The R Train: A 24-Hour Local Across New York City

The R is a 24-hour local service within the New York City Subway’s B Division. Its yellow route marker reflects its use of the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan, but the service also crosses parts of Queens and Brooklyn, giving it a long east-west footprint through the city.

During the day, the R runs between 71st Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens, and 95th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It makes every stop along the full route. In Manhattan, the line uses the BMT Broadway Line, while its Brooklyn routing includes the BMT Fourth Avenue Line. The service also travels through the Montague Street Tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan.

There are two weekday morning rush-hour exceptions described in the service pattern. One northbound trip ends at 96th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side rather than continuing to Forest Hills. One southbound trip ends at Bay Parkway instead of continuing to 95th Street. These are individual trips, rather than a general change to the R’s regular daytime terminals.

Overnight, the R does not run all the way to Forest Hills. Instead, it short-turns at Whitehall Street–South Ferry in Lower Manhattan, operating between that terminal and Brooklyn. The overnight pattern therefore excludes the section between Whitehall Street–South Ferry and 71st Avenue.

The service’s present identity developed from an earlier designation. The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation originally operated the route as the 2 service. That predecessor followed the BMT Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn, passed through the Montague Street Tunnel, and then ran locally on the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan. In 1961, the 2 became the RR. The RR also ran locally on the BMT Astoria Line in Queens and terminated at Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard, according to the available historical account.

For riders planning a trip, the central point is that the R is not identical at every hour. Daytime trains provide the full Forest Hills-to-Bay Ridge service, while a small number of morning rush-hour trips have different endpoints and overnight trains turn around in Lower Manhattan. The route’s combination of Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn segments makes it a useful piece of the city’s local subway network, while its changing terminal pattern is essential context for anyone relying on late-night service.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.flickr.com/photos/127872292@N06/25029684135/ - https://www.flickr.com/photos/127872292@N06/27733842265/ - https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/16/nyregion/shifts-on-n-and-r-lines-are-planned-in-queens.html - https://issuu.com/erausa/docs/the_era_bulletin_2010-10 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/127872292@N06/27699872706/ - https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/09/nyregion/big-changes-for-subways-are-to-begin.html Image rights Photograph description: A Flushing-bound No. 7 train is pulling into the 52nd Street Station in Woodside, on the morning after the freak October snowstorm. Because of signal upgrade work taking place through this particular weekend, the inbound No. 7 is running as an express between 61st Street and Queensboro Plaza, and I am required to go outbound to 61st Street to catch the inbound express. Moreover, the section betwee Creator: skinnylawyer from Los Angeles, California, USA. License: CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A7_train_at_52_St.jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.