As Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway inches toward the finish line, the date for revenue service remains, according to the latest MTA documents, December 2016. We’ll witness at least two more Presidential elections before the trains roll past 63rd St. and Lexington and up Second Ave. Yet, the one question I most often field from readers concerns the identity of the Second Ave. Subway. Now that the Q heads to Astoria and doesn’t terminate at 57th St., will the MTA reroute it to serve as the Second Ave. Subway or will they revive another letter — perhaps the W — to signify and celebrate the new service?
For now, my general answer is “don’t worry about it.” So much can happen in six years that it’s not worth pondering the potential fate of the Astoria-bound Q train. Maybe the MTA will revive the W. Maybe the MTA will reshuffle service into and out of Astoria to ensure that the Q runs from Second Ave. and East 96th St. to Coney Island. Maybe some other Broadway-based service pattern will emerge. Today, that’s the least of the authority’s concerns.
Yet, these questions make me think there’s something more to the train line than just a decal letter on a subway stop and a colored line on a map. As we ride, we form connections with train lines for better or worse. For my entire life, I’ve lived near the West Side IRT trains. Growing up, my local station was the 96th St. on the 1/2/3, and today, I’m just a stone’s throw away from Grand Army plaza — where a green interloper in the shape of a 4 takes up precious real estate on the station entrance sign.
At Grand Army Plaza, a Crown Heights-bound 3 train zooms away. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
I’ve always considered the 2 to be my favorite train. When I was growing up, the old redbirds that used to roll along the 2 captured my attention. As a kid waiting to go to Yankee Stadium from the Upper West Side, I would peer into the tunnel hoping to catch a glimpse of the headlights on the 2 — but not the bullet signs on the 3 — so we could be on our way north.
Today, the rolling stock for the 2 consists of the not-so-new R142s, and those are distinctive for the bright red beacon at the top. Generally, the cars are well lit and well air conditioned. They don’t have those too-narrow bucket seats that make you feel as though you’ve encroached far beyond the limits of your neighbor’s personal space, and that express ride up the West Side from Chambers to 96th is among the fatest in the system.
Growing up, I was always skeptical of those other trains. The lines along Central Park West were the far-off ones that we never rode, and the stations nearest us — 86th St., 96th St. — were empty local stops. Other trains — the mysterious F, the J/M/Z, the East Side’s 4/5/6 — were other people’s trains. They weren’t mine. What did I care what happened to them?
Well, 22 years ago this past weekend, something big happened to them for on December 11, 1988. I didn’t know it at the time but for millions of riders who weren’t me, the subways shifted. Trains that used to go over the Manhattan Bridge didn’t; trains that used to run to one part of Queens were re-routed to others. The K train disappeared completely, and a new Z train materialized.
The August 1994 subway map reveals service patterns lost to the sands of time.
Over the next 16 years, straphangers would find their favorite — or just their most convenient — routes changed. In fact, in 2004, Brooklynites long used to the Brighton Beach-bound D trains were in for a shock. The D — which had run down the Brighton Line for nearly 40 years — had become the B, and the B had become the D. Overnight, everything changed, and a Beastie Boys reference had become anachronistic with the stroke of a pen. That’s how fleeting subway routing can be.
New York City subway riders tend to view the map as immovable. It has always looked as it does today, and service patterns have always been what they are today. Does anyone remember the V train? Does anyone remember life before the 6th Ave. M? And where did that W train go anyway? The trains come and go. We form bonds; they become preferred and then favorites; and then we forget about them when they’re gone.
One day later this decade, if all goes according to plan, Astorians will see their service patterns shifted again. The Q will go up Second Ave., and it will become the favorite line of a young Upper East Sider. He or she will never know what life is like without the Second Ave. Subway because it will have always been there, a gleaming beacon of permanent change in a system that shifts whether we notice it or not.
26 comments
As someone who’s had to make countless stops at Columbus Circle, 86th Street, 110th/116th, and 215th in the last 14 months, “my line” is definitely the 1 Train. That being said, there was nothing like taking the 4 to Yankee Stadium and getting that brief glimpse onto the field as you were pulling into the stop.
