BMT Broadway Line

The BMT Broadway Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan. , it is served by four services, all colored : the on the express tracks and the on the local tracks during weekdays (the N and Q trains run local during late nights, as do the N and R trains on weekends). The line is often referred to as the "N and R", since those were the only services on the line from 1988 to 2001, when the Manhattan Bridge's southern tracks were closed for rebuilding. The Broadway Line was built to give the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (later the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, or BMT) access to Midtown Manhattan.

The line is named for its location under Broadway between Vesey Street and Seventh Avenue/45th Street (Times Square). It also passes under Vesey Street, Whitehall Street, Trinity Place, and Church Street in Lower Manhattan, and Seventh Avenue, 59th Street, and 60th Street in Midtown. The local tracks stretch the entire length between the two East River tunnels: the Montague Street Tunnel to the BMT Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn and the 60th Street Tunnel to the BMT Astoria Line and 60th Street Tunnel Connection in Queens. Center express tracks exist between Canal Street and 57th Street, turning off at Canal Street to feed the south tracks on the Manhattan Bridge, and continuing north and east under Central Park as the IND/BMT 63rd Street Line (connecting with the Second Avenue Subway). The Broadway Line was the only Manhattan outlet north of Delancey Street for the BMT's Brooklyn lines until 1967, when a little over half the BMT Brighton Line and all BMT West End Line trains were moved to the IND Sixth Avenue Line via the new Chrystie Street Connection.

Description and service

The following services use the Broadway Line and are colored :

The BMT Broadway Line begins at the 60th Street Tunnel from Queens. The N and W trains from the BMT Astoria Line and the R service from the IND Queens Boulevard Line join at the beginning of the tunnel. The line runs west as a two-track subway line under 60th Street (east of Fifth Avenue) and 59th Street (west of Fifth Avenue), with stations at Lexington Avenue/59th Street and Fifth Avenue/59th Street. It then turns south to Seventh Avenue into the 57th Street–Seventh Avenue station.

At the 57th Street station, the line joins two express tracks that enter the station from the north via the BMT 63rd Street Line, which the Q uses (with rush hour service from the N and R). The line proceeds as a four-track subway down Seventh Avenue to its intersection with Broadway at Times Square-42nd Street, and then continues down Broadway to a point north of Canal Street, where the express tracks carrying the N and Q services descend and turn sharply east to separate platforms from the local tracks, before crossing the south side of the Manhattan Bridge to go to Brooklyn.

Immediately after Canal Street, the express tracks resume again (originally they had been intended to run through) and serve as storage and turning tracks, bypassing the Canal Street local station and ending in the disused lower level of City Hall. The local tracks continue south as a two-track subway to Whitehall Street–South Ferry station. Whitehall Street–South Ferry is a three track, two-platform station, with the center track set up as a terminal track for the W train during weekdays, and late night R trains. A pair of bellmouths exists here, allowing for a connection to a never-built East River tunnel south of the Montague Street Tunnel that would have connected to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It has been proposed to use this as part of the Lower Manhattan–Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project, connecting to the Court Street station (New York Transit Museum