IRT

Political cartoon critical of IRT service in 1905. The IRT is labeled as the "Interborough Rattled Transit".

In 1898, New York, Kings and Richmond Counties, and parts of Queens and Westchester Counties and their constituent cities, towns, villages, and hamlets, were consolidated into the City of Greater New York. During this era the expanded City of New York resolved that it wanted the core of future rapid transit to be underground subways but realized that no private company was willing to put up the enormous capital required to build beneath the streets.^[38][39]

Planning for the system began with the Rapid Transit Act, authorized by the New York State Legislature on May 22, 1894, which created the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners. The act provided that the commission would lay out routes with the consent of property owners and local authorities, either build the system or sell a franchise for its construction, and lease the operation to a private firm. A line through Lafayette Street (then Elm Street)^[40] to Union Square was considered, but at first a more costly route under lower Broadway was adopted. A legal battle with property owners along the route led to the courts denying permission to build through Broadway in 1896.^[41]

The Elm Street route was chosen later that year, cutting west to Broadway via 42nd Street. This new plan, formally adopted on January 14, 1897, consisted of a line from City Hall north to Kingsbridge and a branch under Lenox Avenue and to Bronx Park, to have four tracks from City Hall to the junction at 103rd Street. The "awkward alignment...along Forty-Second Street", as the commission put it, was necessitated by objections to using Broadway south of 34th Street. Legal challenges were resolved in 1899.^[41]

Subway construction in the Bowery, 1901

Tubes for subway line under Harlem River, being sunk, 1904

The city decided to issue rapid transit bonds outside of its regular bonded debt limit and build the subways itself; it contracted with the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (which by that time ran the elevated lines in Manhattan) to equip and operate the subways, sharing the profits with the city and guaranteeing a fixed five-cent fare.^[42]

BRT

Starting in 1899, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT; 1896–1923) and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT; 1923–1940) operated rapid transit lines in New York City — at first only elevated railways and later also subways.

The BRT was incorporated on January 18, 1896.^[43] It took over the bankrupt Long Island Traction Company in early February,^[44] acquiring the Brooklyn Heights Railroad and the lessee of the Brooklyn City Rail Road. It then acquired the Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Railroad.^[45] The BRT took over the property of a number of surface railroads, the earliest of which, the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad or West End Line, opened for passenger service on October 9, 1863, between Fifth Avenue at 36th Street at the border of Brooklyn City and Bath Beach in the Town of Gravesend, New York. A short piece of surface route of this railroad, the BMT West End Line (today's D train) on the west side of the Coney Island Complex north of the Coney Island Creek, is the oldest existing piece of rapid transit right-of-way in New York City and in the U.S., having opened on June 8, 1864.^[46]

On January 30, 1899, the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad was incorporated; it acquired the property of the bankrupt Brooklyn Elevated Railroad on February 17. The BRT gained control a month later, on March 25,^[47] and leased the elevated company to the Brooklyn Heights Railroad, which was until then solely a street railway company. The other elevated company in Brooklyn, the Kings County Elevated Railway, was sold under foreclosure to the BRT on July 6, 1899.^[48] Initially the surface and elevated railroad lines ran on steam power, but between 1893 and 1900 the lines were converted to run on electricity. An exception was the service on the Brooklyn Bridge. Trains were operated by cables from 1883 to 1896, when they were converted to electric power.^[49]

Routes in 1897

By 1900, The BRT had acquired virtually all of the rapid transit and streetcar operations in its target area. Only the Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad and the short Van Brunt Street and Erie Basin Railroad remained independent; the former was acquired in 1913 or 1914.^[50] The incorporated lines were:

• Sea Beach Railway, acquired in November 1897^[51] and leased to the BHRR
• Sea View Railroad (Coney Island Elevated), acquired in November 1897^[51] and leased to the BHRR
• Nassau Electric Railroad (lessee of the Atlantic Avenue Railroad, Brooklyn, Bath and West End Railroad, Coney Island and Gravesend Railway, and South Brooklyn Railway), acquired in November 1898^[52] and leased to the BHRR in April 1899^[53]
• Brooklyn Elevated Railroad, acquired in March 1899^[54] and leased to the BHRR in April 1899^[53]
• Brooklyn and Brighton Beach Railroad (Brighton Beach Line), acquired in March 1899^[55]
• Kings County Elevated Railroad (Fulton Street Line), acquired in November 1899^[50][56] and merged into the Brooklyn Union Elevated on May 24, 1900^[57]
• Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad (Culver Line), leased to the BHRR on June 18, 1899^[58]

The BRT became bankrupt by 1918. The New York Consolidated Railroad and New York Municipal Railway were merged in June 1923, the same month that the BRT was reorganized as the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, to form the New York Rapid Transit Corporation.^[59]

Original IRT contracts

1906 IRT map

A contract, later known as Contract 1, was executed on February 21, 1900, between the commission and the Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont, for the construction of the subway and a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. The project was divided into fifteen sections on which subcontractors submitted construction bids.^[60]

Ground was broken in a ceremony at City Hall on March 24, celebrated at the time as "Tunnel Day".^[61] A plan for an extension from City Hall to the Long Island Rail Road's Flatbush Avenue terminal station (now known as Atlantic Terminal) in Brooklyn was adopted on January 24, 1901, and Contract 2, giving a lease of 35 years, was executed between the commission and the Rapid Transit Construction Company on September 11, with construction beginning at State Street in Manhattan on November 8, 1902. Belmont incorporated the IRT in April 1902 as the operating company for both contracts; the IRT leased the Manhattan Railway Company, operator of the four elevated railway lines in Manhattan and the Bronx, on April 1, 1903. Operation of the subway began on October 27, 1904, with the opening of all stations from City Hall to 145th Street on the West Side Branch.^[10][62]

Service was extended to 157th Street on November 12, 1904. The West Side Branch was extended northward to a temporary terminus of 221st Street and Broadway on March 12, 1906.^[63] This extension was served by shuttle trains operating between 157th Street and 221st Street.^[64] The original system as included in Contract 1 was completed on January 14, 1907, when trains started running across the Harlem Ship Canal on the Broadway Bridge to 225th Street,^[63] meaning that 221st Street could be closed. Once the line was extended to 225th Street, the structure of the 221st Street was dismantled and was moved to 230th Street for a new temporary terminus. Service was extended to the temporary terminus at 230th Street on January 27, 1907. An extension of Contract 1 north to 242nd Street at Van Cortlandt Park was approved in 1906^[65] and opened on August 1, 1908.^[66]

The original plan had been to turn east on 230th Street to just west of Bailey Avenue, at the New York Central Railroad's Kings Bridge station.^[67] When the line was extended to 242nd Street, the temporary platforms at 230th Street were dismantled, and were rumored to be brought to 242 Street to serve as the station's side platforms. There were two stations on the line that opened later; 191st Street and 207th Street. 191st Street was not open until January 14, 1911, because the elevators and other work had not yet been completed. 207th Street was completed in 1906, but since it was located in a sparsely occupied area, the station was opened in 1907.

