The BMT Franklin Avenue Line (also known as the Brighton–Franklin Line) is a lower capacity rapid transit line of the New York City Subway's B Division in Brooklyn, New York, running between Franklin Avenue and Prospect Park. Service is full-time, and provided by the Franklin Avenue Shuttle. The line serves the neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and the Prospect Lefferts Gardens subsection of Flatbush and allows for easy connections between the IND Fulton Street and the BMT Brighton lines.
The line was originally part of the Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railway, which was created to connect Downtown Brooklyn with Coney Island. This Franklin Avenue Line opened in 1878 as part of the railway. Trains continued via the Long Island Rail Road to get to Downtown Brooklyn. In 1896, a connection was built with the Fulton Street Elevated, providing direct service to Manhattan. In 1905 and 1906, the line was elevated near Park Place to eliminate the last remaining grade crossings.
In 1913, the line was acquired by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT), which consolidated various railroad lines in Brooklyn. As part of the Dual Contracts of 1913, the BRT planned to connect the Brighton Line to a more direct subway route under Flatbush Avenue as part of Contract 4. The worst rapid transit wreck in the New York City Subway's history, the Malbone Street Wreck, occurred on November 1, 1918, when a five-car wooden elevated train derailed while approaching the Prospect Park station, killing at least 93 people. In 1920, the Franklin Avenue Line was severed from the Fulton Street Elevated, and Brighton Line trains started using the new subway under Flatbush Avenue.
The line's condition deteriorated in the 1980s and 1990s, and as a result it was nearly abandoned. One station, Dean Street, was closed in 1995 due to low ridership. After pleas from the local community and transit advocacy groups, the MTA agreed to spend $74 million to rehabilitate the line. The line was closed for eighteen months in 1998 and 1999, during which the track layout was changed and the stations were rebuilt.
History
Origins
What is now the Franklin Avenue Line was part of the modern-day Brighton Beach Line until 1920, when the two lines were split north of Prospect Park. However, the railroad desired to get the line closer to downtown Brooklyn. There was a problem: the line could not pass through Prospect Park, since the park had been built specifically as a retreat from the busyness of New York City. This portion of the Brighton Beach Line represented a routing compromise, since the bypass route through Crown Heights was long, while the BF&CI's preferred direct routing to Downtown Brooklyn would have measured only . Later on, in order to accommodate larger locomotives for LIRR through-service, the open cut had to be dug deeper. On August 15, 1896, the railroad gained a connection with it by means of a ramp and short elevated railway. The connection linked to the Fulton Street Elevated, which ran from Downtown Brooklyn to City Line at the border with Queens County at Liberty and Grant Avenues and had been completed in 1893. From there the line bridged over Atlantic Avenue, where the LIRR was still operating at-grade. As part of the Atlantic Avenue improvement program, this portion of the LIRR was placed in a tunnel between 1903 and 1905. Construction for the connection required the Coney Island-bound track to be diverted in a new tunnel to cross over the new subway connection and enter the rebuilt four-track Prospect Park station as an outside track. This track has a sharp curve that, coming from the north, has a sharp S-curve to the right and then to the left. The collision was found to be caused by an inexperienced motorman who was speeding down the line into the southbound S-curve at an estimated 30 to 40 miles per hour into the curve, which had a 6 mph speed restriction. It remains the deadliest crash in the New York City Subway's history, as well as one of the worst rapid-transit crashes in the history of the United States. At the same time, track connections to the Fulton Street Elevated were severed so that through service to Brooklyn Bridge was no longer possible. Subway trains from Manhattan and elevated trains from Franklin Avenue shared operations to Coney Island.
The Fulton Street Elevated, to which the Franklin Avenue line was originally connected, closed in 1940 and was replaced by the IND Fulton Street Line. A free transfer was instituted between the Fulton Street subway and the Franklin Avenue elevated. Trains that are being taken out of service continue to use the old route. A 1982 New York Times article described the line as the "gateway to Ebbets Field".
On December 1, 1974, a southbound shuttle train of R32s was approaching the tunnel portal en route from Franklin Avenue when it derailed on the crossover and smashed the same place where BRT car 100 had hit in the Malbone Street Wreck. This derailment resulted in some injuries, but there were no fatalities, because time signals limited the speed of trains coming down the hill from Crown Heights.
In 1981, the MTA proposed abandoning the severely deteriorated line under the failed Program for Action. At the time, only 10,000 daily passengers used the line. It was proposed that bus service along nearby Franklin Avenue could substitute for the line. From January to March 1982, the line needed to be closed for emergency repair work because a retaining wall along the line was in danger of collapse. An MTA spokeswoman said that the repairs would only last for three years and $38 to $60 million would be needed to rebuild the line. She said that the MTA was considering ending service on the line permanently.
