IND Eighth Avenue Line

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Services that use the IND Eighth Avenue Line through midtown and downtown have been colored blue since 1979. The original IND lettering system provided for A, C and E on the line.

A 1941 view of a sign for the Eighth Avenue Subway

The Eighth Avenue Line is the original rapid transit line of the Independent Subway System (IND), now run by the New York City Transit Authority as part of the New York City Subway system. For more than five decades from its inception in 1932, many New Yorkers called the entire IND system the Eighth Avenue Subway. Although it was the first portion of the IND put into service, this was never its official name. Most of the line is quadruple-tracked (with one local and one express track in each direction), except for the extreme north and south ends (which have just two tracks).

The northern section of the Eighth Avenue Line (above 145th Street) was once designated the Washington Heights Line (but entrance signage still read simply as 8th Avenue). For this reason, some A trains (R32 and R38 only) have rollsigns designations that read Washington Heights–8 Avenue–Fulton Street.

[edit] Extent and service

Services that use the Eighth Avenue Line through Midtown and Lower Manhattan are colored blue on station signs, the NYC Subway Map and on train front and/or side route signs depending on the equipment used.

The following services use part or all of the Eighth Avenue Line:

A schematic of the line south of 145th Street

The Eighth Avenue Line, running from uptown Manhattan to Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, begins at 207th Street as a two-track subway. Two tracks from the 207th Street Yard join at a flying junction, and there are four tracks through Dyckman Street before the extra tracks end. Two local tracks begin at 174th Street Yard, north of 168th Street. They come in between the existing tracks, running through the center of 168th Street before moving to the outside. At that point, A service stays on the express tracks, and C service begins on the local tracks.

At 145th Street station, the IND Concourse Line (B D) joins, with a flying junction just to the south to connect the tracks. Except during rush hours, B service begins at 145th Street; D trains switch there to the express tracks. Between 59th Street and 50th Street, a flying junction connects both express and local tracks from the north to the beginning of the IND Sixth Avenue Line (B D) under 53rd Street, and another flying junction south of 50th Street connects the tracks from the south to the IND Queens Boulevard Line, also under 53rd Street (E).

South of these junctions, the line continues down Eighth Avenue to 14th Street, where it turns southeast under Greenwich Avenue to connect again with the Sixth Avenue Line (B D F V) at the eight-track, bi-level West Fourth Street station. At this point, local tracks of both lines interconnect south of the station in another elaborate flying junction which allows local trains of either line to continue south on either the Eighth Avenue Line to Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn or on the Sixth Avenue Line to the Lower East Side and Brooklyn. As of 2007, no services transfer.

The line then continues south under Sixth Avenue (which was built as part of the subway project) and Church Street. North of Chambers Street, the local tracks form a separate but parallel line to stub-end at World Trade Center, just east of the express tracks. These tracks are now the terminal for the E train. This part of the line was originally planned to continue south of the World Trade Center beneath the East River via a new tunnel to Brooklyn. A bellmouth for this never-built section is visible from southbound trains on the route from Canal Street to the World Trade Center terminal.

The C train switches to the express tracks at Canal Street. The express tracks continue south and east under Fulton Street and under the East River through the Cranberry Street Tunnel to Brooklyn. After briefly running under Cranberry Street, the tracks turn south under Jay Street, meeting two tracks of the Sixth Avenue Line (F) coming from the Rutgers Street Tunnel. The final station is Jay Street; south of here service can either continue along the IND Culver Line (F) or the IND Fulton Street Line (A C).

[edit] January 23, 2005 fire

Around 2:00 p.m. on January 23, 2005, a fire destroyed the interlocking plant at Chambers Street. This caused restriction of A service and complete suspension of C service. Specifically, about one-third of the normal number of A trains ran. Some newspaper articles have blamed the fire on a homeless person trying to keep warm, but that has not been confirmed.

The C in Brooklyn (east of Jay Street) was replaced by an extension of V service on weekdays. The upper level platforms of the Eighth Avenue Line at 50th Street are only served by the C, and were thus closed; the only uptown service to 50th Street was via the Queens Boulevard Line's connection (E service) into the lower level of the station.

Additionally, the A, which had formerly used the express tracks on the Eighth Avenue Line south of 168th Street (the C's northern terminus), switched to local at 145th Street, serving the two local stations that were only served by the C (155th Street and 163rd Street–Amsterdam Avenue).

The A also used the local tracks in Brooklyn, serving all stations. Direct rush-hour A trips to Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street were suspended in favor of the always-running Rockaway Park Shuttle.

Before the fire, on weekday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight, the C was the only service on the local tracks north of 59th Street; the D was switched to local to cover this. The A was switched to local service on weekends to pick up the slack. During rush hour, extra B trains were added, starting on or before January 28.

Until the morning of January 28, the MTA moved the A to the parallel Sixth Avenue Line, Rutgers Street Tunnel and Culver Line (the route used by regular F service) from West Fourth Street to Jay Street between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., in order to perform critical repairs.

The last suspended service, rush-hour trips to Beach 116th Street, was restored on February 14, 2005; until then those trips required a transfer to the Rockaway Park Shuttle.