The initial segment of the IRT White Plains Road Line opened on November 26, 1904, between East 180th Street and Jackson Avenue. Initially, trains on the line were served by elevated trains from the IRT Second Avenue Line and the IRT Third Avenue Line, with a connection running from the Third Avenue local tracks at Third Avenue and 149th Street to Westchester Avenue and Eagle Avenue. Once the connection to the IRT Lenox Avenue Line opened on July 10, 1905, trains from the newly opened IRT subway ran via the line.^[68] Elevated service via this connection was resumed on October 1, 1907, when Second Avenue locals were extended to Freeman Street during rush hours.^[69]

The line was then extended to Fulton Street on January 16, 1905,^[70] to Wall Street on June 12, 1905,^[71] and to Bowling Green and South Ferry on July 10, 1905.^[72] In order to complete Contract 2, the subway had to be extended under the East River to reach Brooklyn. The tunnel was named the Joralemon Street Tunnel, which was the first underwater subway tunnel connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn, and it opened on January 9, 1908, extending the subway from Bowling Green to Borough Hall.^[73] On May 1, 1908, the construction of Contract 2 was completed when the line was extended from Borough Hall to Atlantic Avenue near the Flatbush Avenue LIRR station.^[74] When the IRT extension to Brooklyn opened, riders on the BRT's elevated and trolley lines over the Brooklyn Bridge began using the new subway.^[75]

Electrification

The IRT main powerhouse in 1904

The subway system began during the war of the currents when Thomas Edison and his opponent, George Westinghouse, struggled over acceptance of direct current or alternating current as the standard way to deliver electricity. Alternating current became the standard for non-railroad purposes, but New York City Subway adopted direct current as more suitable for urban railroad purposes.^[76]: 21 The companies built their own power stations to generate their DC. To this day, the New York City Transit Authority converts alternating current to 600 V DC third rail to power the trains, as do most transit railways around the world. (The A Division uses 625 V DC third rail.^[77])

Triborough plan

An 1918 IRT map, after Contracts 1 and 2 were signed

An 1924 BMT map

After the statutory debt ceiling for the now-united city of New York had been raised, there were more plans for subway construction until 1908. The Triborough plan comprised three new lines:

• An IRT line from South Ferry–Whitehall Street in Manhattan, with the IRT Lexington Avenue Line to Pelham Bay Park and Woodlawn in the Bronx
• The BRT Nassau Street Loop, later the BMT Nassau Street Line. The BRT's track went over the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges; the Nassau Street Line was to connect to the Brooklyn Bridge, but never did. The connections to the other two bridges were built, but with the 1967 opening of the Chrystie Street Connection, the Manhattan Bridge connection was eliminated.
• A BRT subway under Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, leading to Bay Ridge and Coney Island. This corresponded to today's Fourth Avenue and Sea Beach lines.

The BRT lines were built to wider profiles because the BRT did not want to use IRT trackage, which was narrower by comparison and carried far fewer passengers per hour. The design was inspired by the cars built for the Cambridge subway (MBTA Red Line) which were designed after studies were conducted on the design and operation of a subway car that could carry the most passengers the most efficiently. The rolling stock, however, had to be the same track gauge so the trains could interoperate under the Dual Contracts. The Fourth Avenue and Sea Beach lines were opened on June 19, 1915, after years of delays for building of these lines and the Nassau Street Line. The first BRT section, however, had opened on September 16, 1908, from Essex Street across the Williamsburg Bridge, but using narrow-width cars.^[78]

Until the completion of the Fourth Avenue Line, there was a tram across the Manhattan Bridge which did not connect to any tracks in the New York City Subway. The track was called "Manhattan Bridge Three Cent Line" because the fare was three cents. Along with the Brooklyn and North River Railroad, the two streetcar companies began operations on those tracks. When trackage was connected to the bridge in 1915, the trolleys were moved to the upper level roadways until 1929, when service was discontinued.^[79]

Dual Contracts

The BRT, which just barely entered Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge, wanted the opportunity to compete with the IRT, and the IRT wanted to extend its Brooklyn line to compete with the BRT. This led to the city's agreement to contract for future subways with both the BRT and IRT.

The expansion of rapid transit was greatly facilitated by the signing of the Dual Contracts on March 19, 1913. Contract 3 was signed between the IRT and the city; the contract between the BRT and the city was Contract 4. The majority of the present-day subway system was either built or improved under these contracts.^[42] The Astoria Line and Flushing Line were built at this time and were for some time operated by both companies. Under the terms of Contracts 3 and 4, the city would build new subway and elevated lines, rehabilitate and expand certain existing elevated lines, and lease them to the private companies for operation. The cost would be borne more-or-less equally by the city and the companies. The city's contribution was in cash raised by bond offerings, while the companies' contributions were variously by supplying cash, facilities, and equipment to run the lines.^[42]

The track layout of Queensboro Plaza was complex because the Contracts necessitated two different types of rolling stock and two different fare control areas.

As part of the contracts, the two companies were to share lines in Queens: a short line to Astoria called the Astoria Line; and a longer line reaching initially to Corona, and eventually to Flushing, called the Corona Line. The lines operated jointly and began from Queensboro Plaza. The IRT accessed the station both from the 1907 Steinway Tunnel and an extension of the Second Avenue Elevated from Manhattan over the Queensboro Bridge. The BRT fed the Queens lines from a new tunnel from the 60th Street Tunnel to Manhattan. Technically the line was under IRT ownership, but the BRT/BMT was granted trackage rights in perpetuity, essentially making it theirs also.^[80][81]

Both lines were built to IRT specifications. This meant that IRT passengers had a one-seat ride to Manhattan destinations, whereas BRT passengers had to make a change at Queensborough Plaza. This came to be important when service was extended for the 1939 World's Fair, as the IRT was able to offer direct express trains from Manhattan, and the BRT was not. This practice lasted well into the municipal ownership of the lines and was not ended until 1949.^[80][81]

Several provisions were imposed on the companies: the fare was limited to five cents, and this led to financial troubles for the two companies after post-World War I inflation; the city had the right to "recapture" any of the lines it built and run them as its own; and the city was to share in the profits. This eventually led to their downfall and consolidation into city ownership in 1940.^[80][81]

As part of the Dual Contracts, the operations of the original IRT system changed drastically. Instead of having trains go via Broadway, turn onto 42nd Street, and finally turn onto Park Avenue, there were two trunk lines connected by the 42nd Street Shuttle. The system was changed from a "Z" system to an "H" system. The first trunk line, the Lexington Avenue Line assumed the portion of the original IRT system south of Grand Central. The line was extended northward with a new station at Grand Central and turned onto Lexington Avenue, where the line remained as four tracks. The line had connections to the new IRT Pelham Line and IRT Jerome Avenue Line in the Bronx, in addition to a new connection to the IRT White Plains Road Line.^[82]