People develop irrational attractions to letters and numbers. On subtalk, some posters cried bloody murder when the B and the D switched Brooklyn terminals.
The fact is, almost every service pattern that is physically possible has been tried at some point. The current assignment of letters and numbers to services will last for a while, and then it will change again. It always does.
Why did they swap the B and D? It’s not entirely clear to me.
It made sense when the Q became the full-time Broadway express line. With the Q and D on the Brighton, you had two 24/7 lines there, and a part-time line in the B running on the West End. Switching the B and D put 24/7 lines on both the Brighton and West End, while the B runs at the times when the express track would normally be in operation on the Brighton.
(This actually just corrects a mistake the TA made back in 1967, when the planners, apparently with the ghost of the BMT-hating mayor John Hylan looking over their shoulders, decided to cut back Broadway-Brighton service to just rush-hours, in an attempt to force riders onto Sixth Avenue and the new Chrystie Street connection. It took years to reverse that mistake, and the 2004 swap was the last step in returning Brighton service to something like it was prior to ’67.)
This is a great article. It’s so true! I’ve lived my entire life on the F line (Ft Hamilton Pkwy, also near Church Ave) and the F is my train. I know the D used to run on the line but since I always grew up with the F I could never accept the F switching to another line and being replaced with a different train. That would drive me crazy. I’m also happy to have the G here now too. Since I used to visit family at Carroll Street when I was younger I used to always get annoyed that I couldn’t take the G home because it terminated at Smith-9th when it could have easily continued to my stop. I’m thrilled to have two train lines at my stop now and always liked the G since I thought it should have been extended to Church since I was a kid (hopefully it remains that way).
And just like you mentioned with the changing of train routes, I get annoyed when familiar trains are rerouted. I still wish the G went all the way to Forest Hills (it used to get me to Grand Ave in under an hour without a transfer; now it takes longer and I have to transfer, so this is like the reverse of how it was before because it drives me nuts that it can’t continue on and that the transfer at Court Square is inconvenient). I also wish the D and B went back to their normal routes. I can’t get used to it and think it made no sense to switch them (I know they switched after the construction of Manhattan Bridge, but it wasn’t necessary). Also, I hate that the B is just a weekday train and doesn’t go to Coney Island anymore since it used to always do that. I also miss not having the M and even the N at 9th St and Court St (stations I use often). I always love having more trains to transfer to, as well as the fact that it allowed me to only transfer once if I needed to go to my dentist at 79 St (Brooklyn). I would just grab the M (or if I wanted to go to 20th Ave on the N with just one transfer). I also thought it was cool how the M would come to Brooklyn twice (now it goes to Queens twice, which is alright except I’m biased toward Brooklyn).
And after 9/11 we had the 1 train to New Lots (for some reason I prefer the 1 coming to Brooklyn because it feels weird that only the 2/3 trains come here instead of the 1) and the J going to Bay Ridge, which was an interesting route (I love seeing different routes used that aren’t typical). And I do miss some of those old trains like the K (always figured it’d be cool if it ran from Church Ave and then onto the 8th ave line, just for a different route).
So, it’s true that we form bonds with our trains and even our stations. I always think of Ft Hamilton Pkway is my station and the most important one in the subway (with Church Ave second since it’s close). I can’t even imagine moving out of the area or near another line because of how much I identify with my trains and stations. It would just seem so wrong. I am excited about the new second avenue line and the new station complexes. While I miss the Jay Street-Borough Hall and Lawrence Street names, it does make more sense with the new name and the connection is just so awesome! So much faster and easier to transfer to the R now. Even wish they’d bring back that old Culver shuttle that I never got to ride and maybe build some of those lines from the second system and definitely the triboro rx.
Also wish the F hadn’t been rerouted thru the 63 street tunnel. Never liked that idea.
Subway services change and will always change, due to ridership demands and budgetary controls. In the past 20 years or so, the MTA simplified things. Instead of having a CC/C train serve as the 8th Avenue local during rush hours, and a AA/K serve as the 8th Avenue local middays, weekends, and evenings, they just got the C to serve as the 8th Avenue local all times except late nights.
