|
The 63rd Street Line is a rapid transit line of the New York City Subway system. It runs from connections with the BMT Broadway Line at 57th Street and 7th Avenue and the IND Sixth Avenue Line at 47th-50th Streets-Rockefeller Center east under the East River through the 63rd Street Tunnel to the Queens Boulevard Line in Queens. There are also provisions to connect to the Second Avenue Line between downtown-bound tracks on the Broadway-BMT Line and uptown-bound tracks on the Second Avenue Line, and between Queens-bound tracks on the 63rd Street Line and downtown-bound tracks on the Second Avenue Line.
Extent and service
The 63rd Street Line is actually two separate subway lines, a BMT line from 57th Street and 7th Avenue to an uptown connection with the future Second Avenue Subway, and an IND line from 47th-50th Streets and 6th Avenue to Queens. The two lines share only one point of contact, west of Lexington Avenue, where double crossovers allow northbound and southbound trains of either line to crossover to the other line. At Lexington Avenue, a double-decked station will allow cross-platform transfers between the two lines, similar to the arrangement at Queensboro Plaza. Trains to Queens (and later Upper Manhattan) use the upper level and trains to downtown Manhattan the lower level. Currently the BMT tracks are behind a wall on the platforms on each level, which will be removed when the tracks are active.
The IND part of the line carries F service all the time; the BMT part is currently unused, but is planned to carry extended Q service onto the [{Second Avenue Line]]. The IND tracks are coded as new chaining route "T" (T1 and T2).
The BMT line is used for non-revenue moves. switching west of Lexington Avenue to access the Queens-bound tracks of the IND line. It is occasionally used for revenue service as a bypass, and hosted shuttle service to Long Island City for a while during construction. The tracks are coded as BMT chaining route "G", the same as the 60th Street tunnel and Astoria Line as tracks G3 and G4 to distinguish them from the pre-exisiting G1 and G2 tracks, The BMT tracks end at bumper blocks east of Lexington Avenue and are to be connected to the Second Avenue Line in the future.
The 63rd Street Tunnel is a two-level tunnel, hosting the 63rd Street Line on its upper level. The lower level, currently without service, was built to carry the Long Island Rail Road's new terminal line to Grand Central Terminal.
Background
The main part of the route opened on October 29, 1989; the last bit from 21st Street to the Queens Boulevard Line opened on December 16, 2001.
Station listing
External links
|