The second trunk, the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line assumed the portion of the original IRT system north of Times Square, and it extended southward with a new station at Times Square, running down Seventh Avenue, Varick Street and West Broadway. It was predicted that the subway extension would lead to the growth of the Lower West Side, and to neighborhoods such as Chelsea and Greenwich Village. South of Chambers Street, two branches were constructed. The first branch ran to the Battery via Greenwich Street, while the second branch turned eastward under Park Place and Beeckman Street and down William Street, running under the East River through a tunnel before running under Clark Street and Fulton Street until it reached a junction at Borough Hall with the existing Contract 2 IRT Brooklyn Line.^[82]

A poster informing the public about the new Interborough Subway Service between Brooklyn and Manhattan, via the Clark Street Tunnel, 1919

On June 3, 1917, the first portion of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line south of Times Square–42nd Street, a shuttle to 34th Street–Penn Station, opened; a separate shuttle service, running between 42nd and 34th Streets, was created.^[83] This short extension was opened even though the rest of the route was not yet completed in order to handle the mass of traffic to and from Pennsylvania Station. Only the northern part of the station was opened at this time, and piles of plaster, rails, and debris could be seen on the rest of the platforms.^[84] This shuttle was extended south to South Ferry, with a shorter shuttle on the Brooklyn branch between Chambers Street and Wall Street, on July 1, 1918.^[85]

The new portion of the Lexington Avenue Line from Grand Central to 125th Street opened on July 17, 1918.^[86] Until the evening of August 1, 1918, it ran as a shuttle on the local tracks only, terminating at 42nd Street and at 167th Street on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line (where the connection from the elevated IRT Ninth Avenue Line merged). The new "H" system was implemented on August 1, 1918, joining the two halves of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, and the two halves of the Lexington Avenue Line.^[87]

An immediate result of the switch was the need to transfer using the 42nd Street Shuttle. The completion of the "H" system doubled the capacity of the IRT system.^[82] The local tracks ran to South Ferry, while the express tracks used the Brooklyn Branch to Wall Street, extended into Brooklyn to Atlantic Avenue via the Clark Street Tunnel on April 15, 1919.^[88]

The Dual Contracts resulted in the expansion of New York City; people moved to the newly built homes along the newly built subway lines. These homes were affordable, about the same cost as the houses in Brooklyn and Manhattan.^[81]: 7 The Dual Contracts were the key to dispersion of the city's congested areas. They helped alleviate densely populated areas and probably helped save lives as people were no longer living in heavily diseased areas. The population in Manhattan below 59th Street decreased between the years of 1910 and 1920.^[89] People were allowed to move to better parts at the same cost and could have a better and more comfortable life in the suburbs.^[81]: 7

Lines

As the first line neared completion, New York City offered it for private operation as a formality, knowing that no operator would meet its terms. Thus the city declared that it would operate it itself, formalizing a foregone conclusion. The first line opened without a formal ceremony. The trains began operating their regular schedules ahead of time, and all stations of the Eighth Avenue Line, from 207th Street in Inwood to Hudson Terminal (now World Trade Center), opened simultaneously at one minute after midnight on September 10, 1932.^[91]

On January 1, 1936, a second trunk line—the Sixth Avenue Line—opened from West Fourth Street (where it splits from the Eighth Avenue Line) to East Broadway.^[92][93][94] The new subway line's construction required the suspension of streetcars on the avenue. The city, wanting to save money by not having to underpin the IRT Sixth Avenue Line before the elevated line was closed, bought the line for $12.5 million and terminated operations on December 5, 1938.^[95] To help compensate for the loss in service, service on the Ninth Avenue Elevated was increased.^[96]

The first section of the Queens Boulevard Line, west from Roosevelt Avenue to 50th Street, opened on August 19, 1933.^[97] E trains ran local to Hudson Terminal (today's World Trade Center) in Manhattan, while the GG (predecessor to current G service) ran as a shuttle service between Queens Plaza and Nassau Avenue on the IND Crosstown Line.^{[98][99][100][101][102][103]} An extension east to Union Turnpike opened on December 31, 1936.^{[104][105]: 416–417 [106][97]} The line was extended to Hillside Avenue and 178th Street, with a terminal station at 169th Street on April 24, 1937.^{[98][105][107][108]} That day, express service began on the Queens Boulevard Line during rush hours, with E trains running express west of 71st–Continental Avenues, and GG trains taking over the local during rush hours.^[100][109] The initial headway for express service was between three and five minutes.^[110] 23rd Street–Ely Avenue station opened as an in-fill station on August 28, 1939.^[111][112] Upon its extension into Jamaica, the line drew Manhattan-bound passengers away from the nearby BMT Jamaica Line subway and the Long Island Rail Road.^[113]

On July 1, 1937, a third trunk line, the Crosstown Line, opened from Nassau Avenue to Bergen Street.^[90] Two years later, on December 15, 1940, local service was begun along the entire IND Sixth Avenue line, including its core part through Midtown Manhattan.^[90]

Meanwhile, on the East Side, the need for the IND Second Avenue Line had been evident since 1919, when the New York Public Service Commission launched a study at the behest of engineer Daniel L. Turner to determine what improvements were needed in the city's public transport system. The Great Depression resulted in soaring costs, and the expansion became unmanageable, so it was not built along with the other three IND trunk lines. Construction on the first phase of the IND was already behind schedule, and the city and state were no longer able to provide funding. A scaled-down proposal including a turnoff at 34th Street and a connection crosstown was postponed in 1931.^[90]

Further revision of the plan and more studies followed. By 1939, construction had been postponed indefinitely, and Second Avenue was relegated to "proposed" status. The 1939 plan for subway expansion took the line not only into the Bronx (by now as a single line to Throggs Neck) but also south into Brooklyn, connecting to the stub of the IND Fulton Street Line at Court Street. Construction of the line resumed in 1972 but was ended during the 1975 fiscal crisis, and work was again restarted in 2007.^[90]

Graffiti

Fast food stands operated in stations until the 1980s

A typical graffiti-tagged car in 1979

A graffitied car on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (1973)

In 1973, the city's graffiti epidemic surged so that nearly every subway car was tagged with graffiti.^[161] It was worsened by the budgetary restraints on New York City, which limited its ability to remove graffiti and perform transit maintenance.^[162] Mayor John Lindsay declared the first war on graffiti in 1972, but it would be a while before the city was able and willing to dedicate enough resources to that problem to start impacting the growing subculture.^[162][163] The MTA tried rubbing the graffiti off with an acid solution, but maintaining the cars to keep them relatively graffiti-free was costing them around $1.3 million annually. In the winter of 1973, the car-washing program was stopped. Attempts to wash cars with an acid solution in September 1974 were detrimental to the fleets' upkeep.^[153]