Instead of having a B train which serves as the Central Park West local during rush hours, and other times terminating at 57th street, and late nights terminating as 36th street, they decided to shift the B to the Brighton Line. The D going to the West end line meant that late night travelers didn’t have to catch a shuttle at 36th street in order to go to/from Manhattan.
The F using the 63rd Street tunnel while the E and V (then M) used the 53rd street tunnel increased Queens/Manhattan services, plus gave the Queens Boulevard local two stations in which one could transfer to the Lexington Avenue line (59th and 53rd streets).
I think people are nostalgic for their childhood memories, but for transit ,as well as for all aspects of life, things move on and nothing is going to freeze in place because of your childhood memories.
I made a series of maps showing how routes and services have evolved with snapshots every 5 years from 1875 to 2010. While these don’t show the letters or numbers of services (which didn’t even exist until the 1960s on most lines), they do show which routes went where (as best as I could determine) using the modern trunk-line-based colour scheme. This makes it easy to see that the network hasn’t “always been” as it is now, and that while in its early years the system was characterised by constant changes in the underlying infrastructure, in the more recent past significant changes in service have still happened with only small amounts of construction.
(Scroll down for prev/next buttons, or press ‘a’ for previous and ‘s’ for next.)
Very interesting maps. What are all the routes on the map that aren’t NYCT subway? I recognize the PATH train… Is the first line on the map the West Side Line? It didn’t carry passengers though right?
The first line to appear is the Ninth Avenue Elevated, which actually began construction in 1867 but operated very little until the 1870s. It was followed shortly afterward by the Sixth, Third and Second Ave elevateds. These were taken over by the IRT shortly before the first subway opened in 1904, and completely torn down between 1938 and 1955 (to be replaced by the Eighth, Sixth and Second (…) Ave subways). The story of the BRT/BMT-operated elevated lines in Brooklyn is similar, though some 1880s structure still exists there as part of the J/Z train. I’ve also shown the New York, Westchester and Boston railway, which operated frequent service on a line that included part of today’s 5 train.
The West Side Line had passenger service north of 30th street from 1851 to 1916, but this was infrequent “commuter rail” and is not shown. In the 19th century passenger cars sometimes continued south of 30th street along surface tracks on 10th Avenue, pulled by horses. The “High Line” elevated structure was not built until the 1930s and never had passenger service.
It may just be because im getting older, but it seems like the “old” trains on the system today just dont have the same sort of differences as when they were the new kids of the block.
Getting my first exposure to trains in the mid-1960s, my lines were either the 6 or the LL, where the differences between the R-17/R-33 style cars on the Lex and the BMT standards on the Canarsie line couldn’t have been more stark (and don’t even get me started about the differences between the Lex trains circa 1965 and the Myrtle el). And going to Yankee Stadium on the 4, which by the mid-60s had mostly a fleet of cars between 2 and 10-years-old, and the D, which was still mainly R-1/R-4 cars, was immediately noticable.
Today, do kids get on an R-32 C or onto selected J or Z trains when an R-42 shows up and feel the same way? There are still a few differences in lines based on the types of cars they use, but the differences just aren’t the same as 25-50 years ago, when one of the things that made a line feel unique was the sharp contrast in the look, sound and feel of the rolling stock, a difference that continued well into the 1980s (though the period with the cracked trucks on the R-46s was really weird, since that kind of flipped the then-normal situation offend busiest lines got the newest cars on its head on the BMT and IND, and the newest cars ended up on the lesser used lines whie the older cars plowed the busier routes).
My 9 year old son does not know the names of the different car models (and I really don’t know them either), but he often discusses the differences between the “new” cars usually running on the N, the “older” cars on the D and R, and the “really old” ones on the C.
His favorite models are the new ones, especially the all-electric strip maps and automated announcements.
I tell my son the same thing… that the “new” trains are the ones with the blue seats, the “old” trains have orange and yellow seats, and the “really old” ones have gray seats.
Then he boarded the Times-Square Shuttle, completely wrapped inside and out in (I think) an HGTV ad. The seats were a silver-gray. He figured the train was “really old”, which it wasn’t.