Initial estimates gave a time of three to five years to restore full service, due to the rareness of the destroyed equipment. That was later cut back to six to nine months to bring back normal operations. However, C service and 70% of A service was restored at 5 a.m. on February 2, 2005, only ten days after the fire. On April 21, full service was restored.

[edit] Background

The Eighth Avenue Line, and the remainder of the IND system were built by the City of New York partly to provide modern rapid transit facilities and partly to compete with the private companies, the BMT and IRT.

A subway under Eighth Avenue was an early goal of transit planners in the city. The BMT, in particular, hoped to operate the Eighth Avenue Line as an extension of its Broadway Line, operating under Central Park West (Eighth Avenue) to the upper reaches of Manhattan. For this purpose, the express tracks north of the BMT's 57th Street station were continued north and stub-ended in anticipation of the service. These tracks have since been connected to the BMT 63rd Street Line, with future connections to the planned Second Avenue Line to the Upper East Side and Harlem.

The whole line north of Chambers Street opened at midnight on the morning of September 10, 1932; the short section under Fulton Street, Cranberry Street, and Jay Street (including the Cranberry Street Tunnel) opened on February 11, 1933.

The express tracks were always served by the A service. AA service ran local, and was renamed to K in 1986 and C in 1988.

[edit] Chaining information

The Eighth Avenue Line is chained IND A. This chaining then continues through the Cranberry Street Tunnel to the IND Fulton Street Line, running to Euclid Avenue. The south end of West Fourth Street station is defined as chaining point 969+25 (Mile Post 18.357), and numbers increase to the north and decrease to the south.

[edit] Station listing

	Station	Tracks	Services	Opened	Transfers and notes
	Inwood–207th Street	local	A always	September 10, 1932
	Dyckman Street	local	A always	September 10, 1932
	190th Street	local	A always	September 10, 1932
	181st Street	local	A always	September 10, 1932
	175th Street	local	A always	September 10, 1932	George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal
	168th Street	all	A always, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932	1 (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)
	163rd Street–Amsterdam Avenue	local	A late nights, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	155th Street	local	A late nights, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	145th Street	all	A always, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932	B D (IND Concourse Line)
IND Concourse Line (B morning rush hour through early evening, D always) joins
	135th Street	local	A late nights, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	125th Street	all	A always, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights, D always	September 10, 1932
	116th Street	local	A late nights, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	110th Street–Cathedral Parkway	local	A late nights, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	103rd Street	local	A late nights, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	96th Street	local	A late nights, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	86th Street	local	A late nights, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	81st Street–Museum of Natural History	local	A late nights, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	72nd Street	local	A late nights, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932
	59th Street–Columbus Circle	all	A always, B morning rush hour through early evening, C all but late nights, D always	September 10, 1932	1 2 (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)
IND Sixth Avenue Line (B morning rush hours through early evening, D always) splits
*	50th Street	local	A late nights, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932	E (IND Queens Boulevard Line)
Queens Boulevard Line (E always) joins
	42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal	all	A always, C all but late nights, E always	September 10, 1932	1 2 3 (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) 7 (IRT Flushing Line) N Q R W (BMT Broadway Line) S (IRT 42nd Street Shuttle)
	34th Street–Penn Station	all	A always, C all but late nights, E always	September 10, 1932	connection to Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit at New York Penn Station
	23rd Street	local	A late nights, C all but late nights, E always	September 10, 1932
	14th Street	all	A always, C all but late nights, E always	September 10, 1932	L (BMT Canarsie Line)
	West Fourth Street–Washington Square	all	A always, C all but late nights, E always	September 10, 1932	B D F V (IND Sixth Avenue Line)
local transfer tracks to/from IND Sixth Avenue Line (no services switch)
	Spring Street	local	A late nights, C all but late nights, E always	September 10, 1932
	Canal Street	all	A always, C all but late nights, E always	September 10, 1932	originally Canal Street–Holland Tunnel
	Chambers Street	express	A always, C all but late nights	September 10, 1932	two parts of the same station; originally Chambers Street–Hudson Terminal. Local tracks end. 2 3 (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) transfer to PATH
	World Trade Center	local	E always	September 10, 1932
	Broadway–Nassau Street	express	A always, C all but late nights	February 1, 1933	2 3 (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) 4 5 (IRT Lexington Avenue Line) J M Z (BMT Nassau Street Line)
continues through the Cranberry Street Tunnel
	High Street–Brooklyn Bridge	express	A always, C all but late nights	February 1, 1933
IND Sixth Avenue Line (F always) merges
	Jay Street–Borough Hall	express	A always, C all but late nights, F always	February 1, 1933

^*50th Street station is accessible only in the southbound direction.

[edit] References

• 2 Subway Lines Crippled by Fire; Long Repair Seen, New York Times January 25, 2005
• Subway Disruptions Expected to Last Months, Not Years, New York Times January 26, 2005

[edit] External links

• nycsubway.org - IND 8th Avenue
• MTA New York City Transit - A/C/V service update