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New York City Subway lines

The Archer Avenue lines are two rapid transit lines of the New York City Subway, mostly running under Archer Avenue in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens. The two lines are built on separate levels: trains from the IND Queens Boulevard Line serve the upper level, and trains from the BMT Jamaica Line serve the lower. The two lines are separate, and do not share track connections, and therefore have different chainings and radio frequencies. The B2 (IND Division) Archer Avenue line uses the upper level, and the B1 (BMT Division) Archer Avenue line uses the lower level. These lines were conceived as part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s 1968 expansion plans, and along with the 63rd Street lines and a small section of the Second Avenue Subway, they were the only portions of the plan to be completed before it was scaled back due to fiscal issues. These lines were originally planned to be extended further east into Queens. Construction on the line started in 1973, and the project was expected to be completed in 1980. However, due to financial issues and concern about the quality of the construction, the lines did not open until December 11, 1988. On that date, several bus routes serving the 169th Street station were diverted to the new bus terminal at Jamaica Center. This line is also used by passengers transferring to or from the Long Island Rail Road and the AirTrain JFK.

What is now the Archer Avenue subway was originally conceived as an extension of the IND Queens Boulevard Line under the IND Second System in the 1920s and 1930s. The original plans had a line diverging south of Van Wyck Boulevard station (now called Briarwood), running down what is now the Van Wyck Expressway to Rockaway Boulevard near modern John F. Kennedy International Airport. A bellmouth with two additional trackways was built to the east of the station to facilitate this extension, which was never constructed due to lack of funding. The lines and the Jamaica El removal were part of urban renewal efforts in the Downtown Jamaica area. This included the construction of the York College campus, which was planned to be built in conjunction with the LIRR Atlantic Branch connection. The connection to the Jamaica Line, Route 133, was to begin at Jamaica Avenue and 127th Street and continue as an elevated to the LIRR embankment and then go underground at 91st Avenue before connecting with the Archer Avenue line at 132nd Street. Route 133 was to be over long. The original plan for the upper level (now the ) was for it to continue as a two track line along the LIRR Atlantic Branch. It would have run through Locust Manor and Laurelton stations, with stops at Sutphin Boulevard, Parsons Boulevard (which was called Standard Place in planning documents), Linden Boulevard, Baisley Boulevard, and Springfield Boulevard. The line would have served a large scale housing development at Rochdale Village; such a line would have required conversion involving modifying existing platforms at Locust Manor and Laurelton to accommodate the IND loading gauge, as well as constructing new stations to serve Southeast Queens. It would have also run parallel to the eastern Montauk Branch, which already provided parallel service through St. Albans to Jamaica. As part of the project, several new engineering designs were employed, such as the use of graffiti resistant tiles, the use of welded steel rails on rubber pads to cut down on noise, and the use of blowers within the trackbed to disperse the heat generated by the trains' air conditioning systems. In addition, noise dampening acoustical tiles were installed on station walls and ceilings to reduce noise levels. In the three stations, 21 escalators were installed in addition to electronic train arrival signs, backlighted station signage, and platform edge strips. The stations were built to be nearly free of columns and have 213,000 square feet of high suspended ceiling. The mezzanine area of the Jamaica Van Wyck station was designed to allow natural light to enter the station to the platform area, and has 5,000 square feet of windows.

