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NEW YORK CITY
 New York . USA

to New Jersey

 

Lines and Routes | History | Projects | PATH | Other Rail Transit | Books | Links

 System  

Subway (N) Queensboro PlazaThe entire network consists of 22 lines, plus 3 shuttle services. Total route length is approx. 350 km (some 230 km underground), with some sections having 3 or 4 tracks for express services. There are 472 stations (153 elevated, 38 at grade or in an open cutting and 281 underground). The deepest station on the network is 191 St (Lines 1/9) which lies 60 m below street level. The New York City Subway operates around the clock, about every 4 min during rush hours (06:30-09:30 and 15:30-20:00) and every 20 min after midnight.

Numbered lines correspond to the older small-profile IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) network, whereas letter-coded lines were once the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit) or the IND (Independent Subway) network. The three systems were merged in 1940, but the larger trains of the BMT/IND system cannot operate on the IRT routes.

 

U-Bahn, S-Bahn & Tram in New York
 Lines
...
7th Avenue Line

 (1) Van Cortlandt Park-242 St (Bronx) <> South Ferry (Manhattan) - Broadway/7th Avenue Local 
 (2) Wakefield (Bronx) <> Brooklyn College-Flatbush Av (Brooklyn) - 7th Avenue Express
 (3) Harlem-48 St (Manhattan) <>Van Siclen Av (Brooklyn)- 7th Avenue Express

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

Lexington Avenue Line

 (4) Woodlawn (Bronx) <> Crown Hts-Utica Av (Brooklyn) - Lexington Avenue Express
 (5) Eastchester-Dyre Av (Bronx) <> Bowling Green (Manhattan)
- Lexington Avenue Express
 (6) Pelham Bay Park (Bronx) <> Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall (Manhattan)
- Lexington Avenue Local

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

Flushing Line

 (7) 34 St-Hudson Yards <> Flushing Main St - Flushing Local

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

34 St-Hudson Yards 34 St-Hudson Yards 34 St-Hudson Yards

8th Avenue Line

 (A) Inwood-207 St (Manhattan) <> Ozone Park-Lefferts Blvd or Far Rockaway-Mott Av (Queens) - 8th Avenue Express
 (
C) Washington Hts-168 St (Manhattan) <> Euclid Av (Brooklyn) - 8th Avenue Local
 (E) Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer (Queens) <> World Trade Center (Manhattan) - 8th Avenue Local

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

6th Avenue Line

 (B) Beford Park Blvd. ( Bronx)] - 145 St (Manhattan) <> Coney Island Stillwell Av (Brooklyn)
 (D) Norwood-205 St ( Bronx) <> Coney Island Stillwell Av (Brooklyn)
 (F) Jamaica-179 St (Queens) <> Coney Island-Stillwell Av (Brooklyn) via 63 St Connector and Jay St-Borough Hall (Brooklyn)
 (M) Forest Hills-71 Av (Queens) <> Metropolitan Av via Queens Plaza, 5th Av/53 St. and Broadway/Lafayette St.

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown Line

 (G) Court Square (Queens) <> Church Ave (Brooklyn)

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

Nassau Street/Jamaica Line

 (J) Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer (Queens) <> Broad St (Manhattan) - Nassau Street Local
 (Z)
Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer (Queens) <> Broad St (Manhattan) - Nassau Street Express operates only during rush hours

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

14th Street - Canarsie Line

 (L) 8th Avenue (Manhattan) <> Canarsie-Rockaway Pkwy (Brooklyn)

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

Broadway Line

 (N) Astoria-Ditmars Blvd (Queens) <> Coney Island-Stillwell Av (Brooklyn) via Pacific St (Brooklyn)
 (Q)
96th St-2nd Ave (Manhattan) <> Coney Island-Stillwell Av (Brooklyn) via 57 Street/7th Avenue (Manhattan)
 (R) Forest Hills-71 Av (Queens) <> Bay Ridge-95 St (Brooklyn) via Pacific St (Brooklyn)
 (W)
Astoria-Ditmars Blvd (Queens) <> Whitehall-South Ferry (Manhattan)