As graffiti became associated with crime, many demanded that the government take a more serious stance toward it, particularly after the popularization of the Fixing Broken Windows philosophy in 1982.^{[163][164][165]} By the 1980s, increased police surveillance and implementation of increased security measures (razor wire, guard dogs) combined with continuous efforts to clean it up led to the weakening of the New York's graffiti subculture.^[161]

An extensive car-washing program in the late 1980s ensured the elimination of graffiti throughout the system's rolling stock. In 1984 the NYCTA began a five-year program to eradicate graffiti. The years between 1985 and 1989 became known as the "die hard" era.^[162] A last shot for the graffiti artists of this time was in the form of subway cars destined for the scrap yard.^[162] With the increased security, the previous elaborate "burners" on the outside of cars were now marred with simplistic marker tags which often soaked through the paint.^{[120][162][163]} By mid-1986 the NYCTA were winning their "war on graffiti". On May 10, 1989, the rolling stock was made 100% graffiti-free,^[166] with the washing of the last train in the subway system that still had graffiti.^[167][168] As the population of artists lowered so did the violence associated with graffiti crews and "bombing".^[162]

Ridership and service cuts

Ridership in 1975 had decreased to a point last seen in 1918, with ridership decreasing by 25 million per year. The MTA reduced the length of trains during off-peak periods, and canceled work on several projects being built as part of the Program for Action, including the Second Avenue Subway and an LIRR line through the 63rd Street Tunnel to a Metropolitan Transportation Center in East Midtown, Manhattan. Ridership kept dropping rapidly, having decreased by 25 million passengers between June 30, 1976, and June 30, 1977; in the previous eight years, 327 million passengers had stopped using the subway.^[153] The proportion of the fleet that was in service during the morning peak period was reduced, and train headways were increased: on four local services, trains were reduced from once every four minutes to once every five minutes.^[153][169]

On May 27, 1975, the NYCTA announced that in September of that year 94 daily IRT trips would be discontinued, accounting for 4 percent of then-existing service on the IRT. The trips were to be discontinued to cut operating deficits. Express service on the 7 was to be discontinued between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and was to be replaced by more frequent local service.^[170] During the same month, the NYCTA was considering making the A train a local at all times except rush hours, when it would remain an express.^[171]

On December 17, 1975, the MTA announced that a 4.4 percent cutback of rush hour train service would take place on January 18, 1976. The cutbacks, the third of the year, trimmed 279 train runs from the previous 6,900. Service was most drastically reduced on the Lexington Avenue Line, with seven fewer southbound express trains during the morning rush hours. The cuts were the first of a three-phase program that was put in effect between January and July 1976. The cuts permitted a savings of $12.6 million a year for the NYCTA, which had an increasing deficit. Other subway services were changed or discontinued as part of the plan. On January 19, F trains were planned to stop running express in Brooklyn, and the GG was to be cut back to Smith–Ninth Streets.^[172]

In April 1975 it was planned that all rush hour 1 trains would begin running to 242nd Street; these runs had previously terminated at 137th Street. During midday hours, trains on the 1 were to be shortened to five cars. In July, it was planned that the EE would be discontinued; N trains were to have been extended to Continental Avenue via the Queens Boulevard Line to replace it. Manhattan-bound N trains were to continue running express, while in the opposite direction they would run local. N trains would alternate between terminating at Whitehall Street or Coney Island during rush hours. CC trains, in July, were planned to be extended from Hudson Terminal to Rockaway Park replacing the E, which was to have been cut back to Hudson Terminal. The K was planned to be discontinued in July.^[172]

The changes that were supposed to take place in July instead took effect on August 30. 215 more runs were eliminated on that date. In 1967 there were 8,200 daily trips, and on August 30, 1976, there were 6,337 daily trips.^[169]

On December 14, 1976, the NYCTA proposed another package of service cuts. The cuts, planned to take effect in January 1977, would have eliminated service on the Bowling Green–South Ferry Shuttle, the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, and AA service, which would be replaced by the A during late nights. GG service would be truncated to Queens Plaza during late evenings and late nights. B and N service would have been cut back to shuttles, running between 36th Street and Coney Island on their respective lines. It was also proposed that during off-peak hours 10-car trains would be cut to eight, six or four car trains.^[173]

Infrastructure

The BMT Sea Beach Line. Note the single express track; the other express track was removed in the 1980s due to deferred maintenance

The R46s, the newest cars in the system in 1976, broke down the most due to their cracked trucks

The subway had been gradually neglected since the 1940s, and its situation had been exacerbated by the low fare. On May 20, 1970, two people died at the Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue station in the worst subway collision since the 1928 Times Square derailment. Following the 1970 accident, New York Magazine highlighted the subway system's condition in a lengthy expose.^[174] Even though each of the approximately 7,200 subway cars were checked once every six weeks or 7,500 miles (12,100 km) of service, four or five dead motors were allowable in a peak-hour 10-car train, according to some transit workers' accounts. About 85.8% of trains were on schedule in 1970, with 1,142 equipment-related delays in April 1970.^[174] However, issues such as broken lights, fans, and signs; defective doors, wheels, and brakes; and subway cars that often became uncoupled or "pulled apart", were still prevalent. One out of three IRT stations did not have running water in case of emergency. In addition, the system's staff were leaving in massive numbers, with 5,655 workers having retired or quit from early 1969 to mid-1970.^[174]

The system also had many slow-speed areas because of obstacles that could cause derailments, and every subway car had graffiti; fleet availability during rush hours declined from 5,557 in 1976 to 5,025 in 1977, and to 4,900 in May 1978. Mean Distance Between Failures (MDBF) rates were at all time lows, as the MDBF rate system-wide was 6,000 miles by 1980. In 1979, 200 retired R16 cars were reactivated because the newest rolling stock in the system, the R46, had cracked trucks, and were only allowed to operate during rush hours while they were sent for rehabilitation.^[153]

At the height of the transit crisis in 1983, on-time performance dropped below 50%.^[175] Hundreds of trains never made it to their destination and in 1981, 325 train runs were abandoned on a typical day.^[175] Additionally, cars caught fire 2,500 times every year.^[175]

In December 1978 a New York Daily News article highlighted the worst parts of the subway. The Grand Central–42nd Street station was the worst underground station and the Middle Village–Metropolitan Avenue station was the worst elevated station. The subway cars in the worst condition were the R10s. The subway line with the worst signals was the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, so the signals were upgraded in the 1980s. The BMT Sea Beach Line had the worst track; its infrastructure had not been upgraded since its opening in 1915.^[152] Despite $800 million being allocated by the state in 1978, the TA had spent less than half of the $600 million allocated in 1967. The agency made some infrastructure improvements, though because they were not cosmetic improvements, the public still assumed that the subway had high crime, even during periods of decreased crime.^[153]