The Archer Avenue subway's groundbreaking took place on August 15, 1972, at Archer Avenue and 151st Street. The first section of the line to be built was between 147th Place and 151st Street under Archer Avenue. $162 million of the $242 million project was paid for by the city, with the state footing the remainder of the bill. Construction on the Archer Avenue subway began on October 23, 1973, at 159th Street and Beaver Road, just south of Archer Avenue. It was then expected that the subway would be complete by 1980 or 1981. On March 27, 1974, a fire broke out in the tunnel under 150th Street, temporarily severing telephone service in the area. The fire started when waterproofing tar being sprayed on the tunnel walls was ignited. In July 1974, the federal government announced its approval of a $51.1 million grant for the project. The Jamaica–Van Wyck station was estimated to have 1,200 passengers during rush hours, while the Sutphin Boulevard and Parsons Boulevard stations were expected to be used by 5,300 and 8,700 passengers during that period, respectively. Mayor Abraham Beame, on December 13 of that year, announced that he had decided to prioritize the construction of the Southeast Queens Line while postponing construction of the Second Avenue Subway for six years, and as a result, he faced opposition among some members of the New York City Board of Estimate. Prior to making this decision, in October, Beame had considered deferring the construction of all new lines, including this line, due to the lack of federal aid. On October 31, the MTA Chairman David Yunich had announced this decision. On January 16, 1975, a spokesman for the Mayor said that work on the line would proceed even though a report found that the Mayor's plan to save the existing fare and construct new lines was off by as much $1 billion. On June 3, 1975, Queens Borough President Donald Manes and other Jamaica leaders pressed for the formal transfer of half of the $74 million in federal funds approved for the Second Avenue Subway to the Archer Avenue project. On March 5, 1975, the MTA announced that the line should open by 1981. Construction of two tunnels under the nine tracks of the LIRR Main Line in Jamaica began in January 1976, and were part of a line sections starting at Archer Avenue near 159th Street and ending about south of South Road near the Atlantic Branch, passing underneath the center of the York College campus. The two tunnels were built by MacLean, Grove and Company for $4.35 million, while the entire segment, Section 5, cost $24,810,955. This section was constructed using the tunneling shield method. The LIRR Main Line structure was heavily reinforced with metal beams and cables to prevent movement, which could have forced a temporary shutdown of the busy line. A continuous monitoring system was put into place and direct communication was maintained with LIRR personnel at track level. This section is below street level and below the LIRR tracks, and was deemed by the MTA's chief engineer to be the most costly and difficult portion of this section of the line. The average width of the two tunnels was On May 23, 1976, MTA Chairman David Yunich announced that the construction of the two tunnels under the Long Island Rail Road in Jamaica were completed. going up a ramp, and onto the Atlantic Branch's right of way at an embankment at Liberty Avenue. On October 26, 1979, the groundbreaking for Section 2, which stretched from 144th Street to 147th Place, took place. This section was awarded to Slattery Associate Incorporated and Agrett Enterprise Corporation for $45,251,350, and was constructed using cut and cover. This section was expected to be completed in four years, and included the Sutphin Boulevard station. Work on the station was planned to begin in spring 1980. The reconstruction of the Queens Boulevard station to become the line's terminal and the transferring of equipment took 12 to 15 months and cost $2.2 million. One of the modifications made was the installation of a long double crossover to the west of the station. Work on the double crossover was completed at the NYCTA's new track plant at Linden Shops, saving four months. It was installed over the course of two weekends. Q49 buses (distinct from the modern Q49 route) replaced Jamaica elevated service, and free transfers were provided to subway service at Queens Boulevard. Bus service ran every two to three minutes during rush hours, and met every train during late nights. The removal of the elevated's frame was expected to take six to eight months. However, the work started on June 28, 1978, and was scheduled to be completed by early fall 1978—six to ten weeks later. The $927,000 contract to demolish the structure was awarded to the Wrecking Corp. of America. The demolition of the structure, with the exception of the station platforms, was completed overnight to minimize potential impacts to businesses and traffic. Work to reconstruct the street, install new traffic lights and overhead utility lines was expected to take an additional year. Work tearing down the structure began at 168th Street and proceeded to just west of the Queens Boulevard station. In April 1979, the Jamaica Water Supply Company, which supplied water to 118,000 residents of western Nassau County and southeastern Queens, sent a report to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The report stated that the NYCTA would excessively pump too much water out of the ground during the station's construction, which could lower the water table to the level at which salt water would infiltrate and destroy its shallowest aquifer, which produced a quarter of its water supply. These charges were denied by the NYCTA, which said that it would recharge water it pumped from the ground, like in past projects, and that it would replace water flushed into the city sewer system. 2 billion gallons of water worth $1.4 million had been given to the company since 1976. The company had agreed to reduce its pumping at wells near the subway by the amount received by the NYCTA under previous agreement, but did not do so due to an increase in consumer demand. Subsequently, a new agreement was negotiated for work at the Sutphin Boulevard stop, which required more water pumping because more time was needed for the project–a sewer underneath Sutphin Boulevard had to be reinstalled. On October 17, 1979, the groundbreaking for Section 7, a 1,300 feet (396 m) cut and cover section of the Archer Avenue line, took place. This section included the Hillside Avenue Connector, which connected the line with the IND Queens Boulevard Line, and included the Jamaica–Van Wyck station. This section extended north from 89th Avenue to a point past Hillside Avenue, and was expected to be completed in 43 months. This section was constructed by Schiavone Construction Company for $37,728,140. Most of the project was constructed via cut and cover methods, with portions of the lines excavated with tunneling shield methods.