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

Second Avenue Subway:

Second Avenue Subway Second Avenue Subway Second Avenue Subway Second Avenue Subway

Shuttle Lines

 (S) Grand Central <> Times Sq-42 St (Manhattan)
 (S) Franklin Av <> Prospect Park (Brooklyn)
 (S) Broad Channel <> Rockaway Park-Beach 116 St (Queens)

NYC Subway NYC Subway NYC Subway

 

 

 HISTORY (Manhattan Trunk Routes and Recent Openings)

27 Oct 1904: City Hall - Grand Central/42 St – Times Sq/42 St – 145 St (Broadway) [IRT]
09 Jan 1908: First East River crossing between Bowling Green and Borough Hall
22 June 1915: Grand Central – Vernon Blvd/Jackson Ave [IRT Flushing Line]
04 Sept 1917: 14St/Union Sq – Manhattan Bridge – DeKalb Ave [BMT Broadway Subway]
05 Jan 1918: Prince St – Whitehall St/South Ferry
                  14St/Union Sq – Times Sq/42 St [BMT Broadway Subway]
17 July 1918: Original IRT Subway split into 7th Avenue/Broadway and Lexington Avenue Lines
04 Aug 1918: Essex St – Chambers St [BMT Nassau Street Line]
30 June 1924: 6th Ave (14 St) – Montrose Ave [BMT 14th Street-Canarsie Line]
30 May 1931: Chambers St – Broad St [BMT Nassau Street Line]
10 Sept 1932: Inwood/207 St – Chambers Street [IND 8th Avenue Subway]
15 Dec 1940: West 4 St/Washington Sq – 59 St/Columbus Circle [IND 6th Avenue Subway]
.....
11 Dec 1988: Kew Gardens – Jamaica Center/Parsons/Archer (E)
11 Dec 1988: 121st St (Jamaica Av) – Jamaica Center/Parsons/Archer (J/Z)
29 Oct 1989: 57th St (6th Av) – 21st St/Queensbridge (F)
16 Dec 2001: 21st St/Queensbridge – Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Ave (F)
16 Mar 2009: South Ferry new station
13 Sept 2015: Times Square - 34th St-Hudson Yards (7) 2.4 km
01 Jan 2017: 57th St/7th Av - 96th St/2nd Av (Q) 4.4 km [Second Avenue Subway]
08 Sept 2018: WTC Cortlandt station (1) reopened

U-Bahn, S-Bahn & Tram in New York

 PROJECTS

Second Avenue Subway:
For many decades a new route has been planned along 2nd Avenue. In spring 2007, the first phase of construction was started
from the present NQR station at 57th Street/7th Avenue (Broadway Line) to 96th Street on 2nd Avenue. The tunnel between 57th Street and Lexington Av/63 St stations already existed, so the new construction actually only included the section between Lexington Av/63 St and 96th Street. The first phase was eventually completed in 2017. In a second stage, the northern extension to the hub at 125th Street will be built. Find out details here.

 OTHER RAIL TRANSIT IN THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN AREA
..
  PATH

PATH at WTC © Robert BarrowsPATH System mapPATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) links central Manhattan to Jersey City and Newark in New Jersey: PATH operates like a metro (every few minutes during rush hours), 24 hours a day. Opened in 1908, the total length of the network is 22.2 km with 11.9 km underground (including two tunnel routes under the Hudson River). The PATH system is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. More


After 11 Sept 2001 service was interrupted between NYC and New Jersey. Service to Exchange Place station was resumed on 29 June 2003, and from 23 Nov 2003 trains have been back to a provisional World Trade Center station.

  Staten Island Railway

This 22 km railway line runs along the eastern side of Staten Island, New York's fifth borough. Except for a short tunnel near St. George the entire line is aboveground and has 22 stations. At the northern terminus it connects to the ferry from Manhattan (near South Ferry station). Subway MetroCards and tokens are valid on this line.