Due to deferred maintenance, the condition of the subway system reached dangerous conditions in the early 1980s, and the TA considered abandoning the Archer Avenue and 63rd Street projects. Structural defects were found in elevated structures systemwide and on the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, causing frequent closures or delays on many subway lines during the 1980s. Reroutes from both bridges were necessitated; while the Manhattan Bridge, between 1986 and 2004, had two of its four tracks closed at a time for construction, the Williamsburg Bridge needed a shutdown from April to June 1988 for emergency structural repairs to be made.^[153] Federal funding for the repair of the BMT Jamaica Line was deferred throughout the 1980s due to the extremely bad state of the Williamsburg Bridge. Pigeon droppings corroded the bridge's steel, there were over 200 broken suspender cables, and concrete in the bridge began to come off and leave large holes.^[153]

Due to low ridership and the increasing shabbiness of the subway, parts or most of several lines—the BMT Canarsie Line; the IND Crosstown Line; the IRT Jerome Avenue Line or IND Concourse Line north of 161st Street–Yankee Stadium; and the BMT Jamaica Line east of either Broadway Junction or Cypress Hills—were proposed for closure and abandonment in 1981. Other lines proposed for closure included the remaining part of the IND Culver Line, the BMT West End Line, the IRT Dyre Avenue Line, part of the IND Rockaway Line, part of the IRT White Plains Road Line, and the remaining part of the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line.^[176] The BMT Jamaica Line was demolished, mainly as part of the Program for Action, but also due to low ridership.^[153] Officials also proposed shutting the subway at night between midnight and 6 a.m. in order to reduce crime.^[177] Off-peak train trips, as well as trips on the branches outside the city's core, were reduced sharply.^[178]

Operations in 1981 had deteriorated so that:^[179][180]

• One day in January saw 1⁄3 of the fleet out of service, and the first two weeks had 500 canceled trips per day
• A 10-minute trip in 1910 took 40 minutes in 1981.
• The previous year, there had been 30 derailments.
• The A Division's fleet of 2,637 cars had never been renovated, and MDBF rates were a quarter of that in 1970.
• The newest fleet, the R44s and R46s, made up 1⁄4 of the B Division's fleet of 4,178 cars, and constantly broke down.^[153]
• Furthermore, a sample of 50 cars in 1980 showed that half had serious maintenance problems, such as a flammable undercoat of metal film, flattened wheels, burned out lights, and defective/missing emergency switches.^[181]

In 1986, the MTA and Regional Plan Association again considered closing 26 miles (42 km) of above-ground lines to follow population shifts. They included the Jerome Avenue, Dyre Avenue, Franklin Avenue, Crosstown, and Rockaway lines, as well as parts of the Myrtle and Jamaica lines. The south end of the Culver Line and the north ends of the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue and White Plains Road Lines were also proposed for closure, as was all of the BMT Sea Beach Line. However, unlike the 1981 proposal, this plan called for a net expansion of the subway system, as 37 miles (60 km) of new underground and surface lines would also be built.^[182]

Crime

In the 1960s, mayor Robert Wagner ordered an increase in the Transit Police force from 1,219 to 3,100 officers. During the hours at which crimes most frequently occurred (between 8:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.), the officers went on patrol in all stations and trains. In response, crime rates decreased, as extensively reported by the press.^[183] Due to another crime increase in the subway, the rear cars of subway consists were shut at night beginning in July 1974.^[184]

However, during the subway's main era of decline following the city's 1976 fiscal crisis, there were daily reports of crime. Two hundred were arrested for possible subway crimes in the first two weeks of December 1977 under an operation dubbed "Subway Sweep".^[152] Violence on the subway increased drastically in the last week of 1978, and six murders occurred in the first two months of 1979, compared to nine during the entire previous year. The IRT Lexington Avenue Line was known to frequent muggers, so in February 1979, Curtis Sliwa's Guardian Angels group began patrolling the 4 train during the night. By February 1980, there were 220 Guardian Angels across the system.^[185]

To attract passengers, in September 1978 the TA introduced the “Train to the Plane”, a premium-fare service that provided limited stops along Sixth Avenue in Manhattan from 57th Street to Howard Beach, where passengers could transfer to a shuttle bus to JFK Airport. The service was staffed by a transit police officer, and the additional fare was paid on board. This was discontinued in 1990 due to low ridership and the high cost of its operation.^{[186][187][188]}

The increase of crime in the subway led to the firing of Transit Police Chief Sanford Garelik.^[152] There were about 250 felonies (equivalent to 13,000 per year) occurring in the system every week by September 1979; some police officers had to stop patrolling quality of life crimes and look only for violent crimes. Among other problems included:

MTA police radios and New York City Police Department radios transmitted at different frequencies, so they could not coordinate with each other. Subway patrols were also adherent to tight schedules, and felons quickly knew when and where police would make patrols. Public morale of the MTA police was low at the time. so that by October 1979, additional decoy and undercover units were deployed in the subway.^[152]

While daily felonies were nearly halved between 1979 and 1980, decreasing from 261 to 154, overall crime increased by 70% in the same period.^[189] A series of window-smashing incidents on subway cars started in 1980 on the IRT Pelham Line and spread throughout the rest of the system, causing delays when damaged trains needed to be taken out of service.^[190] Over a thousand pieces of damaged windows were replaced between January 27 and February 2, 1985.^[191] Other actions included increasing the 60-cent fare to 65 cents to pay the salaries of additional transit police;^[189] putting a subway-crimes court in the Times Square station; and stationing a police officer in each car during night hours.^[192]

Richard Ravitch, chairman of the MTA, said that even he was scared of going on the subway.^[193] Despite the MTA discussing methods to increase ridership, the 1982 figures fell to levels last seen in 1917.^[194] Within less than ten years, the MTA had lost around 300 million passengers, mainly because of fears of crime. In July 1985, the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City published a study showing this trend, fearing the frequent robberies and generally bad circumstances.^[195] As a result, the Fixing Broken Windows policy, which proposed to stop large-profile crimes by prosecuting quality of life crimes, was implemented.^[164][196] Along this line of thinking, the MTA began a five-year program to eradicate graffiti from subway trains in 1984, and hired one of the original theorists of Broken Windows policing, George L. Kelling, as a consultant for the program in 1985.^{[197][198][199]}

In the early afternoon of December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz shot four young African American men from the Bronx on a New York City Subway train. The incident got nationwide media coverage. That day, the men—Barry Allen, Troy Canty, Darrell Cabey (all 19), and James Ramseur (18)—boarded a downtown 2 train (Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line express) carrying screwdrivers, apparently on a mission to steal money from video arcade machines in Manhattan.^[200] When the train arrived at the 14th Street station in Manhattan, 15 to 20 other passengers remained with them in R22 subway car 7657,^[201][202] the seventh car of the ten-car train.^[203][204]