In 1986, the New York City Transit Authority launched a study to determine whether to close 79 stations on 11 routes, including the entire Franklin Avenue Line, due to low ridership and high repair costs. Numerous figures, including New York City Council member Carol Greitzer, criticized the plans.
By the 1990s the Franklin Avenue Shuttle was known as the "ghost train" and the Franklin Avenue Line was very dilapidated. Shuttle trains' lengths were shrunk from four to two cars, and the platforms were so poorly maintained that they were literally crumbling. However, the MTA was still lacking the funds to renovate the line from end to end. The Dean Street station, which had 50 paying riders per day, was closed in 1995.
Restoration
The civic groups ultimately convinced the New York State Assembly to force the MTA to rebuild rather than abandon the line, and at its April 26, 1996 board meeting, it announced that the shuttle would be closed for eighteen months so that the line could be rehabilitated for $63 million. As a result, most of the supporting infrastructure and stations were completely rehabilitated for eighteen months, between July 1998 and October 1999 at a cost of $74 million. Closing the shuttle full time was estimated to save time and $22 million. The contract on the bid was out in February 1997. During the renovation, a temporary shuttle bus and the B48 bus replaced train service. The line reopened on October 18, 1999, three months ahead of schedule. The transfer to the IND Fulton Street Line had required an out-of-system paper transfer, but an enclosed transfer was built with two elevators and an escalator. Prior to this enclosed transfer, a portion of the Fulton Street Elevated line was left standing so passengers could use a staircase to transfer to the Fulton Street Line.
Once the line was reopened there were still calls to restore the Dean Street station, and there were complaints that the Botanic Garden and Prospect Park stops were not made ADA accessible. Prospect Park was made accessible in a later project. The bridge carrying the line above St. Marks Avenue was replaced in 2024, marking the first major modification to the line since its 1998 reconstruction.
Description
thumb|upright=1.3|Transfer passageway to the Franklin Avenue Line platform at Fulton Street/Franklin Avenue
At Fulton Street and Franklin Avenue, where the Fulton Street Elevated had given way to the IND Fulton Street Line subway, a large station is present with modern conveniences, elevators and escalators, providing an easier transfer between the Fulton Street Line and the Franklin Avenue Line. From that station, most of the original steelwork from elevated days has been removed and replaced with heavier construction. The line runs on a single track from Franklin/Fulton to another new station at Park Place. This elevated section, opened in 1896 to connect the original line to the Fulton Street Elevated, was rebuilt along the original line's old right-of-way to reduce costs. Though this portion of the line uses much of the reinforced viaduct from 1903 to 1905, it was totally reconstructed in 1999. There was once a stop at Dean Street, between the Fulton Street and Park Place stations. The Dean Street station closed in 1995 because it was one of the least used stations in the system, and because it was in very poor condition. The station still had wooden platforms, which were a safety hazard, as well as incandescent lighting, although all other stations had been upgraded with fluorescent lamps. The station was demolished upon its closure, and the only visible remnant of the station is a sidewalk street lamp which used to illuminate the staircase leading from the station platform. Between Park Place and Sterling Place, the line descends to an open cut along a ramp that opened in 1896 as part of the Fulton Street Elevated connection project and enters the near-original 1878 right-of-way, including the original railroad-style tunnel under Eastern Parkway. The south end of the tunnel contains the rehabilitated Botanic Garden station, originally built in 1928. All three stations between Franklin Avenue and Botanic Garden were rebuilt or renovated with elements such as distinctive artwork, masonry and ironwork funded by New York City Transit's "Arts in Transit" program. From Botanic Garden, the line continues on its original 1878 roadbed and connects with the main part of the Brighton Line at Prospect Park. Before entering Prospect Park, trains switch to the northbound track, which continues straight and enters a tunnel. The shuttle terminates on the northbound outer track of the four-track Prospect Park station.
Station listing
{| class="wikitable"
!Neighborhood<br />(approximate)
!
!Station
!Services
!Opened
!Transfers and notes
|-
|rowspan=2|Bedford–Stuyvesant
|
|nowrap|
|
|nowrap|August 15, 1896 According to a 1901 report, the Brighton Beach Railroad had applied for abandonment of the Dean Street station. re-opened October 28, 1901. Closed again in 1995; now demolished
| (IRT Eastern Parkway Line at )
|-
|
|bgcolor=bfbfbf nowrap|Consumers Park
|
|June 19, 1899
|Renamed Botanic Garden (1st iteration) . Closed and demolished in 1928 and replaced by the second iteration of Botanic Garden