BMT West End Line

The BMT West End Line is a line of the New York City Subway, serving the Brooklyn communities of Borough Park, New Utrecht, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Coney Island. The D train operates local on the entire line at all times. Although there is a center express track and three express stations along the line, there is no regular express service at this time.

The elevated line, originally mapped as the New Utrecht Avenue Line (though the common name prevailed after construction), replaced the surface West End Line.^[1]

Extent and service

	Time period	Section of line
	all times	full line

The line begins as a branch of the BMT Fourth Avenue Line south of the 36th Street station, and it extends through a cut described as the 38th Street cut to Ninth Avenue. Then it becomes an elevated structure over New Utrecht Avenue, before subsequently turning through private property near 79th Street into 86th Street. The line then continues over 86th Street to Stillwell Avenue and to the line's terminal at Coney Island.^[1]

History

The line was originally a surface railway to Coney Island, called the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad.^[2] Under the Dual Contracts of 1913, an elevated line was built over New Utrecht Avenue, 86th Street and Stillwell Avenue.

From 39th Street to Coney Island, the old route was abandoned as a rapid transit line, and it was turned into a surface car line. Surface car operation began on the line once the new elevated service started.^[1]

The first portion of the line, between the 36th Street station on Fourth Avenue and 62nd Street station, opened on June 24, 1916 with two tracks.^[3][4] On the same date, the line opened three more stations to 18th Avenue, but with only one track in service. The second track between 62nd Street and 18th Avenue opened on July 8, 1916. The line was then extended to 25th Avenue on July 29, 1916. The line opened to and fully opening to Coney Island on July 21, 1917. The original surface right-of-way was retained for use by trolley cars to provide local service and protect the company's franchise.^[1]

Service history

Elevated line over 86th Street at Bay Parkway station

Route designation on BMT Triplex equipment

BMT West End Line
Legend
South Brooklyn Railway BMT Fourth Avenue Line 5th Avenue El 36th–38th Street Yard Ninth Avenue (lower level abandoned) BMT Culver Line Fort Hamilton Parkway 50th Street 55th Street 62nd Street BMT Sea Beach Line 71st Street 79th Street 18th Avenue 20th Avenue Bay Parkway 25th Avenue Bay 50th Street Coney Island Complex Stillwell Avenue Yard BMT Sea Beach Line Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue BMT Brighton and IND Culver lines

The West End Line has had an express (on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line) service – labeled 3 in 1924 – since it opened in 1916, passing over the Manhattan Bridge and onto the BMT Broadway Line express tracks. In the late 1950s, midday trains were switched to the local Fourth Avenue tracks and through the Montague Street Tunnel, and late night and Sunday service became a shuttle between Coney Island and 36th Street. The express and local services were assigned the designations T and TT in the early 1960s. With the opening of the Chrystie Street Connection in late 1967, the B train from Manhattan and the Bronx was extended to Coney Island, absorbing the T and TT (both ran express on Fourth Avenue). The TT late night and Sunday shuttle survived until 1968, when the B became full-time. It ran local on Fourth Avenue during late night hours, but express at all other times. Late night operation was cut back to a shuttle to 36th Street in 1976.

In 2001, when reconstruction of the Manhattan Bridge north tracks, the B service in Brooklyn was replaced by the new W train, which ran as a shuttle not only to 36th Street during nighttime hours, but also to Atlantic Avenue–Pacific Street on weekends. In 2002, reconstruction of Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue resulted in the West End Line being the only line to serve the terminal and the W was extended full-time into Manhattan, using the local Fourth Avenue tracks and Montague Street Tunnel on weekends and late nights hours.^[5]

In 2004, the Manhattan Bridge reconstruction was completed, and the W was replaced with an extended D train, running over the bridge at all hours and express on Fourth Avenue except late nights. The restored Brooklyn D service was moved to the West End Line instead of returning to the Brighton Line on which it had run since 1967, except for periods of construction rerouting, in order to avoid running two separate (B and D) shortened lines outside of weekday hours. The plan was for the B to run only on weekdays in the Bronx, while the restored service on the Brighton Line (formerly the D) was to run only on weekdays in Brooklyn. Thus, moving the B to the Brighton Line meant it would only need to be operated during weekday hours. This eliminated the need to run late-night and/or weekend shuttles on either the Concourse Line or the West End Line.^[6]

The other service pattern was the "West End Short Line", a rush-hour local (on Fourth Avenue) service between the BMT Nassau Street Line in Lower Manhattan and 62nd Street or Bay Parkway. It became part of the TT in the early 1960s and was discontinued in 1967.

In 1987, the short line service was essentially recreated when the rush-hour M extension to Brooklyn was moved from the BMT Brighton Line to the West End Line terminating at Bay Parkway. It terminated at Ninth Avenue until 1995, when it was cut back to Chambers Street. It was extended again from 2001–2004 while the Manhattan Bridge was closed for reconstruction. In 2010, as part of a series of MTA budget cuts, rush-hour M service was discontinued.

Chaining information

The West End Line is chained BMT D. This is completely unrelated to the fact that since 2004, the primary service designator has also been D; the name overlap is a coincidence.^[7]

Station listing

Station service legend
	Stops all times
Time period details

Neighborhood		Station	Tracks	Services	Opened	Transfers and notes
splits from the BMT Fourth Avenue Line (D )
Center Express track begins (No Regular Service)
connecting tracks to former BMT Culver Line (No Regular Service)
connecting tracks to 36th–38th Street Yard from local tracks
Sunset Park		Ninth Avenue	all	D	June 24, 1916	former transfer to BMT Culver Line
Borough Park		Fort Hamilton Parkway	local	D	June 24, 1916
		50th Street	local	D	June 24, 1916
		55th Street	local	D	June 24, 1916
Bensonhurst		62nd Street	all	D	June 24, 1916	BMT Sea Beach Line (N ) at New Utrecht Avenue
		71st Street	local	D	June 24, 1916
		79th Street	local	D	June 24, 1916
		18th Avenue	local	D	June 24, 1916
		20th Avenue	local	D	July 29, 1916
		Bay Parkway	all	D	July 29, 1916
		25th Avenue	local	D	July 29, 1916
connecting track to Coney Island Yard
Gravesend		Bay 50th Street	local	D	December 21, 1917
connecting track to Coney Island Yard
Center Express track ends
Coney Island		Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue	all	D	December 23, 1918	BMT Brighton Line (Q ) IND Culver Line (F ) BMT Sea Beach Line (N )

In popular culture

Over the years, the West End line has been featured in movies and television shows.

• The famous chase scene from The French Connection (1971) was filmed under the West End Line.^[8]
• The opening scene of Saturday Night Fever (1977) features Tony Manero (John Travolta) walking down 86th Street, with the West End elevated line above.^[8]
• The opening credits of the television show Welcome Back, Kotter (1975) also featured the West End Line.^[9]

Under the structure, between 50th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway stations

See also

• Transportation to Coney Island

References

External links

Route map: Bing / Google

Wikimedia Commons has media related to BMT West End Line.

• Railroad History Database
• Gunther and His Railroad by Morton Morris
• BMT West End Line on NYCSubway.org

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