N (New York City Subway service)

Template:NYCS logo The N Broadway Express is a service of the New York City Subway. It is colored yellow since it uses the BMT Broadway Line through Manhattan. It operates from Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens to Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island. During weekdays (except late nights), it uses the Manhattan Bridge to travel between Manhattan and Brooklyn and runs express between 34th Street-Herald Square and 59th Street in Brooklyn. Weekend service is the same except it runs local in Manhattan. During late nights it runs local along its entire route and uses the Montague Street Tunnel to travel between Manhattan and Brooklyn, replacing Template:NYCS R service.

The following lines are used by the Template:NYCS N service:

Line	Tracks	When
BMT Astoria Line (full line)	local	always
BMT Broadway Line north of 34th Street–Herald Square	local	always
BMT Broadway Line from 34th Street to Prince Street	express (local late nights and weekends)	always
BMT Broadway Line south of Prince Street	local	late nights only
Manhattan Bridge (full line)	N/A	all but late nights
BMT Fourth Avenue Line north of Pacific Street	N/A	late nights only
BMT Fourth Avenue Line from Pacific Street to 59th Street	express (local late nights)	always
BMT Sea Beach Line (full line)	local	always

Service history

4 SEA BEACH R1 end rollsign

N BROADWAY SEA BEACH R27 end rollsign (later said just BROADWAY[1])

N NX 1967-1979 bullets (in a circle)

The route that is now the N was originally Template:BMT service 4, known as the Sea Beach Line or Sea Beach Express.

• On June 22, 1915, the modern BMT Sea Beach Line replaced an old surface el car line that branched off the BMT Fifth Avenue Line with the old BMT West End Line. Originally, it used the south tracks of the Manhattan Bridge to run to Chambers Street on the BMT Nassau Street Line. Soon the north tracks to Canal Street were opened, along with segments of the BMT Broadway Line. (Today, the north tracks run to Grand Street on the IND Chrystie Street Connection, while the south tracks run to Canal Street on the Broadway Line.)

• On September 14, 1917, trains began running between 14th Street–Union Square and Stillwell Avenue.

• On January 5, 1918, the Broadway Line was extended to Times Square–42nd Street.

• On May 2, 1957, service was extended north via the express tracks to 57th Street. When the BMT Southern Division routes were given letters in 1960, the 4 became the N, with a single letter because it ran express; it was given the color yellow (which it managed to keep in the 1979 revisions).

• The light blue NX designation was used for a short-lived "super-express" service along the express tracks of the Sea Beach Line, beginning several stations east of Coney Island at Brighton Beach, and also ending at 57th Street/Seventh Avenue. This service was only provided from November 27, 1967 to 1968 due to low ridership. A service resembling the southern section of the NX route happened during a General Order in 2006 on weekends between April 22 and May 8, and again from May 20 through May 22, when the N was extended through Stillwell Avenue (a rare occurrence of through service at Stillwell) to Kings Highway on the Brighton Line. This was to provide service on the lower Brighton Line because the Template:NYCS Q was suspended due to switch and station work.

• On August 27, 1976, N service was extended north over the BMT 60th Street Tunnel Connection to 71st-Continental Avenue–Forest Hills, to replace the discontinued EE. Some local N trains went from Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan to 71st Avenue, which was the exact EE route; others stayed with the Manhattan Bridge route and were simply extended to 71st Avenue.

• On April 26, 1986, the north tracks on the Manhattan Bridge were closed for rehabilitation, and services that had used the north tracks were moved to the south side. This caused N trains to be sent via Lower Manhattan and the Montague Street Tunnel, running fully local, though evening, night and weekend trains continued to use the bridge and express tracks, terminating at 57th Street.

• In May 1987, the N swapped northern terminals with the Template:NYCS R. The N was switched to Ditmars Boulevard, while the Template:NYCS R went to 71st Avenue. This was done to give the Template:NYCS R direct access to Jamaica Yard; previously, the Template:NYCS R did not have direct access to either Jamaica Yard or Coney Island Yard, while the N had had direct access to both.

• In fall 1990, full service on Manhattan Bridge was briefly restored. Express service ran all times except nights (all service stopped at 49th Street due to heavy usage). This very short service was halted by the discovery of a cracked beam on the bridge.

• In 1994, the N switched back to express in Brooklyn only, from Pacific Street to 59th Street.

• From 1993 to 1995, the southern terminal of the N was 86th Street due to rehabilitation work at Stillwell Avenue. On November 3, 2001, it was cut back again for the final phase of the terminal's reconstruction project.

• After the September 11, 2001 attacks, service on this line was suspended and replaced by the Template:NYCS W in Manhattan and Queens and the Template:NYCS M in Brooklyn. On October 28, service was restored, but Cortlandt Street remained closed until September 15, 2002.

• On September 8, 2002, the N became a shuttle to Pacific Street on nights and weekends, running express on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line, as the Template:NYCS W was extended since it was now the only line serving Stillwell Avenue.

