "efficient" route letter system. It was thought this would make the system easier to use for tourists and casual riders, but it created a different confusion as lines with identical destinations might take different routes to get there: In 1965 there were two "Broadway Express" trains and one "Broadway Local" which went to Coney Island, but by entirely different paths. This problem was exacerbated by shuffling of services between different branch lines: in 1954 "D" train service was introduced on the Culver Line in Brooklyn; in 1967 it was switched to the Brighton Beach Line, and in 2004 it was switched yet again, this time to the West End Line.
Rolling Stock
The New York City Subway has the world's largest fleet of subway cars. Over 6400 cars (as of 2002) are on the NYCT roster. Car models are known as "R-types". The "R" in the model designation stands for "Rolling Stock" or "Revenue". This model numbering system dates back to the first cars for the IND division, the R1, in 1932.
see Rolling Stock of the New York City Subway for a summary of the fleet and car models.
Car models/classes purchased by NYC
So called "R" types cover only equipment purchased for the IND from its inception and purchased for all divisions after city ownership. The first class purchased after city ownership were the R10s.
| IND/BMT (Division B) | IRT (Division A) |
|---|---|
| R1 | R12 |
| R4 | R14 |
| R6 | R15 |
| R7 | R17 |
| R9 | R21 |
| R10 | R22 |
| R11 | R26 |
| R16 | R28 |
| R27 | R29 |
| R30 | R33 |
| R32 | R33 World's Fair |
| R38 | R36 |
| R40 | R36 World's Fair |
| R40M | R62 |
| R42 | R62A |
| R44 | R110A (R142 prototype) |
| R46 | R142 |
| R68 | R142A |
| R68A | |
| R110B (R143 prototype) | |
| R143 | |
| R160 |
See Also
External links
- MTA New York City Transit -Subways -official page
- www.nycsubway.org -a very thorough site
- NYPIRG's Straphangers Campaign -riders' advocacy
- Find the closest subway stop --courtesy the Straphanger's Campaign & nonprofitmaps.org
- rapidtransit.net -the history, technology and politics of rail transit
- New York City Subway Centennial -MTA site
- Brooklyn's Culver Shuttle
- Hopstop.com: online subway directions