B Division (New York City Subway)

The B Division is a division of the New York City Subway, consisting of the lines operated with services designated by letters (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, J, L, M, N, Q, R, V, W, and Z), in addition to the Franklin Avenue Shuttle and Rockaway Park Shuttle. These lines and services were operated by the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation and city-owned Independent Subway System before the 1940 city takeover of the BMT. B Division cars are wider, longer, and heavier than those of the A Division, measuring 9.75 by 60 or 75 feet (3 by 18 or 23 meters). [Second Avenue Subway [http://www.mta.info/capconstr/sas/deis.htm Draft Environmental Impact Statement] , PDFlink| [http://mta.info/capconstr/sas/documents/deis/glossary.pdf Glossary] |45.6 KiB ]

The two former systems are still sometimes referred to as the IND Division and BMT Division. [MTA New York City Transit, [http://www.mta.info/nyct/hr/ctep/index.html Employment Opportunities] : "During the first phase of the project, NYC Transit installed SONET nodes in the three subway divisions: IRT, BMT, and IND."]

List of lines

The following lines are part of the B Division (services shown in parentheses):NYCS service legend
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*BMT Fourth Avenue Line (NYCS Fourth center|time=show)
*IND Sixth Avenue Line (NYCS Sixth|time=show)
*IND Eighth Avenue Line (NYCS Eighth south|time=show)
*60th Street Tunnel Connection (NYCS 60th Connection|time=show)
*BMT 63rd Street Line (NYCS 63rd BMT|time=show)
*IND 63rd Street Line (NYCS 63rd IND|time=show)
*BMT Archer Avenue Line (NYCS Archer lower|time=show)
*IND Archer Avenue Line (NYCS Archer upper|time=show)
*BMT Astoria Line (NYCS Astoria|time=show)
*BMT Brighton Line (NYCS Brighton|time=show)
*BMT Broadway Line (NYCS Broadway|time=show)
*BMT Canarsie Line (NYCS Canarsie|time=show)
*Chrystie Street Connection (NYCS Chrystie Manhattan|time=show)
*IND Concourse Line (NYCS Concourse|time=show)
*IND Crosstown Line (NYCS Crosstown|time=show)
*IND Culver Line (NYCS Culver IND north|time=show)
*BMT Franklin Avenue Line (NYCS Franklin|time=show)
*IND Fulton Street Line (NYCS Fulton|time=show)
*BMT Jamaica Line (NYCS Williamsburg|time=show)
*BMT Myrtle Avenue Line (NYCS Myrtle|time=show)
*BMT Nassau Street Line (NYCS Williamsburg|time=show)
*IND Queens Boulevard Line (NYCS Queens|time=show)
*IND Rockaway Line (NYCS Rockaway south|time=show)
*BMT Sea Beach Line (NYCS Sea Beach|time=show)
*BMT West End Line (NYCS West End|time=show)

History

Early history

The oldest line to become part of the B Division was the BMT Lexington Avenue Line, opened in 1885. A large system of elevated railways in Brooklyn was formed by 1908 by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT), crossing the Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge to Manhattan terminals. With the Dual Contracts, signed in 1913, the BRT acquired extensions outward into Queens, as well as through Lower and Midtown Manhattan. The BRT became the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation in 1923 after a bankruptcy.

The Independent Subway System (IND) was created by the city in the 1920s and 1930s as a third system operated by the city, competing with the BMT and Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT). The city took over operations of the BMT and IRT in 1940, consolidating ownership of the three systems into one. Since the original IRT tunnels were smaller, it has remained a separate division to this day.

IND before 1967

IND services were labeled on maps and signs starting with the opening of the first line in 1932. Six letters - A to F - were assigned to the major services, sorted by the north terminal and midtown line, and express services had single letters, while local services had double letters. The following labels were used from 1940 to 1967:

Consolidation of operations

Until 1954 and 1955, when the Culver Ramp and 60th Street Tunnel Connection opened, the BMT and IND trackage was not connected. The early joint services using these connections operated similarly to trackage rights; it was not until the Chrystie Street Connection opened in 1967 that the ex-BMT and IND systems were consolidated operationally.

Beginning in 1924,Fact|date=March 2007 BMT services were designated by number. The city assigned letters - generally following the IND pattern of double letters for local services - in the early 1960s to prepare for the 1967 Chrystie Street Connection. Only Southern Division routes (1-4) were labeled on maps, but all services except remnants of the old els were assigned letters: [New York City Transit Authority, [http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/maps/system_1966_c.gif1966 Map and Station Guide] ] [Joseph Cunningham and Leonard DeHart, A History of the New York City Subway System Part 2: Rapid Transit in Brooklyn, 1977] In 1967, the Culver and Franklin Shuttles became SS - the standard shuttle designation - and the Myrtle Local ("Myrtle (Jay)", [New York City Transit Authority, [http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/maps/system_1959.gif1959 Official New York City Subway Map and Station Guide] ] discontinued in 1969) was labeled MJ.

After 1967

The 1967 opening of the Chrystie Street Connection resulted in a number of changes. The following services have been operated since then:
*A Eighth Avenue Express, 1967 - present
*B Sixth Avenue Local, 1967 - present
*C Eighth Avenue Local, 1967 - present (CC until 1986)
*D Sixth Avenue Express, 1967 - present
*E Eighth Avenue Local, 1967 - present
*EE Broadway Local, 1967 - 1976
*F Sixth Avenue Local, 1967 - present
*G Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown Local, 1967 - present (GG until 1986)
*J Nassau Street Express, 1967 - present (QJ until 1973)
*K Broadway Brooklyn Local, 1967 - 1976 (JJ from 1967 to 1968; KK from 1968 to 1973)
*K Eighth Avenue Local, 1967 - 1988 (AA until 1986)
*L 14th Street-Canarsie Local, 1967 - present (LL until 1986)
*M Nassau Street Local, 1967 - present
*MJ Myrtle Local, 1967 - 1969
*N Broadway Express, 1967 - present
*NX Broadway Express, 1967 - 1968
*Q Broadway Express, 1967 - present (QB until 1986)
*R Broadway Local, 1967 - present (RR until 1986)
*RJ Nassau Street Local, 1967 - 1968
*S Franklin Avenue Shuttle, 1967 - present (SS until 1986)
*S Rockaway Park Shuttle, 1967 - 1972, 1986 - present (HH from 1967 to 1972 and H from 1986 to 1994; part of the A and CC in between)
*SS Culver Shuttle, 1967-1975
*TT West End Shuttle, 1967 - 1968
*V Sixth Avenue Local, 2001 - present
*W Broadway Local, 2001 - present
*Z Nassau Street Express, 1988 - present

References