V (New York City Subway service)

Summary

The V Sixth Avenue Local was a rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", was colored orange since it used the IND Sixth Avenue Line in Manhattan.

"V" train symbol
Sixth Avenue Local
Map of the "V" train
Western endLower East Side–Second Avenue
Eastern endForest Hills–71st Avenue
Stations24
Started serviceDecember 17, 2001; 22 years ago (2001-12-17)
DiscontinuedJune 25, 2010; 13 years ago (2010-06-25)
Route map

Legend
"E" train "F" train trains continue north
 G   R   V  Down arrow
Forest Hills–71st Avenue
67th Avenue
63rd Drive–Rego Park
Woodhaven Boulevard
Grand Avenue–Newtown
Elmhurst Avenue
Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue
65th Street
Northern Boulevard
46th Street
Steinway Street
36th Street
"F" train trains continue south
Queens Plaza
"G" train trains continue south
"R" train trains continue south
Court Square–23rd Street
Lexington Avenue–53rd Street
Fifth Avenue/53rd Street
"F" train trains continue north
"E" train trains continue south
"B" train "D" train trains continue north
47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center
42nd Street–Bryant Park
34th Street–Herald Square
23rd Street
14th Street
West Fourth Street–Washington Square
Broadway–Lafayette Street
Bleecker Street
"B" train "D" train trains continue south
 V  Up arrow
Second Avenue
"F" train trains continue south
no regular service trains continue south
Legend

Lines used by the "V" train
Other services sharing tracks with the "V" train
Unused lines, connections, or service patterns
 V 
Termini of services

Cross-platform interchange

Platforms on different levels

The V operated weekdays only from approximately 6:30 a.m. to midnight between 71st Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens and Second Avenue, near the border of the East Village and the Lower East Side, Manhattan.

The V debuted on December 17, 2001, when the connection from the IND 63rd Street Line to the IND Queens Boulevard Line opened as a replacement for the F, which was rerouted via this new connection, on the IND 53rd Street Line. Except for a brief period in early 2005, the V had the same service pattern during its eight-and-a-half-year history. As part of a series of service reductions to close a budget gap, the V train was eliminated on June 25, 2010. With the exception of service at Second Avenue, it was combined with the M train, which was rerouted from Lower Manhattan and South Brooklyn via the Chrystie Street Connection.

Service history edit

Former use edit

Originally, the V was used to indicate provisional routes running on the IND Sixth Avenue Line; older rollsigns had the orange V emblem with the text "via 6 Avenue" as a provisional service if ever needed.

Initial service plan edit

The V was originally conceived as a Sixth Avenue extra since the early 1980s, running via 63rd Street. It appeared as an orange bullet on rollsigns. The V also appeared on the digital signs of the R44s and R46s with any route and designation combination that could be used for the Sixth Avenue Line.[1] The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), in December 2000, announced plans for a new subway route running between Second Avenue in Manhattan and 71st Avenue in Queens. The V train would run along the Sixth Avenue Line, the 53rd Street Tunnel, and the Queens Boulevard Line's local tracks. This new route would supplement the F train, which would be rerouted to the 63rd Street lines, and the E train through the 53rd Street Tunnel.[2][3]

The introduction of the V service was expected to increase the number of Queens Boulevard trains entering Manhattan by nine trains per hour.[2][4] To make room for V trains on Queens Boulevard, the G train was cut back to a new weekday terminal at Long Island City–Court Square and the F train was rerouted via the 63rd Street Connector. In Manhattan, the F and V made identical stops between 47th–50th Streets and the V train's Lower East Side–Second Avenue terminal station. To prepare for this service, rush hour service was simulated twice on Saturdays during early 2001. The first time, the V, labeled as S, ran via 63rd Street, the F ran via 53rd Street, and the G ran to 179th Street. It was particularly done to see if it was possible to maintain existing G train service along Queens Boulevard with the new V train added on. When this test became unsuccessful, the V's eventual service pattern (via 53rd Street) was tested on September 8, and was a success. Due to the September 11 attacks and numerous services being disrupted by damage sustained in the attacks (including R service along Queens Boulevard), the V train's entry into service was delayed.[1]

The MTA board's transit committee voted on May 25, 2001, to recommend that the entirety of the board vote on the proposed V train.[5] On May 31, 2001, the MTA board approved the operating plan for the opening of the 63rd Street Connector, including the beginning of V service, which was to begin on November 11, 2001.[6] The V made its debut on December 17, 2001.[7][4] Service ran every six minutes during rush hours and ten minutes other times, running southbound from 71st Avenue between 5:38 a.m. and 10:57 p.m., and northbound from Second Avenue between 5:54 a.m. and 11:33 p.m..[8]