At the 14th Street station, Goetz entered the car through the rearmost door, crossed the aisle, and took a seat on the long bench across from the door. After Canty asked Goetz how he was, Goetz replied affirmatively, at which point the four boys supposedly moved over to the left of Goetz, blocking Goetz off from the other passengers in the car. They then asked Goetz for money. He fired five shots, seriously wounding all four men. Nine days later he surrendered to police and was eventually charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and several firearms offenses. A jury found him not guilty of all charges except for one count of carrying an unlicensed firearm, for which he served eight months of a one-year sentence.^[205]

The incident sparked a nationwide debate on race and crime in major cities, the legal limits of self-defense, and the extent to which the citizenry could rely on the police to secure their safety.^[206] Although Goetz, dubbed the "Subway Vigilante" by New York City's press, came to symbolize New Yorkers' frustrations with the high crime rates of the 1980s, he was both praised and vilified in the media and public opinion. The incident has also been cited as a contributing factor to the groundswell movement against urban crime and disorder.^[207]

In 1989, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked the transit police (then located within the NYCTA) to focus on minor offenses such as fare evasion. In the early nineties, the NYCTA adopted similar policing methods for Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. In 1993, crime rates in the subway dropped, part of a larger decrease across the city.^[208]

On April 2, 1995, the New York City Police Department and the Transit Police Department merged.^[120]

Effects of the Program for Action

The IRT Third Avenue Line in the Bronx was a casualty of the Program for Action

Ironically, the Program for Action forced the closure of a large number of subway lines. The Bronx remnant of the IRT Third Avenue Line closed in 1973, to be provisionally replaced by a new subway under the Metro-North Railroad tracks on Park Avenue, one block to the west. The single-tracked Culver Shuttle between Ditmas Avenue and Ninth Avenue, once a three-tracked line, closed on May 11, 1975.^{[209][210][211][212]} On August 27, 1976, the GG service was truncated from Church Avenue to Smith–Ninth Streets, while service was discontinued on the K and EE routes. On December 15, 1976, GG service at the other terminal was shortened to Queens Plaza. The BMT Jamaica Line was truncated from 168th Street to 121st Street between September 11, 1977, and the early 1980s, replaced by the BMT Archer Avenue Line in 1988.^[153]

Debris falling from and on the tracks

Existing elevated structures posed a large danger; the New York Post published a story that featured debris that had fallen from the BMT Astoria Line. Debris from the IRT Pelham Line nearly killed a passerby, and debris from the BMT West End Line led to a lawsuit against the MTA. Concrete falling on the BMT Brighton Line near the Beverley Road station caused a months-long service disruption between November 1976 and February 1977.^[153]

Fare evasion

Fare evasion seemed a small problem compared to the graffiti and crime; however, fare evasion was causing the NYCTA to lose revenue.^[213] NYCTA's strategy for restoring riders' confidence took a two-pronged approach. In 1981, MTA's first capital program started system's physical restoration to a State-of-Good-Repair. Improving TA's image in riders' minds is as important as overcoming deferred maintenance. Prompt removal of graffiti ^[214] and prevention of blatant fare evasion would become central pillars of the strategy to assure customers that the subway is “fast, clean, and safe”:^[215]

Similarly, fare evasion was taken seriously. The NYCTA began formally measuring evasion in November 1988. When TA's Fare Abuse Task Force (FATF) was convened in January 1989, evasion was 3.9%. After a 15-cent fare increase to $1.15 in August 1990, a record 231,937 people per day, or 6.9%, didn't pay. The pandemonium continued through 1991.^[216] To combat the mounting problem, FATF designated 305 “target stations” with most evaders for intensive enforcement and monitoring. Teams of uniformed and undercover police officers randomly conducted “mini-sweeps”, swarming and arresting groups of evaders.^[217] Special “mobile booking centers” in converted city buses allowed fast-track offender processing.^[218] Fare abuse agents covered turnstiles in shifts and issued citations. Plainclothes surveyors collected data for five hours per week at target locations, predominantly during morning peak hours. In 1992, evasion began to show a steady and remarkable decline, dropping to about 2.7% in 1994.^[219]

The dramatic decrease in evasion during this period coincided with a reinvigorated Transit Police, a 25% expansion of City police, and a general drop in crime in U.S. cities. In the city, crime rate decline begun in 1991 under Mayor David Dinkins and continued through next two decades under Mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. Some observers credited the “broken windows” approach of law enforcement ^[220] where minor crimes like evasion are routinely prosecuted, and statistical crimefighting tools, whereas others have indicated different reasons for crime reduction.^[221][222] Regardless of causality, evasion checks resulted in many arrests for outstanding warrants or weapons charges, likely contributing somewhat to public safety improvements. Arrests weren't the only way to combat evasions, and by the early 1990s NYCTA was examining methods to improve fare control passenger throughputs, reduce fare collection costs, and maintain control over evasions and general grime. The AFC system was being designed, and evasion-preventing capability was a key consideration.

TA's queuing studies concluded that purchasing tokens from clerks was not efficient. Preventing 'slug' use required sophisticated measures like tokens with metal alloy centers and electronic token verification devices. To provide better access control, the NYCTA experimented with floor-to-ceiling gates and “high wheel” turnstiles. Prototypes installed at 110th Street/Lexington Avenue station during a “target hardening” trial reduced evasions compared to nearby “control” stations.^[223] However, controls consisting entirely of “high-wheels” created draconian, prison-like environments, with detrimental effects on station aesthetics. Compromises with more secure low-turnstile designs were difficult, as AFC did not prevent fare evasion.^[224]

Production Automated Fare Collection (AFC) implementation began in 1994. New turnstiles, including unstaffed high wheels, and floor-to-ceiling service gates, featured lessons learned from trials. As AFC equipment was rolled out, evasion plummeted. Fare abuse agents, together with independent monitoring, were eliminated.

Ridership increases

Generally, ridership kept rising as the subway system improved in its maintenance, cleanliness, frequency, and on-time ratio; ridership started to increase as graffiti and crime rates dropped heavily after 1989. From 1995 to 2005, ridership on city buses and subways grew by 36%, compared with a population gain in the city of 7%.^[246] With dramatic increases in fuel prices in 2008, as well as increased tourism and residential growth, ridership on buses and subways grew 3.1% up to about 2.37 billion trips a year compared to 2007. This is the highest ridership since 1965.^[247]

By 2013, ridership had reached 1.7 billion riders per year (despite closures related to Hurricane Sandy), a level not seen since 1949.^[248] In April 2013, New York magazine reported that the system was more crowded than it had been in the previous 66 years.^[249] The subway reached a daily ridership of 6 million for 29 days in 2014, and was expected to record a similar ridership level for 55 days in 2015; by comparison, in 2013, daily ridership never reached 6 million.^[250]