Too bad the R-32s still don’t have their original powder blue seats. Then you’d have the really new and the really old trains with the same color seating.
I suppose there still was a big visual difference on the IRT up until 2003, when the last of the Redbirds were retired, but by the end all of the cars sans the R-33 singles were air-conditioned, just like the new cars, and all the cars had hard plastic seats, just like the new ones, even if the molding was different. Go back to the 60s or 70s and you had various rail cars that single door-leafs or split double doors, bull-and-pinon gears, wicker and cloth seats, door control buttons in the middle of the cars, etc., let alone the oil smell that all the older cars had.
It just seems like the difference between “really old” and “really new” is more into minor touch-ups like the FIND system and the automated announcements, as opposed to the wholesale changes between new and old cars back in the 60s and 70s.
Also too bad that the R-32’s don’t have the old metal “straps” that would swing back into place when you let go (like all the Red-birds). A stationary pole is so boring.
You are correct John. The differences today are minor compared to years ago. Today, there are more similarities (all stainless, hard seats, all fluorescent, some brighter than others) than differences (front or sideways seating, seat colors, modern signage and computer announcements or not, etc.)
In the 1960s, there were different outside and inside colors, an array of different types of seating, eg. 3 across on the standards, as well as they way they sounded, rode and smelled.
I grew up with the Lo Vs on the Lexington express which is my favorite. I loved the way the doors sounded when they opened and closed (unique to that car class), and how they didn’t close all at once, but in two motions — halfway, short pause, and then the rest of the way. (By contrast the doors on the D-type articulated closed like a guillotine.) My favorite ride was on the Lex Lo V through the Joralemon Street tunnel. Although the train traveled no faster than 40 to 50 mph, it felt like 100 because it made an awful lot of noise with all the windows and doors open in the summer, probably around 120 decibels (impossible to carry on a conversation), and the train would rock like hell from side to side. Even sitting, you would have to hold on to your seat or you would get knocked off by the violent movement of the train when it got really bad. The adults hated it and would curse, but me being 8 or 9 would just love it. To me it was better than any amusement ride I could take.
I certainly identify with the L, my newest home line. I grew up a D (Brighton Express) fan, and of course lived nearby there for many years, but I have to say that I never developed the same affinity for the R out of Bay Ridge even though I lived there for a while. I’d opt for the x28 many days instead just to avoid the R and the transfer to the then B. But of all these lines, none seems to garner the celebrity of the L with a NY Mag article named after it as well as the L Magazine for starters.
I’m in my mid-40s and I grew up along the Brighton Line. In my lifetime, all or part of that line has been served by routes with the following designations: 1, 7, Q, QB, QT, QJ, NX, D, M, Q (again), Circle Q, Diamond Q, B, S and SS.
Things change in New York all the time. That’s a good thing. Only dead cities stay the same.
I started commuting from Queens to high school in Manhattan just after the 63rd Street Connector opened, so the F via 63rd is the only one I’ve known.
But “my line” will always be the 7. My aunt taking 5-year-old me to Flushing on the weekends but not letting me peer out the Redbird windows was a crime against my childhood. Fortunately, I don’t see the 7 designation moving anytime soon.
my kids love looking out the window on the 7. so much more exciting than looking the window of the A which is all underground where we live.
[…] they use most often. That result seems to bolster the theory I set forth yesterday: Straphangers grow attached to their favorite train lines. In terms of service quality, 83 percent of people were satisfied with subway travel times while […]
I still find it bizarre that the 1/9 is now just the 1. Even though I can’t say the 9 ever did much for me, I would still get a serious dose of nostalgia if I saw an old sign somewhere referencing the 1/9.
I recently saw a sign for the 1/9 in the tunnel between the 1 and CE trains at 50th St.
When was that tunnel reopened?
How about extending the G to Astoria? This way Astoria keeps 2 lines, the Q can go to the UES and the G becomes more useful (including transfers at Queens(boro) Plaza!
Astoria keeps two lines, but one of them doesn’t go where the vast majority of its passengers are going, so the N will be overcrowded.
The G is plenty useful for people who live or work near its stations.