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. Except for a brief period in early 2005, the V had the same service pattern during its eight-and-a-half-year history. As part of a series of service reductions to close a budget gap, the V train was eliminated on June 25, 2010. With the exception of service at Second Avenue, it was combined with the M train, which was rerouted from Lower Manhattan and South Brooklyn via the Chrystie Street Connection.
Service history
Context
The V was originally devised as an extra Sixth Avenue service designation that first appeared on rollsign curtains ordered in 1984 for the R10 through R38B Division subway car classes to replace outdated rollsigns. It would also appear on rollsign curtains ordered for the then-new R68, R68A and R110B subway cars which entered service between 1986 and 1993, as well as on replacement rollsign curtains ordered for the R30 through R46 B Division subway cars overhauled between 1985 and 1992.
Debut
In December 2000, the MTA announced plans for a new subway route to operate between 71st Avenue in Queens and Second Avenue in Manhattan. This new route would would be designated as the V and would operate along the Queens Boulevard Line, the 53rd Street Tunnel, and the Sixth Avenue Line, making all stops along the full route. This new route would supplement the E via 53rd Street and the F via Sixth Avenue.[1][2]
The introduction of the V was expected to increase the number of Queens Boulevard trains entering Manhattan by nine trains per hour.[1][3] To make room for the V on Queens Boulevard, F trains were rerouted full-time via the 63rd Street Connector, and G trains were cut back to a new weekday rush hour and midday terminal at Long Island City–Court Square. In Manhattan, F and V trains made identical stops between 47th–50th Streets and the V train's Lower East Side–Second Avenueterminal. To prepare for this service, weekday rush hour service was simulated on Saturday, April 14, 2001 from 9:45 to 11:30 AM. V trains operated on a six-minute frequency between 71st Avenue and 57th Street–Seventh Avenue via 63rd Street and made all stops. This test took place to determine if existing G service along Queens Boulevard could be maintained along with V trains simultaneously; G trains operated on a ten-minute frequency, terminated at 179th Street in the northbound direction and originated at 71st Avenue in the southbound direction.[4][5] The MTA board's transit committee voted on May 25 to recommend that the entirety of the board vote on the proposed V train.[6] On May 31, the MTA board approved the operating plan for the opening of the 63rd Street Connector, including the beginning of V service, which was to begin on November 11. Another weekday simulation took place during the daytime hours on Saturday, September 8, adapting the service pattern that would be implemented when the V would debut, but without the G operating along Queens Boulevard during weekday rush hours and middays.[7] Due to the September 11 attacks, the V did not debut until December 17.[8][9][3] Service ran every six minutes during rush hours and ten minutes other times, running southbound from 71st Avenue between 5:38 a.m. and 10:57 p.m., and northbound from Second Avenue between 5:54 a.m. and 11:33 p.m..[10]
Controversy
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."[11] The Straphangers Campaign and Queens Civic Congress organized protests in 2002 to request the V train be rerouted to the 63rd Street Tunnel.[12]
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. Conductors were asked to make scripted announcements to urge riders to use the V, noting that they had a better chance of getting a seat on the train.[13] By May 2002, ridership started picking up on the V, and crowding on the E was reduced from 115% of capacity during rush hours to 96%.[14]
Kennedy sought out and interviewed some passengers 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?[15]
The MTA determined that this move, while still a service cut, would actually benefit M passengers, 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.[21] 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 were not served by those routes before such as Midtown Manhattan.
On March 19, 2010, it was decided that the V designation would be discontinued and the new service would retain the M's designation instead, which would now be designated with an orange symbol representing an IND Sixth Avenue Line train. Many MTA board members had opposed the elimination of the M designation, saying that passengers would be more comfortable with an M designation rather than a V designation, and because the M had been around longer than the V.[22][23]
From July 3, 2017, until April 27, 2018, reconstruction work on the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line resulted in a limited number of M trains operating between 71st Avenue in Queens and Second Avenue in Manhattan, during rush hours, replicating the V's original routing prior to its discontinuation.[27]
Final route
Lines used
The following lines were used by the V from December 2001 to June 2010:
↑ Donohue, Pete (December 1, 2000). "Queens Commuters May Take the V Train". New York Daily News. p.7. ISSN2692-1251. ProQuest305559611.
1 2 Donohue, Pete (December 16, 2001). "V Day for Straphangers New Line Hits Track Tomorrow". New York Daily News. p.10. ISSN2692-1251. ProQuest305671298.
↑ "Evaluation of 2010 Service Reductions"(PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. September 23, 2011. Archived(PDF) from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
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