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| THE ORPHANS OF CHRYSTIE STREET, PART 1 THE RJ (384882) | |||
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THE ORPHANS OF CHRYSTIE STREET, PART 1 THE RJ |
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Posted by RedbirdR33 on Sun Feb 11 09:21:57 2007 THE ORPHANS OF CHRYSTIE STREET PART 1 AN OVERVIEW OF CHRYSTIE STREET AND THE RJ – FOURTH AVENUE – NASSAU STREET LINE Preface: Chrystie Street is a thoroughfare on the lower East Side of Manahattan that runs from Houston Street south to Canal Street. It is bordered for all of its length by the Sara D.Roosevelt Park. Its certainly not the longest street in Manhattan being barely a mile long, if that and yet because of the subway line that was constructed here in the 1960’s the name “Chrystie Street” is known far and wide. Subfans from Bora Bora to Walla Walla, and from Perth (Austrailia not Amboy) to Canarsie have heard of it. Chrystie Street was a play with three acts. The first act began on November 26,1967 with the opening of the subway line connecting the BMT Manhattan Bridge Line with the IND 6th Avenue Line at Broadway-Lafayette Street. A day later the express track of the 6th Avenue Line between 34 Street and West 4 Street opened for service. The second act began on July 1, 1968 with the extension of the 6th Avenue Line to 57 Street and the opening of the line between the aforementioned Broadway-Lafayette Street Station and the BMT Centre Street Line at Essex Street. The third and final act came in August of that year and saw the several service adjustments that completed all the new routes and services. The D swapped its daytime Brooklyn terminal with the QB and the QJ .The GG was extended to Church Avenue and the F began rush hour express service on the Smith Street and Culver Lines. The first act is what concerns us here. The opening of the Chrystie Street Subway merged the IND and BMT into a single system known as “Division B.” The IND letter system of route identification was extended to all BMT Lines. It had been used been in use in a limited way on the Southern Section of the BMT since the early sixties. Every subway line including those of the IRT (Division A) was assigned its own color. The November 1967 Edition of the subway map was awash in a kaleidoscope of colors. Almost every subway line had either its route or its designation changed. Three of the new lines that were created, the JJ,NX and RJ had very short service lives and because of this are little known . This is compounded by the fact that the subway map frequently had conflicting and incomplete information in the service guide. This is a discussion of those lines. The RJ – Fourth Avenue-Nassau Street Line Began service: Monday, November 27, 1967 Ended service: Friday, June 28, 1968 The Route: 168th Street – Jamaica Avenue, Queens 95th Street – 4th Avenue, Brooklyn via the Williamsburg Bridge and the Montague Street Tunnel Distance: 21.81 Miles Running Times: 70 Minutes - express 78 minutes – local Stations: 49 Map Color: Red The RJ was listed on the front of the subway map as a “Special Rush Hour Service” which also included the NX,QB and 5 (Thru-Exp). It was a somewhat arbitrary designation as several other rush hour routes were not included. The service guide stated that the RJ ran during the AM rush northbound and the PM rush southbound as a “local” service. The reverse side of the map contained a strip map with the following information: Trains operate during rush hours Mon-Fri. During the PM rush from 6:20 to 6:55 RJ trains operate express along Broadway Brooklyn. Now how could a train that is listed as running in one direction only on the front of the map suddenly start running in both directions by the time it reached the back of the map? More intriguing, how could a train listed as running as a southbound local on the front of the map run as an express on the reverse side. Especially as it would be running express southbound at the same time that the QJ was running express northbound on the Broadway Brooklyn Line. The Broadway Brooklyn Line is a three track line and the center express track can only be used in one direction at a time. As we shall see the RJ ran express in both directions in the rush hour and certain trains did run express on the Broadway Brooklyn Line. SERVICE DURING THE AM RUSH Northbound service: A total of five trains left 95 Street from 7:46 AM to 8:33 AM. The 7:58 and 8:10 departures ran all the way to 168th Street while the other three terminated at Eastern Parkway . These trains made all local stops. Southbound service: A total of five trains left 168th Street from 5:28 AM to 6:19 AM and ran to 95th Street . The first four trains made all local stops while the last one ran express on the Broadway Brooklyn Line from Eastern Parkway to Essex Street. It was the first southbound express of the day on the line. Note that the southbound service from Jamaica filled a service gap between the last JJ departure to Broad Street at 5:13 AM and the first QJ departure to Brighton Beach at 6:29 AM. SERVICE DURING THE PM RUSH Northbound service: Six trains leave 95th Street from 5:37PM to 6:25 PM and run to 168th Street. The first five ran express from Essex Street to Eastern Parkway with the 6:14 PM departure closing out the days express service on the Broadway Brooklyn Line . The last departure at 6:25 PM makes all local stops. Note that the northbound service fills a 45 minute gap in northbound QJ service. Southbound service: Five trains leave Eastern Parkway and make all stops to 95th Street. There is no southbound PM rush service from 168th Street. The RJ ended service on Friday, June 28, 1968. Its replacement was an RR Nassau Street – Fourth Avenue Local between Chambers Street and 95th Street via the Montague Street Tunnel. |
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