• On February 22, 2004, the Manhattan Bridge work was finally completed. The N was finally restored to the bridge (via Fourth Avenue express and DeKalb Avenue bypass). On weekdays it runs express between 34th Street in Manhattan and 59th Street in Brooklyn and local elsewhere. Weekends, it is still express in Brooklyn but runs local in Manhattan. During late nights, it runs local along its entire length, via the Montague Street Tunnel.

• On May 29, 2005, the new Stillwell Avenue terminal was completed, and N service there was restored.

• On August 17, 2006, Cars 8713-8722 were assigned to the N line in passenger service. This marks the first day of a thirty day in-service testing period. Any problem, even as minor as a stuck door, will result in the train being taken out of service for repairs. This will reset the clock and another 30 day run must be performed. If the trial is sucessful, New York City Transit will begin accepting the rest of the initial order of 260 cars from Kawasaki.

Station listing

For a more detailed station listing, see the articles on the lines listed above.

	Station	When	Services
Queens
	Ditmars Boulevard–Astoria	always	N and ​W
	Astoria Boulevard–Hoyt Avenue	always	N and ​W
	30th Avenue–Grand Avenue	always	N and ​W
	Broadway	always	N and ​W
	36th Avenue–Washington Avenue	always	N and ​W
	39th Avenue–Beebe Avenue	always	N and ​W
	Queensboro Plaza	always	N and ​W 7 and <7>​
Manhattan
	Lexington Avenue–59th Street	always	N, ​R, and ​W 4, ​5, ​6, and <6> F and <F> (MetroCard only) Roosevelt Island Tramway
	Fifth Avenue–59th Street	always	N, ​R, and ​W
	57th Street–Seventh Avenue	always	N, ​Q, ​R, and ​W
*	49th Street	always	N, ​Q, ​R, and ​W
	Times Square–42nd Street	always	1, ​2, ​3​, 7, <7>​​, N, ​Q, ​R, ​W, and S Port Authority Bus Terminal
	34th Street–Herald Square	always	N, ​Q, ​R, and ​W B, ​D, ​F, <F>, and ​M
	28th Street	late nights and weekends only	N, ​Q, ​R, and ​W
	23rd Street	late nights and weekends only	N, ​Q, ​R, and ​W
	14th Street–Union Square	always	N, ​Q, ​R, and ​W L 4, ​5, ​6, and <6>
	Eighth Street–New York University	late nights and weekends only	N, ​Q, ​R, and ​W
	Prince Street	late nights and weekends only	N, ​Q, ​R, and ​W
trains via lower Manhattan (night service)
	Canal Street	late nights only	N, ​R, and ​W N and ​Q 4, ​6, and <6> J and ​Z
	City Hall	late nights only	N, ​R, and ​W
*	Cortlandt Street	closed until Spring 2007	N, ​R, and ​W
	Rector Street	late nights only	N, ​R, and ​W
	Whitehall Street–South Ferry	late nights only	N, ​R, and ​W Staten Island Ferry
Brooklyn
	Court Street	late nights only	N, R, and ​W 2 and ​3 4 and ​5
	Lawrence Street–MetroTech	late nights only	N, R, and ​W
	DeKalb Avenue	late nights only	N, R, and ​W B and ​Q
trains via Manhattan Bridge (all but late nights)
Manhattan
	Canal Street	all but late nights	N and ​Q N, ​R, and ​W 4, ​6, and <6> J and ​Z
trains via Lower Manhattan enter here
Brooklyn
	Atlantic Avenue–Pacific Street	always	D, ​N, ​R, and ​W B and ​Q 2, ​3, ​4, and ​5
	Union Street	late nights only	D, ​N, ​R, and ​W
	Ninth Street	late nights only	D, ​N, ​R, and ​W F and <F>​
	Prospect Avenue	late nights only	D, ​N, ​R, and ​W
	25th Street	late nights only	D, ​N, ​R, and ​W
	36th Street	always	D, ​N, ​R, and ​W
	45th Street	late nights only	N, ​R, and ​W
	53rd Street	late nights only	N, ​R, and ​W
	59th Street	always	N, ​R, and ​W
	Eighth Avenue	always	N and ​W
	Fort Hamilton Parkway	always	N and ​W
	New Utrecht Avenue	always	N and ​W D
	18th Avenue	always	N and ​W
	20th Avenue	always	N and ​W
	Bay Parkway	always	N and ​W
	Kings Highway	always	N and ​W
	Avenue U	always	N and ​W
	86th Street	always	N and ​W
	Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue	always	N Q F and <F>​ D

^*49th Street is accessible in the northbound direction only. Cortlandt Street is accessible in the southbound direction only.

References

• Line By Line History

External links

• MTA NYC Transit - N Broadway Express
• MTA NYC Transit - N schedule (Template:PDFlink)