Expansions

Several expansions started construction or were opened during the mayoralty of Michael Bloomberg from 2001 to 2013.^[240] The IND 63rd Street Line's connection to the IND Queens Boulevard Line was first, opened on December 16, 2001. To serve the new connection, the F train was rerouted via the 63rd Street Line, and to replace the F along 53rd Street, a new V train was created–running between Forest Hills–71st Avenue and Second Avenue via the Queens Boulevard and Sixth Avenue local tracks. The G, to allow for room to operate the V, was cut back to Court Square. Two out-of-system transfers were put into place; the first was to allow F passengers to continue to have a free transfer to the Lexington Avenue Line, which was lost when the line was rerouted–the transfer connects the Lexington Avenue/59th Street station and the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street stations. The second one connected the Court Square station with the 45th Road–Court House Square station.^{[251][252][253]}

In 2003, money was allocated for the construction of a new station at South Ferry, and in 2005, construction commenced on the new station.^[254] Initially, the station's construction had been opposed because of the high cost and low perceived time savings.^[255] The South Ferry loop station only accommodates the first five cars of a train, so that the rear five cars of a 10-car 1 train cannot load or unload.^[256] Because of the curve at the station gap fillers are required, and as a result the new station was built as a two-track, full (10-car)-length island platform on a less severe curve, permitting the operation of a typical terminal station.^[256][257] The MTA claimed that the new station saved four to six minutes of a passenger's trip time and increased the peak capacity of the 1 service to 24 trains per hour, as opposed to 16 to 17 trains per hour with the loop station.^[256]

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, talk began to circulate about taking up the construction of the Second Avenue Subway. Most New Yorkers regarded these plans with cynicism, since citizens were promised the line since well before the Third Avenue elevated was torn down in 1955. Funds have been set aside and environmental impact reports have been completed. A tunnelling contract was awarded to the consortium of Schiavone/Shea/Skanska (S3) by the MTA on March 20, 2007.^[258] This followed preliminary engineering and a final tunnel design completed by a joint venture between AECOM and Arup.^[259][260] A ceremonial groundbreaking for the subway was held on April 12, 2007, and contractor work to prepare the project's initial construction site at 96th Street and Second Avenue began on April 23, 2007.^[258][261]

7 Subway Extension construction in June 2011

In October 2007, the 7 Subway Extension construction contract was awarded, extending the IRT Flushing Line to 34th Street.^[131] Groundbreaking began in June 2008 and the tunnels were completed by 2010. The project, which was the first one funded by the city in over 60 years,^[262] was intended to aid redevelopment of Hell's Kitchen around the West Side Yard of the Long Island Rail Road.^[263]

Budget cuts

The MTA faced a budget deficit of US$1.2 billion in 2009.^[264] This resulted in fare increases (three times from 2008 to 2010)^[265] and service reductions (including the elimination of two part-time subway services, the V and W). Several other routes were modified as a result of the deficit. The N was made a full-time local in Manhattan (in contrast to being a weekend local/weekday express before 2010), while the Q was extended nine stations north to Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard on weekdays, both to cover the discontinued W. The M was combined with the V, routing it over the Chrystie Street Connection, IND Sixth Avenue Line and IND Queens Boulevard Line to Forest Hills–71st Avenue on weekdays instead of via the BMT Fourth Avenue Line and BMT West End Line to Bay Parkway. The G was truncated to Court Square full-time. Construction headways on eleven routes were lengthened, and off-peak service on seven routes were lengthened.^[266]

Hurricane Sandy damage

The old South Ferry loop station closed between March 16, 2009, and April 4, 2013. It closed permanently in June 2017.

Hurricane Sandy caused serious damage to the IND Rockaway Line and isolated one part of the line from the rest of the system, requiring the NYCTA to truck in 20 subway cars to the line to provide some interim service in the Rockaways. This shows one of the cars being loaded onto a flatbed to be carried to the Rockaways.

On October 28, 2012, a full closure of the subway was ordered the day before the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. All services on the subway, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North were gradually shut down that evening.^[267] The storm caused serious damage to the system, especially the IND Rockaway Line, which had many sections between Howard Beach–JFK Airport and Hammels Wye on the Rockaway Peninsula heavily damaged, leaving it essentially isolated from the rest of the system. This required the NYCTA to truck in 20 R32 subway cars to the line to provide some interim service, which was temporarily designated the H.^[268][269] The H ran between Beach 90th Street and Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue, where passengers could transfer to a free shuttle bus.^[270] The line reopened on May 30, 2013, with a new retaining wall along the line to prevent against future storm surges.^{[271][272][273]}

Several of the system's tunnels under the East River were flooded by the storm surge.^[274] The South Ferry station suffered serious water damage, and on April 4, 2013, the older loop-configured station reopened to provide temporary service.^[275][276] The first tunnel to be repaired, the Greenpoint Tube under Newtown Creek, was fixed during a series of weekend closures in 2013 and a full closure during summer 2014.^[277] The second tunnel, the Montague Street Tunnel, was closed completely from August 2013^[278][279] to September 2014.^{[280][281][282]}

Hurricane Sandy also damaged the Clark Street Tubes, necessitating a full closure on weekends between June 2017 and June 2018, thus affecting 2, 3, 4, and 5 service.^[283] The new South Ferry station reopened on June 27, 2017, in time to accommodate the Clark Street closures.^{[284][285][286]} A week after South Ferry reopened, the MTA closed the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line for ten months to rebuild two of the line's viaducts, the 310-foot-long (94 m) approaches to the line's junction with the BMT Jamaica Line and Fresh Pond Bridge over the Montauk Branch in Queens. This was in preparation for a reconstruction of the BMT Canarsie Line tunnels under the East River.^{[287][288][289][290]}

The MTA also planned to completely close the BMT Canarsie Line west of Bedford Avenue for 18 months between early 2019 and mid-2020.^{[291][292][293]} In April 2017, the shutdown was shortened to 15 months.^[294] The closure was changed to a night and weekend shutdown in January 2019.^{[295][296][297]}

Other rehabilitation projects included:

• Covering over 3,200 openings at ground level. As of March 2019, there are 19 contracts in progress and 11 contracts pending.^[298] In addition, a preventive measure, 68 subway entrances in Lower Manhattan are also receiving fabric plugs that are intended to keep flood water out.^[299]: 44 In 2017, 3,000-pound (1,400 kg) waterproof doors and curtains were installed in 24 Lower Manhattan locations at a cost of $30,000 each.^[300][301]
• Adding flood mitigation measures, like barriers, to the Coney Island, 207th Street, and Lenox subway yards^[298]: 44
• Adding flood mitigation measures to the IND Rockaway Line^[298]: 44
• Rebuilding other tubes. As of March 2019, the Steinway, 53rd Street, Cranberry, and Joralemon tunnels had been repaired, in addition to the Crosstown, Montague Street, and Clark Street tunnels. The Rutgers Street Tunnel was pending repairs.^[298]: 44