Controversy edit

The new service plan was designed to redistribute Queens-bound passenger loads along the heavily used IND Sixth Avenue Line by encouraging use of the additional local trains provided for shorter trips, and to improve service and transfer opportunities for passengers using local stations along Queens Boulevard. The New York Times described the service plan as "complex and heavily criticized." New York Times columnist Randy Kennedy wrote that four months after it opened, the service was operating at only 49% of capacity. However, ridership had "increased 30 percent since it began, and every new V rider, as lonely as he or she might be, relieves crowding on the E."[9] The Straphangers Campaign and Queens Civic Congress organized protests in 2002 to request the V train be rerouted to the 63rd Street Tunnel.[10]

The overcrowding on the E train was, in part, due to riders' propensity to board an express even in situations where it offers no real advantage in travel time over the local. Conductors were asked to make scripted announcements to urge riders to use the V, noting that they had a better chance of getting a seat on the train.[11] By May 2002, ridership started picking up on the V, and crowding on the E was reduced from 115% of capacity during rush hours to 96%.[12]

Kennedy sought out and interviewed some passengers who were not happy with the V's debut:

Last week, there were two express trains (the E and the F) running along Queens Boulevard to 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue, the station where many people catch the Lexington line. Now, there is only one express (the E) and a local (the V) going to that popular station. And the other express (the F) detours to a less popular station, 63rd and Lexington, where you cannot transfer to the Lexington Avenue Line without walking outside for a few blocks. So the questions being asked privately, and sometimes very publicly, in Queens stations yesterday were: Do I take a train not going where I'm going and — God forbid — transfer? Do I take a relatively uncrowded train that goes where I'm going but that gives me the scenic tour of subterranean Queens?[13]

On January 23, 2005, a fire destroyed the signal room of Chambers Street on the IND Eighth Avenue Line. V service was temporarily extended to Euclid Avenue until C service was restored on February 2.[14][15][16][17][18]

Merger of V and M trains edit

In late 2009, the MTA confronted a financial crisis, and many of the same service cuts threatened just months earlier during a previous budget crisis were revisited. One of the proposals included completely phasing out M service and using the V as its replacement. Under this proposal, the V would no longer serve its southern terminus at Lower East Side–Second Avenue. Instead, after leaving Broadway–Lafayette Street, it would take the Chrystie Street Connection to join the BMT Nassau Street Line, and stop at Essex Street in Manhattan before crossing the Williamsburg Bridge and serving all M stations to Middle Village-Metropolitan Avenue in Queens.

The MTA determined that this move, while still a service cut, would actually benefit M passengers, as approximately 17,000 of them traveled to its stations in Lower Manhattan, whereas 22,000 transferred to other lines to reach destinations in Midtown Manhattan.[19] Additionally, this merger would open up new travel options for northern Brooklyn and Queens J/Z riders, in that it would allow direct and more convenient access to areas that were not served by those routes before such as Midtown Manhattan.

On March 19, 2010, it was decided that the V designation would be discontinued and the new service would retain the M's designation instead, which would now be designated with an orange symbol representing an IND Sixth Avenue Line train. Many MTA board members had opposed the elimination of the M designation, saying that passengers would be more comfortable with an M designation rather than a V designation, and because the M had been around longer than the V.[20][21]

The V ceased operation on Friday, June 25, 2010, with the last train bound for Forest Hills–71st Avenue leaving Lower East Side–Second Avenue at 11:33 p.m.[22] Official M service via the Chrystie Street Connection began on Monday, June 28, 2010.

From July 3, 2017, until April 27, 2018, reconstruction work on the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line resulted in a limited number of M trains operating between 71st Avenue in Queens and Second Avenue in Manhattan, during rush hours, replicating the V's original routing prior to its discontinuation.[23]

Final route edit

Lines used edit

The following lines were used by the V from December 2001 to June 2010:

Line From To Tracks
IND Queens Boulevard Line 71st Avenue Queens Plaza local
Queens Plaza Fifth Avenue/53rd Street all
IND Sixth Avenue Line 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center Lower East Side–Second Avenue local

Stations edit

For a more detailed station listing, see the articles on the lines listed above.