21 Jan 2017: Arthur Kill station added between Richmond Valley and Tottenville at the southern end of the line, replacing the former stops Nassau and Atlantic.

 

  LIRR (Long Island Rail Road)

The Long Island Rail Road serves almost any part of Long Island with various branches spreading out east from Jamaica station in Queens. From this station some trains run west to Atlantic Terminal (Flatbush Av.) in downtown Brooklyn, a few terminate in Long Island City in Queens, but most run through to Manhattan's Penn Station. A second route to Manhattan (Grand Central Madison) - East Side Access - eventually opened on 25 Jan 2023, with an initial shuttle service between Jamaica and Grand Central Madison. Find out details here.

 

  Metro-North

The Metro-North Commuter Railroad operates from Grand Central station and serves the areas north of New York City with one branch reaching as far as New Haven in Connecticut. There is a major interchange with subway lines at 125 St and 12 stations lie in the Bronx. MetroCards are not valid and fares are according to distance.

 

  AirTrain JFK

Air Train © Robert BarrowsThis 13 km long driverless peoplemover system opened at JFK Airport in Queens on 17 Dec. 2003. It links all airport terminalsthe to Howard Beach/JFK Airport subway station (A) to Jamaica LIRR station and Sutphin Blvd-Archer Av subway station (E, J/Z). Terminal 2 station permanently closed on 8 July 2022; Terminal 1 station closed as of 1 May 2023 while construction of New Terminal One continues (until ~2026).

Find out more here!

  Light Rail & Commuter Rail in New Jersey

New Jersey Transit (NJT) operates two light rail systems in Northern New Jersey, the Newark Light Rail and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, as well as an extensive network of commuter rail lines from its Hoboken Terminal on the western shore of the Hudson River, which can be reached from Manhattan by PATH. Some NJT trains run through to Penn Station in Manhattan. For more on urban rail in New Jersey click here!

 

 

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 LINKS

MTA - Metropolitan Transportation Authority Homepage Official Page


NYC SUBWAY RESOURCES has everything you might be looking for on the New York City Subway

New York City Subway at Wikipedia

The SubwayNut by Jeremiah Cox incl. 100s of station photos

The New York Transit Scenes by Saul Blumenthal

Great map (235K) including all rail services in New York and adjacent New Jersey by Joseph Brennan

Abandoned stations in New York and around by Joseph Brennan

Robert Barrows' New York Gallery

 

  Books on the NYC Subway

 

NEW!

U-Bahn, S-Bahn & Tram in New York

U-Bahn, S-Bahn & Tram in New York

Click here for more info!

New York Transit Museum: Subway Style: 100 Years of Architecture & Design in the New York City Subway. - Oct. 2004, 252 p., 12' x 9', Stuart, Tabori and Chang; ISBN 158479349X

Gene Sansone: New York Subways: An Illustrated History of New York City's Transit Cars, 1867-2004. - Nov. 2004, Johns Hopkins Univ Pr; ISBN: 0801879221

Lorraine B. Diehl: Subways: The Tracks That Built New York City. - Sept. 2004, Clarkson Potter; ISBN: 1400052270

Stan Fischler: The Subway and the City. - July 2004, 568 p., Frank Merriwell Inc., ISBN 0837395518

David Weitzman: A Subway for New York. - June 2004, 40 p., Crown Books for Young Readers; ISBN: 0375925376

Subway CityMichael W. Brooks: Subway City: Riding the Trains, Reading New York . - Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1997, 252 p, bw, ISBN 0813523966 - Great history of the subway illustrated with many historical cartoons and photos

Randy Kennedy: SUBWAYLAND: Adventures in the World Beneath New York. - Feb. 2004, 240 p., Griffin Trade Paperback; ISBN 0312324340

New York Transit Museum: New York City Subway Trains: 12 Classic Punch and Build Trains. - Dec. 2003, 48 p., Gibbs Smith Publisher; ISBN 1586853244

 

 

Vignelli Transit Maps

Vignelli Transit Maps

The history of the NYC subway maps by Peter B. Lloyd and Mark Ovenden

Click here for more info!

