T (New York City Subway service)

Second Avenue Local
Northern end	125th Street
Southern end	Hanover Square
Stations	16
Started service	June 24, 1916 (1916-06-24) (West End service)
Discontinued	November 26, 1967 (1967-11-26) (West End through service) 1968 (1968) (West End shuttle)

The T Second Avenue Local is a prospective rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its proposed route symbol will be turquoise, since it will run on the Second Avenue Line in Manhattan.

The Second Avenue Subway is under construction, with the first phase, running from 63rd Street to 96th Street, completed in January 2017.^[1] However, the T designation will not be used until the third phase opens from Houston Street to 63rd Street.^[2] Currently, the third phase is not funded or scheduled.^[3]

Map of the future Second Avenue Subway (SAS), with the T service shown in turquoise

Historical designation

T was previously used for a service on the BMT West End Line, originally BMT 3. Like the Sea Beach Line, the West End Line replaced a surface line that branched off of the Fifth Avenue Elevated. On June 24, 1916, service began running between 18th Avenue and Chambers Street via the Nassau Street Loop. This service was extended to 25th Avenue on July 29, 1916.^[4]

On September 4, 1917, the first part of the BMT Broadway Line opened, and T service ran to 14th Street – Union Square. Chambers Street service was probably suspended until the remainder of the Nassau Street loop was completed. Service began running to the newly opened Times Square station on January 15, 1918. Service began running part-time to 57th Street on July 10, 1919, and this extension was probably axed in 1920.^[4]

The Nassau Loop was completed on May 31, 1931. Weekday AM and PM service and Saturday AM local resumed service from Bay Parkway or 62nd Street to Chambers Street running via the Montague Tunnel, and returning via the Manhattan Bridge south tracks.^[4]

The Saturday local service to Chambers Street, on June 24, 1950, was discontinued. All express trains began running to 57th Street on May 2, 1957. On October 24, 1957, late night service was replaced by locals to Chambers Street, running via the tunnel in both directions, and terminating at Coney Island. Express service was eliminated during middays, being replaced by locals extended to Coney Island on May 28, 1959. At this time all locals to Chambers Street began running via the tunnel in both directions.^[4]

Letters began appearing in the summer of 1961, when R27s began running via the line. The expresses were given the label of T, and the locals were given the label of TT. On January 1, 1961, rush hour T expresses began running to Astoria, and until April 2, 1962 so did Saturday service. TT local service on January 1 began running between Bay Parkway and Chambers Street. During middays, local service only ran between Coney Island and Chambers Street. After April 2, 1962, T service began running to 57th Street during evenings and Saturdays, and on nights and Sundays TT locals ran to 36th Street. The T was discontinued on November 26, 1967, but a shuttle, designated TT, continued into 1968,^[5] when it was replaced by a full-time extended B train via Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.^[4]

During a series of Manhattan Bridge closures, the route was recreated, however under the label of B, due to its familiarity. In the earliest of the closures the R11s were signed up as 3, the line's old West End number. The Manhattan Bridge's closure from April 26, 1986 to November 12, 1988, had the T's old service pattern almost exactly recreated, with service running to Astoria during rush hours, and during evenings and weekends to 57th Street. Since it also ran during weekday middays, it was sent to Queensboro Plaza. The TT's route was replicated once the M was rerouted from the Brighton Line to the West End Line running to Bay Parkway. With the closing of the Manhattan Bridge's north side on July 22, 2001, the B in Brooklyn was replaced by the W via Broadway express in essence operating the old T route until 2004.^[6] T currently appears on R32 and R38 rollsigns as a black letter on a white circle. The T was programmed into R44 and R46 side signs as a West End route, with various Broadway, Sixth Avenue and Nassau Street designations.^[4]

Second Avenue Subway designation

During planning for the Second Avenue Subway in the early 2000s, the MTA decided to designate the line's future full-length service with the letter T, in part because:^[7]

• The letters O and I are too easily confused with the digits 0 and 1, respectively.^[7][8]
• The letter K was used until the late 1980s to denote services on the IND Eighth Avenue Line, and earlier on the BMT Jamaica Line, and thus is not preferred. H is the Rockaway Park Shuttle's internal route designator.^[7]
• The letters P, U and Y are more easily confused with common words.^[8]

The T's route emblem is colored turquoise (hex triplet #00ADD0, which could also be considered robin's egg blue or teal) because the color had also been used for the JFK Express in the past. In 2011, turquoise was considered "the color of the year", and at the time of the color's selection in the 2000s, it was also considered a very upscale color.^[9]

Planned service pattern

As planned, the T will use the following lines with the same service pattern at all times.

Planned station listing

When the construction of the Second Avenue Subway's Phase 3 is completed, the new T service will operate from 125th Street to Houston Street.^[10][11] After Phase 4 opens, T service will run the full length of the line, from 125th Street to Hanover Square.^[11][12] The new T service is planned to operate at a frequency of 14 trains per hour during rush hours.^[12]

Upon its introduction, the T would be the only New York City Subway service that is not a shuttle to run only within one borough, though the planned expansion will include provisions for further extension into the Bronx and Brooklyn at its northern and southern ends, respectively.^[2]

Station service legend
	Stops all times
	Stops all times except late nights
	Stops late nights only
	Stops weekdays only
	Stops rush hours only
	Station closed
	Stops rush hours/weekdays in the peak direction only
Time period details

Station		Phase	Transfers and connections	Notes
Manhattan
Introduction in Phase 3
125th Street		2	Northern terminal station for T train N  Q  4  5  6  <6> (IRT Lexington Avenue Line) M60 Select Bus Service to LaGuardia Airport connection to Harlem–125th Street (Metro-North Railroad)	at Lexington Avenue and 125th Street
116th Street		2	N  Q
106th Street		2	N  Q
96th Street		1	N  Q
86th Street		1	N  Q
72nd Street		1	N  Q
55th Street		3	E  M  (IND Queens Boulevard Line) at Lexington Avenue–53rd Street 4  6  <6> (IRT Lexington Avenue Line) at 51st Street
42nd Street		3	7  <7> (IRT Flushing Line) S  (IRT 42nd Street Shuttle) 4  5  6  <6> (IRT Lexington Avenue Line) at Grand Central–42nd Street connection to Grand Central Terminal (Metro-North Railroad, with connection to Long Island Rail Road once East Side Access Project is completed)
34th Street		3	M34 and M34A Select Bus Service
23rd Street		3	M23 Select Bus Service
14th Street		3	L  (BMT Canarsie Line) at Third Avenue
Houston Street		3	F  M  (IND Sixth Avenue Line) at Second Avenue	Southern terminal station for T train (Phase 3)
Phase 4 extension
Grand Street		4	B  D  (IND Sixth Avenue Line)
Chatham Square		4		at Worth Street
Seaport		4		at Fulton Street
Hanover Square		4		at Old Slip Southern terminal station for T train (Phase 4)

Cultural reference

• The reopening and expansion of the T train features in the third season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to T (New York City Subway service).