IRT Pelham Line

IRT Pelham Line The 6 and <6> trains serve the entire IRT Pelham Line. Overview Type Rapid transit System New York City Subway Termini Pelham Bay Park Third Avenue – 138th Street Stations 18 Daily ridership 205,590[1] Operation Opened 1918–1920 Owner City of New York Operator(s) New York City Transit Authority Character Underground (Hunts Point & South) Elevated (North of Hunts Point) Technical No. of tracks 2–3 Track gauge 4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) Electrification 600V DC third rail IRT Pelham Line Legend Pelham Bay Park Buhre Avenue Middletown Road Westchester Yard Westchester Square – East Tremont Avenue Zerega Avenue Castle Hill Avenue Parkchester St. Lawrence Avenue Morrison Avenue – Soundview Elder Avenue Whitlock Avenue Hunts Point Avenue Longwood Avenue East 149th Street East 143rd Street – St. Mary's Street Cypress Avenue Brook Avenue Third Avenue – 138th Street IRT Jerome Avenue Line Lexington Avenue Tunnel under Harlem River IRT Lexington Avenue Line

The IRT Pelham Line, also called the Southern Boulevard – Pelham Bay Park Line,^[2] is a rapid transit line on the New York City Subway, served by the 6 and <6> trains. It was built as part of the Dual Contracts expansion and opened in 1918. It is both elevated and underground with Whitlock Avenue being the southernmost elevated station. It has three tracks from the beginning to just south of the Pelham Bay Park terminal. The Pelham Line also has a connection to Westchester Yard, where 6 trains are stored, just north of Westchester Square – East Tremont Avenue. As of 2013, it has a daily ridership of 205,590.

History

The construction of the Pelham Line was part of the Dual Contracts, signed on March 19, 1913 and also known as the Dual Subway System.^[3] The Pelham Line was proposed to be a branch of the Lexington Avenue Line running northeast via 138th Street, Southern Boulevard and Westchester Avenue to Pelham Bay Park.^[4]

A report, "Proposed Subway Plan for Subway Relief and Expansion" by Major Philip Mathews, published on December 24, 1926, proposed a connection from the Pelham Line to a newly proposed four-track Third Avenue subway that would run to City Hall and Downtown Brooklyn.^[5]

On August 1, 1918, a branch of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the IRT Pelham Line was opened to Third Avenue – 138th Street.^[6] On January 17, 1919, the Pelham Line was extended to Hunters Point Avenue. The extension was originally supposed to be finished by the end of 1918, but due to the difficulty in acquiring materials, the opening was delayed. In January 1919, the Public Service Commission was acquiring property for a subway yard at Pelham Bay Park.^[2] On May 27, 1920, the Pelham Line was extended to East 177th Street.^[7] By October 24 of the same year, it was extended to Westchester Square, and by December 20, it was extended to the western edge of Pelham Bay Park.

When the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway was abandoned in 1937, one proposal for the replacement IRT Dyre Avenue Line was to connect the line to the IRT Pelham Line at Whitlock Avenue, rather than its current terminus at East 180th Street on the IRT White Plains Road Line.^[5]

On June 6, 1946, the Board of Transportation announced that a contract for the instillation of signal equipment that would allow express service to run on the Pelham Line was jointly awarded to the Emerson – Garden Electric Company and L. K. Comstock & Company Incorporated for $129,516. The signals were to be installed between Third Avenue – 138th Street and Parkchester.^[8]

On November 8, 1947, Union Switch and Signal Company was awarded a contract for $819,375 for block signaling on the Pelham Line. This would have allowed an extension of express service from Parkchester to Pelham Bay Park.^[9]

On August 27, 1953, the New York City Transit Authority approved a plan to lengthen rains along the Pelham Line from seven cars to eight cars during rush hours. The change took place on September 8, 1953.^[10]

Unrealized expansion plans

As part of a 1951 plan, the capacity on the Pelham Line would have been increased.^[11]

