V (New York City Subway service)

Sixth Avenue Local
A train made of R46 cars in V service at Roosevelt Avenue, bound for Forest Hills.
Northern end	Forest Hills – 71st Avenue
Southern end	Lower East Side – Second Avenue
Stations	24
Started service	December 17, 2001
Discontinued	June 25, 2010

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 bright orange since it used the IND Sixth Avenue Line in 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.

The V train was eliminated on June 25, 2010 as part of a series of service reductions to close a budget gap. To replace the V, the M was rerouted from Lower Manhattan and South Brooklyn via the Chrystie Street Connection, making all of the V's former stops except for Second Avenue. Except for a brief period in early 2005, the V had the same service pattern during its eight-and-a-half-year history. It operated weekdays only from approximately 6:30 a.m. to midnight between 71st Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens and Second Avenue, a station located near the border of the East Village and the Lower East Side, Manhattan.

Service history

A train made of R32 cars in V service at 23rd Street, bound for Queens.

Initial service plan and controversy

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]

A train made of R42 cars in V service at West Fourth Street, bound for Second Avenue

The V made its debut on December 17, 2001.^[2] It was introduced to provide riders at local stations along the IND Queens Boulevard Line with direct service to Manhattan via the IND Sixth Avenue Line, and to resolve overcrowding issues at 23rd Street – Ely Avenue. The V service added nine additional peak-hour trains coming into Manhattan from Queens Boulevard.^[3] However, to make room for V trains on Queens Boulevard, the G train was given a new weekday terminal at Long Island City–Court Square and the F train was rerouted via 63rd Street. 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 the previous spring. 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 the G train could be kept along Queens Boulevard. 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, implementation of this service was delayed for 3 days.^[1]

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."^[4] Several years experience with the service running, has shown its value and seen further gains. V trains, while by no means consistently full, have taken some load off the F train; however, some riders have complained that the passenger load on the E train has worsened, while others said it has gotten better, due to its becoming the only express train that runs along 53rd Street. 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.^[5]

Not all F riders were happy. Columnist Kennedy sought out and interviewed some 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?[6]

”

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.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

Merger of V and M trains

Notice of the V's elimination and the M's reroute.

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 use the Chrystie Street Connection, a then-unused track connection between the BMT Nassau Street Line and the IND Sixth Avenue Line, and stop at Essex Street in Manhattan before serving all M stations to Metropolitan Avenue in Queens.

The MTA determined that this move, while still a service cut, would actually benefit M riders, 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.^[12] 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 weren't served by those routes before such as Midtown Manhattan.

On March 19, 2010, it was decided that the new service pattern would retain the M designation instead, which would now be designated with an orange symbol representing a IND Sixth Avenue Line train, while the V designation will be discontinued. Many MTA board members opposed the elimination of the M designation, saying that riders would be more comfortable with an M designation rather than a V designation, and because the M has been around longer than the V.^[13][14]

V service ended on June 25, 2010 with the last train leaving Lower East Side – Second Avenue bound for Queens at 11:33 pm.^[15]

Final route

Lines used

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

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 weekdays only
	Stops weekdays in the peak direction only
Time period details

	Stations		Subway transfers	Connections and notes
Queens
	Forest Hills – 71st Avenue		E  F  R	LIRR Main Line at Forest Hills
	67th Avenue		R
	63rd Drive – Rego Park		R	Q72 to LaGuardia Airport
	Woodhaven Boulevard		R
	Grand Avenue – Newtown		R
	Elmhurst Avenue		R
	Jackson Heights – Roosevelt Avenue		E  F  R  7  (IRT Flushing Line) at 74th Street – Broadway	Q33 bus to LaGuardia Airport Q47 bus to LaGuardia Marine Air Terminal
	65th Street		R
	Northern Boulevard		R
	46th Street		R
	Steinway Street		R
	36th Street		R
	Queens Plaza		E  R
	23rd Street – Ely Avenue		E  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  6  <6> (IRT Lexington Avenue Line at 51st Street)
	Fifth Avenue / 53rd Street		E
	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 9th Street
	Broadway – Lafayette Street		B  D  F  6  <6> (IRT Lexington Avenue Line at Bleecker Street; transfer to downtown trains only)
	Lower East Side – Second Avenue		F

References

1. "NYCT Line by Line History". erictb.info.
2. Kershaw, Sarah (2001-12-17). "V Train Begins Service Today, Giving Queens Commuters Another Option". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
3. Kershaw, Sarah (December 2, 2000). "Proposed Line Would Lighten Subway Crush". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
4. Kennedy, Randy (July 9, 2002). "When One New Train Equals One Less Express". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
5. Kennedy, Randy (May 25, 2001). "Panel Approves New V Train but Shortens G Line to Make Room". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
6. Kennedy, Randy (December 18, 2001). "Lonesome Newcomer, Taking It Slowly, Seeks Riders". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
7. Chan, Sewell (2005-01-25). "2 Subway Lines Crippled by Fire; Long Repair Seen". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
8. "Remembering a fire at Chambers St.". Second Ave. Sagas.
9. "MTA NYC Transit Subway Line Information". 2005-02-05. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
10. "Service Update - A C V Subway Lines". 2005-02-04. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
11. "Service Update - A C V Subway Lines". 2005-01-29. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
12. "2010 NYC Transit Service Reductions" (PDF). MTA New York City Transit. January 27, 2010. p. 9. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
13. Grynbaum, Michael M. (March 19, 2010). "On the Subway, V Is for Vanished". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
14. http://mta.info/news/pdf/NYCT_Summary_of_Revisions.pdf
15. DeJesus, Juan (June 25, 2010). "Last Stop: New Yorkers Bid Adieu to V and W". WNBC. Retrieved 2010-06-25.

External links

• "MTA NYC Transit - V Sixth Avenue Local". Archived from the original on 2011-09-27.
• V Train Timetable (2006)