On September 26, 1980, $40 million of federal funding was transferred to the MTA to build the connection to the Jamaica Line, to complete the Parsons Boulevard station, and the installation of track along the line, including the section south of that station to South Road and 158th Street. Work continued on the connection to the Queens Boulevard Line. In October, the contract for the section between 89th Avenue and Archer Avenue was supposed to be let. In October 1980, the MTA considered stopping work on the line and on the 63rd Street Line, due to its budget crisis and the bad state of the existing subway system. This decision was supported by City Council President and MTA Board Member Carol Bellamy. It was unclear whether the federal government would allow the MTA to transfer the funds to system maintenance. At the time, the line was scheduled to be opened in late 1984, with the project's cost ballooning to $455 million, of which contracts worth $268 million had been awarded. Originally set to be opened in 1980, the line kept getting delayed, and by the late 1970s, the opening was delayed to 1983, then to 1985 or 1986. In 1981, due to lack of money, all bidding on new subway and bus projects for the MTA was suspended, except for the already built portions of the 63rd Street and Archer Avenue lines, which were allowed to continue. Progress of the Archer Avenue line temporarily stopped in March 1982, when on March 4, part of the tunnel caved in around the vicinity of Archer Avenue and 138th Street, where one construction worker was killed, and three others narrowly escaped injury. In September 1983, the project was 80% complete, and was expected to be in operation in fall 1985. This temporary service pattern was estimated to be in effect for six or seven months. Queens Community Board 9 members and businessmen complained about the removal of ten parking spots from the south side of Jamaica Avenue and of three spaces on the north side, all between 121st Street and 120th Street for the bus shuttle. In October 1986, the elevated section from 127th Street to Sutphin Boulevard was turned over to New York City to be demolished. The demolition of the structure and the reconstruction of Jamaica Avenue was estimated to cost $1.6 million. The removal of the structure was slated to begin in mid 1990.

Despite the delays, disagreements over the condition of the line and the speed of construction, and the federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA)'s reluctance to provide funding to complete the line due to concerns over the quality of concrete and the leakage of water into the tunnels, construction was completed a year ahead of schedule, in 1983. Due to the New York City fiscal crisis in 1975, the subway line was truncated to Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer. Construction on the project was suspended indefinitely, the MTA announced on July 29, 1985, because of water leakage into the tunnel. The tunnel flooded in summer 1984 during a heavy rainstorm, and even though structural improvements were made to fix the issue, groundwater leaks continued, scattering puddles along of the line. On August 3, 1985, Senator Al D'Amato of New York stated that the project was unsafe and called for the suspension of $44 million in federal aid for the project, citing a preliminary report by the United States Department of Transportation inspector general. The report claimed that the NYCTA failed to test the quality of 94% of the concrete poured in the project and that no follow up work was done even though 23% of the concrete had failed tests after being reexamined. UMTA suspended the payments at his request on August 17. It stated that it would consider restoring the funds if the MTA hired an independent consultant completed studies on the tunnels' structural integrity. On August 26, 1985, the MTA hired an independent consultant, Construction Technology Laboratories (CTL), to inspect the tunnel. A preliminary visual inspection by CTL found corrosion on the steel beams and minor cracks in concrete walls. On August 23, the MTA agreed to commit $39 million of its own funds to fix the Archer Avenue and 63rd Street Lines, of which $14 million was given to the Archer Avenue project. Had the UMTA funds not been restored, the MTA would have absorbed the cost by cutting back other projects in its $8.5 billion capital program. On April 9, 1986, the head of UMTA stated that if the 63rd Street and Archer Avenue lines were not completed, he would demand that the NYCTA refund more than $700 million in federal aid used on the projects. The federal government paid for two thirds of the $1.23 billion spent on the two projects. In June 1986, CTL issued a final report that found that the tunnels of the Archer Avenue and 63rd Street Lines were structurally sound. The report had been ordered by the MTA after UMTA stopped payments on $75 million in grants for the projects, which were 90 percent complete. While the grants were frozen, for a year, the MTA spent $22 million of its own funds to complete existing contracts and to maintain them. The study was requested to show that it was possible to fix leaks and cracks in both projects and an improperly altered ceiling girder in the 63rd Street Tunnel. If the study was approved, work projected to resume in January. It found that there were minor flaws in the projects, such as flaking concrete on a portion of the Archer Avenue tunnel wall, and uneven welds in the altered girder in the 63rd Street Tunnel. The report recommended some rewelding, the removal of stalactites, filling air pockets in some sections of concrete, the removal of debris, waterproofing, and the use of weak electrical charges to prevent corrosion of steel beams. UMTA released $60 million in funds to complete the Archer Avenue and 63rd Street Lines on July 1, 1987. The MTA announced that they would open in December 1988 and October 1989, respectively.

