HERE is a classic Amelia Opdyke “Oppy” Jones “Subway Sun” I found in one of the Transit Museum’s classic trainsets on the Brighton Line a few years ago encouraging people to give themselves more time and take the local during the summer months in the days before air-conditioned cars. “Taking the local” is still a foreign concept in most of the world’s transit systems except New York’s, as adding extra tracks for express service was pioneered in the NYC subways even in the early days of the IRT in the 1910s. To this day NYC remains one of the few major subways in the world with express service, though construction and rehabilitation severely cut down on it during weekends.
“Oppy”‘s advice wasn’t often followed and in fact led to the demise of some of NYC’s subway lines. In the 2000s, the new V train was conceived of as a local service to relieve the crowding of the B and D on the 6th Avenue line and the E and F on Queens Boulevard, and ran strictly local service between 2nd Avenue and Continental/71st Avenue in Forest Hills. The appeals didn’t work, and the V met its demise from low ridership in 2010.
I’ll take a less crowded local over a jam-packed express any day, but I seem to be in the minority and I was a frequent V rider.
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7/10/23
8 comments
The V was an extension of the old M train from Metropolitan Ave. I remember when people told the MTA that they preferred the new V to be called the M for nostalgia, so the V line did not meet its demise, it is still here as the M..
Yes but the rerouted M goes from Queens to Queens, from Middle Village to Forest Hills, using the Chrystie connection and 6th Avenue in Manhattan.
New York is the only subway city in the world that features regular and 7 day parallel local and express services on most of its principal trunk lines. One of Philadelphia’s two major subway routes, the Broad Street Line, has four tracks for the majority of its route and does operate express trains every 12 Minutes or less, between 5:30AM – 9:30AM and 2:00PM – 6:30PM, weekdays only. Information is from the current Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) website.
Chicago and London each feature a long four-track stretch where two lines operate on parallel tracks, one making all stops and the other one skipping some stations, much like the normal New York pattern. However, neither system uses the term “express.” The Chicago route is an outdoor line on an embankment, not over the streets. Its operating pattern is opposite traditional New York style. Local trains (Red and Brown Lines) use the two middle tracks with island platforms, while express trains (Purple Line) use the two outer tracks.
Regarding the V train, it indeed was eliminated in 2010, but was successfully replaced with today’s M train, which has been a success as it provides direct Midtown service to and from the old Myrtle Avenue elevated. Thus, Queens Boulevard riders still have the M and R local options as well the E and F express routes.
The North Side Chicago lines are interesting, since as you say, the express runs on an outer track, but that’s true only north of Belmont– south of Belmont, the Brown and Purple make the “local” stops on the outer track which has side platforms while the Red, which had been the local (with the Purple as the express) north of Belmont, becomes an “express” so it can access the subway and through-run to the South Side, while the Brown and Purple run only to the elevated Loop before heading back north. In an odd way, the Purple reminds me of the diamond-6, B, E and F trains running express only outside Manhattan
What happened was that during the rush hours when the headway between trains was shorter, if you were on a train that was going to run local in Manhattan (like, e.g., the 1, the 6, the B to/from The Bronx) and an express was pulling into the station beside you at 96th, 125th or 145th St.’s respectively, if you took the express it might overtake a local ahead of the one you were on, if you needed to go to a local station well downtown. To an extent this was also true on the 4th Av and Brighton Lines in Brooklyn as well, So people changed from local to express and back to local, but it would be an earlier local. This made for the expresses to be filled to more than desired capacity and for the locals to be under capacity. Although as it turns out the difference in time between changing and staying on the same train is not very great (only a few minutes), the continuous making-every-stop nature of the locals versus the bypassing by the expresses makes most people think it’s taking much longer than it actually is when you remain on the local.
It may not be bad grammar, strictly speaking, but the woman’s “so little more time” just doesn’t sound right.
On hot days I’d often hop the W train to Whitehall Street instead of the East Side IRT to Bowling Green because the R40-R42 cars were rarely crowded and cold as iceboxes with those AWESOME air conditioners. A big improvement over those sweaty, crowded Redbirds whose retrofiited A/C units never quite did the job.
Fun fact: the F Train, the IND Queens Boulevard Express, is the sole express service in the outer boroughs that runs 24/7. (A fact not unnoticed by me, who works 2nd shift and who lives a short walk away from Union Turnpike Station. )