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The B Concourse Local - Brighton Express via 6th Avenue Express is a subway train service of the New York City Transit Authority.
Current service
The B train runs weekdays only from approximately 6 am to 9 pm (0600-2100) Brighton Beach in the Borough of Brooklyn and 145th and 8th Avenue in the Borough of Manhattan, both in the City of New York. During rush hours (peak periods) the B service is extended on the Grand Concourse Line to Bedford Park Boulevard station in the Borough of The Bronx.
Service operates on the Brighton Beach Line of the former BMT Division in Brooklyn, crosses the Manhattan Bridge and then operates on the 6th Avenue Line in Manhattan, using the 8th Avenue Line north of 53rd Street to reach its northern terminals.
Communities served by the B include Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Homecrest, Midwood, Flatbush and Downtown Brooklyn in Brooklyn, and Chinatown, Greenwich Village-New York University, Union Square, Herald Square and Times Square in lower and midtown Manhattan, and the Upper West Side in Manhattan. When it runs to The Bronx it serves Yankee Stadium and the Grand Concourse area.
The B train operates in tandem with the Q train on the Brighton Beach Line. The B trains provide express service on the Brighton Line, while the Q train always provides local service.
Service history
The designation B was originally intended to designate express trains originating in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan and operating in midtown Manhattan on the 6th Avenue Line. However, the original B service, beginning with the opening of the 6th Avenue Line in 1940 and continuing until opening of the Chrystie Street Connection in 1967 ran only as a local train between Washington Heights and 34th Street and 6th Avenue, near the Empire State Building and only during rush hours. This service was designed BB in conformance with Independent Subway System protocol of using double letters to indicate local services.
Subsequent to the opening of the Chrystie Street Connection the former BB trains were combined with the former T trains of the West End Line, creating a through service from Washington Heights to Coney Island. This service was initially to have been signed BT but was simply signed B instead.
The partial closure of the Manhattan Bridge to subway service between 1986 and 2004 impacted B service by severing the connection between the northern and southern portions of the service. Beginning on April 26, 1986, the northern B (via 6th Avenue, informally called "Orange B" and the southern B (via Broadway, informally called "Yellow B") operated as two different services. The Orange B more or less duplicated the former BB service, and the Yellow B was like the old T service. The former B service resumed December 11, 1988.
On March 1, 1998, the B train and the C train switched northern terminals, severing the historic connection between the B train and the Washington Heights Line. The B train was now routed to the Grand Concouurse Line during rush hours.
On July 22, 2001, B train service over the Manhattan Bridge was again interrupted and service recast similarly to the 1986 changes. However, this time the West End Line portion of the run was redesignated as the W train.
On February 22, 2004, the Manhattan Bridge was fully reopened to subway service. The B train did not resume its former route via the West End Line, but instead became the Brighton Beach Express, the current service.
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