Expansions open

Originally budgeted at $400 million, the new South Ferry station opened in 2009 at a total of $530 million, with most of the money being a grant from the Federal Transit Administration earmarked for World Trade Center reconstruction.^[256] In January 2009, the opening was delayed because the tracks were too far from the edge of the platform. Other delays were attributed to leaks in the station.^[302] The problem was corrected and the station opened on March 16, 2009. With the opening of the new station, a transfer was available to the Whitehall Street station with a new connecting passageway.^[303]

Second Avenue Subway opening at 86th Street

The 7 Subway Extension originally was expected to open in 2014,^[304][305] but did not open until September 13, 2015.^[306][307] According to The New York Times, the delay in the extension's opening was due to the installation of custom-made incline elevators that kept malfunctioning.^[308] The Fulton Center building opened to the public on November 10, 2014, completing a decade-long refurbishment of the Fulton Street station in lower Manhattan.^{[309][310][311]} It was controversially funded as part of the post-9/11 rebuilding project.^[240] As part of the Second Avenue Subway's opening, W service, which had not run since 2010, was restored on November 7, 2016.^[312] On January 1, 2017, the Second Avenue Subway was opened,^[313]

2017 state of emergency

Underlying the fanfare of expansions, however, there was a gradual decline in maintenance of the subway, and consequently, fewer trains started arriving to their destinations on time. Maintenance spending declined before rising again from the 1990s to 2012, but on-time performance slowly eroded during that same time period. By 2017, only 65% of weekday trains reached their destinations on time, the lowest rate since the transit crisis of the 1970s.^[240] In the summer of that year, the subway system was officially put in a state of emergency after a series of derailments,^[314][315] track fires,^[316][317] and overcrowding incidents.^[316][318]

To solve the system's problems, the MTA officially announced the Genius Transit Challenge on June 28, 2017, where contestants could submit ideas to improve signals, communications infrastructure, or rolling stock.^[319][320] On July 25, 2017, Chairman Joe Lhota announced a two-phase, $9 billion New York City Subway Action Plan to stabilize the subway system and to prevent the continuing decline of the system.^{[321][322][323][324]} The first phase, costing $836 million, consisted of five categories of improvements; the $8 billion second phase would implement the winning proposals from the Genius Transit Challenge and fix more widespread problems.^{[322][323][324]} Six winning submissions for the Genius Transit Challenge were announced in March 2018.^[325]

In October 2017, city comptroller Scott Stringer released an analysis of the effect of subway delays on the economy and on commuters. The study found that based on a normal wait time of 5 minutes and an average wage of $34 per hour in 2016, "worst-case" subway delays of more than 20 minutes could cost up to $389 million annually in lost productivity.^[326] By comparison, "mid-case" delays of between 10 and 20 minutes could cost $243.1 million per year, and "best-case" delays of between 5 and 10 minutes could cost $170.2 million per year.^[327]

In November 2017, The New York Times published its investigation into the crisis. It found that the crisis had arisen as a result of financially unsound decisions by local and state politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties. By this time, the subway's 65% average on-time performance was the lowest among all major cities' transit systems, and every non-shuttle subway route's on-time performance had declined in the previous ten years.^[240]

Several improvements were made in response to the transit crisis. In the short term, signals, trains, and tracks were improved under the "Fast Forward" program.^[328][329] Further, the MTA's 2020-2024 capital plan called for adding elevators and ramps to 66 subway stations and adding modern signaling systems to parts of six more physical lines, to be funded by congestion pricing in Manhattan.^[330][331] Additionally, several other changes were proposed to improve service. For instance, in February 2019, several politicians wrote a letter to the MTA, asking the agency to consider splitting the R train in half to increase reliability.^[332][333] In January 2020, Stringer sent a letter to NYCTA president Andy Byford stated that the "abundance" of shuttered entry points along subway routes was contributing to severe overcrowding and longer commute times, and requested that the MTA develop and publicize plans for restoring closed entry points.^[334] The state of emergency ended on June 30, 2021, after previously being renewed 49 times.^[335]

Planning of new lines

There are several lines under consideration. This includes a subway line under Utica Avenue in Brooklyn;^[336][337] an outer-borough circumferential line, the Triboro RX;^[338][339] a reuse of the northern part of the Rockaway Beach Branch;^[340][341] and a line to LaGuardia Airport.^[342]

In November 2016, the MTA requested that the Second Avenue Subway's Phase 2 project be entered into the Project Development phase under the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts program.^[343] The FTA granted this request in late December 2016;^[344] The line will eventually comprise four phases, running as far north as 125th Street in East Harlem during Phase 2, and south to Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan in Phases 3 and 4.^[345] The MTA began soliciting bids in July 2023 for the first Phase 2 construction contract.^[346][347]

COVID-19 pandemic and crime concerns

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic to the New York City area in March 2020 resulted in mass closures of gathering spaces.^[348] After the MTA recommended that only essential workers use the New York City Subway, ridership started to decrease.^[349][350] Part-time services were temporarily suspended.^[351] Starting on May 6, 2020, stations were closed overnight for cleaning, in what became the first planned overnight closure in the subway's history. The overnight closures were to be suspended once the pandemic was over, and bus service was added.^[352] In early May 2021, Governor Cuomo announced that the overnight subway closures would end on May 17, 2021, with 24-hour service resuming on that date.^[353][354]

In February 2021, the New York City Subway removed benches from several stations in an effort to reduce the number of homeless persons sleeping on them, which during the COVID-19 pandemic was considered to be unsanitary. This move drew considerable backlash from riders who alleged that the removal of the benches amounts to disenfranchising disabled people and senior citizens, as well as being unfair to homeless populations.^[355][356]

Although ridership decreased by 40 percent from 2019 to 2022, the number of crimes in the system remained roughly the same, prompting riders to express concerns over increased crime.^[357][358] There had been six murders in the subway in 2020; the following year, the subway recorded eight murders, the highest annual total in 25 years.^[359] During the pandemic, the subway system experienced several high-profile incidents, including a January 2022 shoving death of a passenger in Times Square and an April 2022 mass shooting in Brooklyn.^[358] As of October 2022, crime in the system had increased 40 percent from the previous year; the number of crimes recorded to date was roughly the same as in 2019, when ridership was much higher.^[360][361] In response, governor Kathy Hochul and mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to increase police presence within the subway system.^[362]

Further upgrades and improvements

Several upgrades and improvements were announced in the early 2020s. The new OMNY fare-payment system was implemented across the subway between 2019 and 2020,^[363][364] The MTA announced in 2022 that it would install platform screen doors at three stations,^[365][366] and it reached a legal settlement the same year, agreeing to make 95 percent of subway and Staten Island Railway stations wheelchair-accessible by 2055.^[367] Despite decreased ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MTA had balanced its budget by 2023 while also raising fares and increasing service on several subway routes.^[368]