The F Train: A 24-Hour Link From Queens to Coney Island

The F train is one of New York City’s two related Sixth Avenue services, identified on subway maps by an orange route marker. It runs through the city’s B Division and links 179th Street in Jamaica, Queens, with Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Manhattan sits between those endpoints, making the line a cross-borough route with an around-the-clock schedule.

During the day, the F operates express in Queens before making local stops in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Overnight, it changes to an all-stops pattern for the entire trip. That difference matters for riders planning a journey: a station served by the line may have a different travel time depending on when the trip takes place, even though the route itself remains in service.

The line also has a limited rush-hour express pattern in Brooklyn. In the peak direction, some F trains run express between Jay Street and Church Avenue, stopping at Seventh Avenue between those points. That arrangement began in September 2019. Brooklyn’s route symbols distinguish the two patterns: a circled F represents local service, while a diamond-shaped F identifies the express version.

The F’s current route is also the result of several historical changes. From 1968 through 1976, the service ran express on Brooklyn’s IND Culver Line. For most of the period covered by the source material, the route used the 63rd Street Tunnel between Queens and Manhattan after shifting away from the 53rd Street Tunnel in 2001. A temporary exception occurred from August 2023 through March 2024, when track replacement led to a rerouting through the 53rd Street Tunnel.

The service’s route designation reflects its Manhattan alignment. The F uses the IND Sixth Avenue Line, which accounts for the orange color associated with both the local and express versions. In Brooklyn, however, the distinction between local and express operation is especially visible through the separate map symbols.

For riders, the practical takeaway is that “the F” describes more than one stopping pattern. The line is available 24 hours a day, but daytime, overnight and peak-direction service do not make the same stops. Checking the service pattern for the planned travel period is therefore essential, particularly for trips in Queens and Brooklyn, where express operations affect which stations are served and how quickly trains move between them.

Source and reuse information This automatically generated backgrounder adapts text from “F (New York City Subway service)” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_(New_York_City_Subway_service) The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. The source article’s linked references are provided below where available. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://new.mta.info/document/10366 - https://www.cb8m.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/63-St-Direct-Fixation-Public-Presentation-June-2023.pdf - https://erausa.org/pdf/bulletin/2020s/2021/2021-12-bulletin.pdf - https://erausa.org/pdf/bulletin/2006/2006-03-bulletin.pdf - https://erausa.org/pdf/bulletin/2010s/2010/2010-01-bulletin.pdf - https://erausa.org/pdf/bulletin/2010s/2010/2010-02-bulletin.pdf Image rights Photograph description: MTA New York City Transit deals with the first snowstorm of the season at Avenue X station in Brooklyn on Tue., December 10, 2013. F train approaches Avenue X. (Photo: MTA New York City Transit / Marc A. Hermann) Creator: Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York. License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ANew_York_City_Transit_snow_removal_(11312238756).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.