In March 1954, as part of a proposed $658,000,000 construction program, the Pelham Line would have been connected to the Second Avenue Subway, with service being tripled on the Pelham Line.^[12]

The IRT Pelham Line would be converted to B Division standards and connected to the Second Avenue line as Route 132–B of the 1968 Plan for Action. IND Second Avenue Line trains would run east under 138th Street, then along the right-of-way of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor from 138th Street to a point near the Bruckner Expressway and Westchester Avenue as an express bypass of the Pelham line, after which the line would split into a Pelham branch and a Dyre Avenue branch.^[13]

The Brook Avenue station just east of Third Avenue – 138th Street on the IRT Pelham Line would be reconstructed to allow a cross-platform interchange.^[13][14][15] Further north, there would be a connection with the IRT Pelham Line near Westchester Avenue at the Whitlock Avenue station, and station platforms north to Pelham Bay Park would be narrowed and lengthened to accommodate the longer and wider B Division trains from the Second Avenue Subway. IRT local service on the Pelham Line would terminate at Hunts Point Avenue one stop south.^[13][14][15] This project would have helped relieve overcrowding on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, which is the busiest line in the country.^[16]

Under Phase 2 of the Plan for Action, the Pelham Line would have been extended to a modern terminal in the Co-op City housing complex.^[14][15]

Due to the 1975–76 fiscal crisis that affected the city, most of the remaining projects did not have funding, so they were declined. Expected to be completed by the mid-1970s and early 1980s,^[17][18] lines for the Program for Action had to be reduced or canceled altogether due to the 1970s fiscal crisis.^[19]

Extent and service

Service	Time period	Between
		Third Ave – 138 St Parkchester	Parkchester Pelham Bay Pk
Local	Rush hours and middays	local	no service
	Other times	local
Express	Rush hours and middays	express	local
	Other times	no service

Express service operates between Parkchester and Third Avenue – 138th Street during weekdays from approximately 6:30 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. At those times, Pelham Bay Park cannot handle the large number of 6 and <6> trains in service. As a result, 6 trains run local on the Pelham Line south of Parkchester and short turn there. <6> trains make all stops north of Parkchester, then run express using the center track between that station and Third Avenue – 138th Street in the peak direction. At all other times, 6 trains run local on the entire line.

Route description

Beginning at a junction with the IRT Jerome Avenue Line north of the Lexington Avenue Tunnel at 135th Street,^[2] the IRT Pelham Line runs beneath 138th Street for the first three stations in Port Morris, then curves to the northeast along eastbound Bruckner Boulevard before shortly curving north again along Southern Boulevard. After 145th Street at Samuel Gompers High School, the line curves to the northeast continuing to run under Southern Boulevard. The line returns under eastbound Bruckner Boulevard again, only to leave at Whitlock Avenue and begins to emerge from underground at Aldus Street. The line is transformed into an elevated line over Whitlock Avenue at East 165th Street, but shortly after this encounters the Whitlock Avenue Subway station and curves east over Westchester Avenue which runs over the Sheridan Expressway, Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad line, and the Bronx River. The line remains over Westchester Avenue throughout the rest of its journey.

East of Morrison Avenue station, the road runs over the Bronx River Parkway, and enters Parkchester. The station named after the neighborhood runs over the Hugh J. Grant Circle, which is also over the Cross Bronx Expressway. East of Castle Hill Avenue station, Westchester Avenue branches off to the northeast at Waterbury Avenue (which runs in the same direction prior to that branching), and the line follows. After the Westchester Yard the line runs over the Hutchinson River Parkway interchange just west of Middletown Road station. The line finally ends at Pelham Bay Park station, which contains a pedestrian bridge across Bruckner Expressway leading to the eponymous park.

Depiction in fiction

The train that is hijacked in the book The Taking of Pelham One Two Three by Morton Freedgood (writing as John Godey) and the three films based on the novel originated on this line from Pelham Bay Park at 1:23 (hence the name "Pelham 123"). It was subsequently hijacked on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line.