Station service legend
  Stops all times
  Stops all times except late nights
  Stops late nights and weekends only
  Stops weekdays during the day
  Stops weekdays in the peak direction only
Time period details
  Station is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act
  ↑ Station is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act
in the indicated direction only
  ↓
  Elevator access to mezzanine only
  Stations   Subway transfers Connections and notes
Queens
Queens Boulevard Line
  Forest Hills–71st Avenue [a] E   F   G   R   LIRR Main Line at Forest Hills
  67th Avenue G   R  
  63rd Drive–Rego Park G   R   Q72 to LaGuardia Airport
  Woodhaven Boulevard G   R  
  Grand Avenue–Newtown G   R  
  Elmhurst Avenue G   R  
  Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue   E   F   G   R  
7   (IRT Flushing Line) at 74th Street–Broadway
Q33 bus to LaGuardia Airport
Q47 bus to LaGuardia Marine Air Terminal
  65th Street G   R  
  Northern Boulevard G   R  
  46th Street G   R  
  Steinway Street G   R  
  36th Street G   R  
  Queens Plaza   E   G   R  
  23rd Street–Ely Avenue [a] E   F   <F>  
G   (IND Crosstown Line at Long Island City–Court Square)
7   <7>  ​ (IRT Flushing Line at 45th Road–Court House Square; MetroCard-only transfer)
Manhattan
  Lexington Avenue–53rd Street   E   F   <F>  
6   <6>  ​ (IRT Lexington Avenue Line at 51st Street)
  Fifth Avenue/53rd Street E   F   <F>  
Sixth Avenue Line
  47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center   B   D   F  
  42nd Street–Bryant Park B   D   F  
7   <7>  ​ (IRT Flushing Line at Fifth Avenue)
  34th Street–Herald Square   B   D   F  
N  Q  R  W   (BMT Broadway Line)
PATH at 33rd Street
  23rd Street F   PATH at 23rd Street
  14th Street F  
1  2  3   (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line at 14th Street)
L   (BMT Canarsie Line at Sixth Avenue)
PATH at 14th Street
  West Fourth Street–Washington Square   B   D   F  
A  C  E   (IND Eighth Avenue Line)
PATH at Ninth Street
  Broadway–Lafayette Street [a] B   D   F  
6   <6>  ​ (IRT Lexington Avenue Line at Bleecker Street; transfer to downtown trains only)
  Lower East Side–Second Avenue F  

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c This station was made accessible after the V was discontinued.

References edit

  1. ^ a b "NYCT Line by Line History". erictb.info.
  2. ^ a b Kershaw, Sarah (December 2, 2000). "Proposed Line Would Lighten Subway Crush". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  3. ^ Donohue, Pete (December 1, 2000). "Queens Commuters May Take the V Train". New York Daily News. p. 7. ISSN 2692-1251. ProQuest 305559611.
  4. ^ a b Donohue, Pete (December 16, 2001). "V Day for Straphangers New Line Hits Track Tomorrow". New York Daily News. p. 10. ISSN 2692-1251. ProQuest 305671298.
  5. ^ Kennedy, Randy (May 25, 2001). "Panel Approves New V Train but Shortens G Line to Make Room". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  6. ^ Donohue, Pete (June 1, 2001). "V train approved to cut crush on E, F & R". New York Daily News. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  7. ^ Kershaw, Sarah (December 17, 2001). "V Train Begins Service Today, Giving Queens Commuters Another Option". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  8. ^ "63rd Street Connector In Service – New Schedules in Effect" (PDF). New York Division Bulletin. Electric Railroaders' Association. 45 (1): 13. January 2002.
  9. ^ Kennedy, Randy (July 9, 2002). "When One New Train Equals One Less Express". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  10. ^ Bowles, Pete (June 25, 2002). "Groups to Protest Subway Line / Want to switch F with unpopular V". Newsday. p. A15. ISSN 2574-5298. ProQuest 279540524.
  11. ^ Donohue, Pete (April 26, 2002). "TA pushes for riders on V train. Hard sell by conductors". New York Daily News. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  12. ^ Donohue, Pete (May 1, 2002). "V train will get there, TA insists". New York Daily News. Retrieved May 27, 2019.
  13. ^ Kennedy, Randy (December 18, 2001). "Lonesome Newcomer, Taking It Slowly, Seeks Riders". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  14. ^ Chan, Sewell (January 25, 2005). "2 Subway Lines Crippled by Fire; Long Repair Seen". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  15. ^ "Remembering a fire at Chambers St". Second Ave. Sagas. August 24, 2010.
  16. ^ "MTA NYC Transit Subway Line Information". February 5, 2005. Archived from the original on February 5, 2005. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  17. ^ "Service Update - A C V Subway Lines". February 4, 2005. Archived from the original on February 4, 2005. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  18. ^ "Service Update - A C V Subway Lines". January 29, 2005. Archived from the original on January 29, 2005. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  19. ^ "2010 NYC Transit Service Reductions" (PDF). MTA New York City Transit. January 27, 2010. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 25, 2010. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  20. ^ Grynbaum, Michael M. (March 19, 2010). "On the Subway, V Is for Vanished". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  21. ^ "Modifications to 2010 NYC Transit Service Reductions" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 1, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  22. ^ DeJesus, Juan (June 25, 2010). "Last Stop: New Yorkers Bid Adieu to V and W". WNBC. Retrieved June 25, 2010.
  23. ^ "M Subway Timetable, Effective June 25, 2017" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Archived from the original on June 25, 2017. Retrieved June 25, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

External links edit

  • "MTA NYC Transit - V Sixth Avenue Local". Archived from the original on March 26, 2010.
  • V Train Timetable (2006)