The line opened on December 11, 1988, at a cost of nearly five times its original budgeted cost and cut back to a length of 2 mile (3 km). The project's final cost was $465 million. The line's opening was hailed as a catalyst in the redevelopment of Jamaica, ending the neighborhood's urban blight. In 2020, the MTA announced that it would reconstruct 5500 feet (1676 m) of track and 7800 feet (2377 m) of third rail on the IND Archer Avenue Line, which had become deteriorated. During the first phase of reconstruction, for six weeks between September 19 and November 2, E service was cut back to Jamaica–Van Wyck, with a shuttle bus connecting to Sutphin Boulevard and Jamaica Center. The second phase of the IND line's reconstruction was completed in December 2020. Two years later, the MTA announced it would reconstruct 12500 feet (3810 m) of track on the BMT Archer Avenue Line. The work continued until September 2022. while the E and F express trains would have remained on the Queens Boulevard mainline towards 179th Street. (The N ran on the IND Queens Boulevard Line until 1987, when the N and R swapped northern terminals in Queens.) The N train was to run between Jamaica Center and Coney Island during weekdays while G trains were to terminate at 71st Avenue. During weekends and evenings the G train was to run between Jamaica Center and Smith–Ninth Streets, while N trains would terminate at 57th Street–Seventh Avenue or 71st Avenue. To serve the Archer Avenue Line during late nights, a G train shuttle would have run between Jamaica Center and Van Wyck Boulevard.

One of the goals of the project was to make Jamaica Avenue service as attractive as possible, and as a result, the NYCTA planned to provide a form of express service. The two options considered to speed up Jamaica Line service were skip stop service, which would have split Jamaica services into two patterns that served alternate stops, and a zone express service, which would have split Jamaica services into a short turn local service and a full length express services. The zone express option was dismissed in favor of the skip stop option because its operation has to be very precisely timed so as to not hinder reliability, because service in the outer zone past the boundary of zone express service at Crescent Street or 111th Street would be too infrequent, and because many stations would lose half their service. Outer zone expresses after Crescent Street would skip stops on the local track until Eastern Parkway, from where it would run on the express track, stopping at Myrtle Avenue before going straight to Essex Street in Manhattan, skipping Marcy Avenue. Outer zone expresses and inner zone locals would have each been limited to frequencies of 10 minutes. In addition, J and Z trains skipped Bowery in Manhattan at all times except evenings, nights and weekends. To further speed up service, J and Z trains would run express between Myrtle and Marcy. Midday express service was added with J service continuing to run express in the peak direction between Marcy and Myrtle. Surveys of ridership at local stops found that service could be adequately provided by midday M service.

The opening of the Archer Avenue line was expected to reroute 17,500 riders from Hillside Avenue to Archer Avenue. Two service plans were identified prior to the February 25, 1988 public hearing. The R was extended to 179th Street to serve local stations east of 71st Avenue and to allow F trains to continue running express to 179th Street. The change in the plan was the operation of some E trains from 179th Street as expresses during the morning rush hour to provide an appropriate level of E service to Archer Avenue during the morning rush, to maintain the same level of service to 179th Street while providing express service, and to provide greater choice for riders at the Parsons Boulevard and 179th Street stations on Hillside Avenue. It was decided not to divert some E trains to 179th Street during the afternoon rush hour so that Queens bound riders would not be confused about where their E train was headed.

In conjunction with the opening of the Archer Avenue line, major modifications were made to bus service. To reduce severe overcrowding at the 169th Street station, Merrick Boulevard bus routes were rerouted to the new Jamaica Center station, including the Q3A and Q4A, which were renumbered the Q83 and Q84, respectively, the Q5, Q42 and the Q85 (renamed/combined Q5A and Q5AB). A canopy was constructed soon after the opening to protect passengers from inclement weather. Limited stop service was added to the Q4 in the evening rush hour, supplementing that service in the morning, and was added to the Q5 and Q83 in both rush hours. The Q30, renumbered from the Q17A, and the Q31 were rerouted to serve the Jamaica Center and Sutphin Boulevard stations, having been extended from Jamaica Avenue and 169th Street. The Q17 bus was extended from the 165th Street Bus Terminal to Archer Avenue and Merrick Boulevard, and the Q75 was extended to the Jamaica Bus Terminal. The B22 bus, renamed the Q24, was extended to 171st Street and Jamaica Avenue. The B53 bus was renamed the Q54; the B56, the Q56; the B58, the Q58; the B59, the Q59; and the Q5S, the Q86. The Q49 shuttle bus was discontinued. Initially three options were considered for modifications to bus service. Under all three options, the B22 was going to be extended to 171st Street and Jamaica Avenue and the Q49 shuttle was discontinued. Under Proposal 1 and 2, all Merrick Boulevard buses were to be rerouted to Archer Avenue. Proposal 1 would have also included the extension of Q17 to 168th Street and Archer Avenue, and the extension of the Q17A and Q31 to Archer Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard. Proposal 2 would have created a new shuttle bus route from Baisley Boulevard and Merrick Boulevard to 168th Street and Hillside Avenue. Proposal 3 would have extended all Merrick Boulevard buses to Archer Avenue with the exception of the Q42, which would be left unchanged. The NYCTA studied proposals to lower the bus fares so that the combined bus subway fare would not be greater than the cost of taking the bus directly into Manhattan.