Station listing

Station service legend
	Stops all times
	Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction
	Stops rush hours in the peak direction only
Time period details

Neighborhood (approximate)		Station	Tracks	Services	Opened	Notes
Pelham Bay		Pelham Bay Park		6  <6>	December 20, 1920	Bx12 Select Bus Service Elevators are temporarily out of service for repairs until March 2016.[20]
	Center Express track begins (No Regular Service to Parkchester)
		Buhre Avenue	local	6  <6>	December 20, 1920
		Middletown Road	local	6  <6>	December 20, 1920
connecting tracks to Westchester Yard
Westchester Square		Westchester Square – East Tremont Avenue	local	6  <6>	October 24, 1920
Castle Hill		Zerega Avenue	local	6  <6>	October 24, 1920
		Castle Hill Avenue	local	6  <6>	October 24, 1920
<6> service switches to/from center express track
Parkchester		Parkchester	all	6  <6>	May 27, 1920	Q44 Select Bus Service originally Parkchester – East 177th Street
Soundview		St. Lawrence Avenue	local	6	May 27, 1920
		Morrison Avenue – Soundview	local	6	May 27, 1920	originally Sound View Avenue, Morrison – Sound View Avenues
		Elder Avenue	local	6	May 27, 1920
Longwood		Whitlock Avenue	local	6	May 27, 1920
		Hunts Point Avenue	all	6  <6>	January 7, 1919
		Longwood Avenue	local	6	January 7, 1919
		East 149th Street	local	6	January 7, 1919
Mott Haven		East 143rd Street – St. Mary's Street	local	6	January 7, 1919
		Cypress Avenue	local	6	January 7, 1919
		Brook Avenue	local	6	January 7, 1919
		Third Avenue – 138th Street	all	6  <6>	August 1, 1918
	Center Express track ends
Merges with IRT Lexington Avenue Line (6  <6>)

References

1. MTA. "Average weekday subway ridership". Archived from the original on March 28, 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
2. "New Lines In Bronx Coming This Year: Rays of Rapid Transit to be Let Into Dark Sections in the West and North". nytimes.com. The New York Times. January 7, 1919. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
3. nycsubway.org—The Dual Contracts
4. "The Dual System of Rapid Transit (1912)". www.nycsubway.org. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
5. nycsubway.org—History of the Independent Subway
6. "Opening New Subway H Shortens Distance to A. & S.". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. August 1, 1918. p. 8. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
7. "Bronx Subway Extension Opened". New York Times. May 28, 1920. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
8. "Awards Subway Contract". New York Times. June 7, 1946. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
9. "Signals to Expedite Subway". New York Times. November 9, 1947. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
10. Ingalls, Leonard (August 28, 1953). "2 Subway Lines to Add Cars, Another to Speed Up Service". New York Times. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
11. "Board of Transportation - 1951". Thejoekorner.com. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
12. "Improvements That Are Planned for Subways". The New York Times. March 24, 1954. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
13. "Highlights of Program For Subway, Rail and Air". The New York Times. February 29, 1968. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
14. "Full text of "Metropolitan transportation, a program for action. Report to Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of New York."". Internet Archive. November 7, 1967. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
15. Feinman, Mark. "The New York Transit Authority in the 1970s". nycsubway.org. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
16. Second Ave subway construction, 34th St to 126th St, Manhattan :environmental impact statement. 1970-01-01.
17. "New Line May Get Double Trackage: Transit Unit Shift on Queens Super-Express". The New York Times. February 21, 1971. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
18. Burks, Edward C. (October 24, 1973). "Work Begun on Queens Subway Extension". The New York Times. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
19. Joseph B. Raskin (November 1, 2013). The Routes Not Taken: A Trip Through New York City's Unbuilt Subway System. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-5369-2. Retrieved August 12, 2015.
20. "mta.info | Station Information". web.mta.info. Retrieved 2016-03-25.

External links

Route map: Bing / Google