 

Brian J. Cudahy: A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways. - Oct. 2003, 360 pages, Fordham University Press, ISBN 0823222926

Gene Sansone, Clifton Hood: Evolution of New York City Subways: An Illustrated History of New York City's Transit Cars, 1867-1997. - March 2002, 424 p., Johns Hopkins Univ Pr; ISBN 0801868866

Martin W. Sandler: Straphanging in the U.S.A: Trolleys and Subways in American Life (Transportation in America). - June 2003, 48 pages, 8.50' x 10.25', Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195132297

Tim McNeese: THE NEW YORK SUBWAY SYSTEM. - Building History Series, Lucent Books, San Diego, 1997, 96 p, bw, ISBN 1560064277 - An illustrated concise history of the NY subway

Brian J. Cudahy, George M. Smerk: How We Got to Coney Island: The Development of Mass Transportation in Brooklyn and Kings County. - Dec 2002, 320 pages, Fordham University Press, ISBN 082322208X

William D. Middleton: Metropolitan Railways: Rapid Transit in America (Railroads Past and Present). - January 2003, 400 pages, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253341795

Sr Range Tom: New York City Subway (Postcard History). - 128 p., 0.33 x 9.22 x 6.60 inches, Arcadia, 2002 ISBN 0738510866

Christopher Payne: New York's Forgotten Substations: The Power Behind the Subway. - 2002, Princeton Architectural Press, ISBN 1568983557

Brian J. Cudahy: Rails Under the Mighty Hudson: The Story of the Hudson Tubes, the Pennsylvania Tunnels and Manhattan Transfer (Hudson Valley Heritage, 2). - June 2002, 112 p., Fordham Univ Pr; ISBN 0823221903

Kurt C. Schlichting: Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Engineering, and Architecture in New York City. - April 2001, 208 pages, Johns Hopkins Univ Pr; ISBN 0801865107

James Clifford Greller: New York City Subway Cars. - 166 p., XplorerPress.com, ISBN 0946576503

Derrick, Peter: TUNNELING TO THE FUTURE: The Story of the Great Subway Expansion That Saved New York. (Jan 2001)

Frattini, Dave: THE UNDERGROUND GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY SUBWAYS. April 2000, 352 pages

Hood, Clifton: 722 MILES : The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York Simon & Schuster, NY, 1993. Rather a novel, with only a few photographs.

Cudahy, Brian J.: UNDER THE SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK : The Story of the Greatest Subway System in the World Fordham University press, 1995.

SUBWAY LIVES : 24 Hours in the Life of the New York City Subway

Cudahy, Brian J.: Cash, Tokens and Transfers. A History of Urban Mass Transport in North America. - Fordham University Press, NY, 1990. - Also deals with tramways and buses and includes a lot of black & white subway photographs of different US cities.

Fischler, Stan: The Subway : A Trip Through Time on New York's Rapid Transit. - ISBN 1882608194

Robert J. Ravelli: CAR-FREE IN NEW YORK. - The Regional Public Transit Guide.- Camino Books, 1994, Philadelphia, 175p, many maps. - A perfect introduction to all public transport in and around NYC

Robert W. Snyder, Pete Hamill: Transit Talk : New York's Bus and Subway Workers Tell Their Stories. - 1998. 192 p., Rutgers University Press; ISBN 0813525772

Tracks of the New York City Subway by Peter Dougherty - Detailed track maps (print + PDF or just PDF)

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Subways & Light Rail in the USA 1: East Coast

SUBWAYS & LIGHT RAIL
in the U.S.A.
Vol.1 - East Coast

 


© This is page is part of UrbanRail.Net by Robert Schwandl.