The BMT Sea Beach Line is a rapid transit line of the BMT division of the New York City Subway, connecting the BMT Fourth Avenue Line at 59th Street via a four-track wide open cut to Coney Island in Brooklyn. It has at times hosted the fastest express service between Manhattan and Coney Island, since there are no express stations along the entire stretch, but now carries only local trains on the N service, which serves the entire line at all times. During rush hours, several W trains serve the line north of 86th Street.

Extent and service

The following services use part or all of the BMT Sea Beach Line:

{|class="wikitable"

! 

!Time period

!Section of line

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|all times

|full line

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|five rush-hour trains

|north of 86th Street

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left|thumb|225px|Open cut, looking west from 6th Avenue overpass, with the LIRR [[Bay Ridge Branch on the left and the BMT Sea Beach Line on the right.]]

left|thumb|225px|16th Avenue powerhouse

Route description

The modern line begins as a split from the BMT Fourth Avenue Line at a flying junction immediately south of 59th Street. Between the station and the split, crossover switches are provided between the local and express tracks of the Fourth Avenue Line, and then the express tracks curve east under the northbound local track to become the beginning of the Sea Beach Line. After emerging from the tunnel under Fourth Avenue, the two separate Sea Beach tracks rise on either side of a ramp which formerly connected to the original line to the Brooklyn shore at 65th Street in Bay Ridge.

After passing the former junction with the line to the shore, the Sea Beach widens to the width of four tracks. All stations have two side platforms with no platform access to the express tracks anywhere on the Sea Beach right-of-way. After a delay of two years, it was opened to the Bay Ridge Ferry (to South Ferry, Manhattan) on July 17, 1879, at which time the Sea Beach Palace opened at the Coney Island end.<!--the only station mentioned is "Gunther's Junction", earlier called "Bay Ridge Junction"-->

thumb|right|250px|Station headhouse at [[Avenue U (BMT Sea Beach Line)|Avenue U station, pre-renovation]]

Except at its two ends, the railroad used the same route as the current Sea Beach Line. At the Bay Ridge end, the railroad ran just north of the Long Island Rail Road's Bay Ridge Branch, ending at the Bay Ridge Channel around 64th Street. The current line joins this alignment near Fifth Avenue. The old railroad crossed the Bay Ridge Branch with a pronounced S-curve just east of Seventh Avenue; the crossing is now much straighter with the Bay Ridge Branch in a deeper cut. On the Coney Island end, the original path curved left soon after the curve to the right at the northern edge of the Coney Island Yards, ending at the combined Sea Beach Palace hotel and depot, on the north side of the BMT Brighton Line at around West 10th Street. This was extended to Times Square–42nd Street on January 5, 1918.

In 1924, the BMT assigned numbers to its services. The Sea Beach Line service became the 4. This has since become the train. In general, Sea Beach service has always run express in Manhattan and on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, ending at 42nd Street and later 57th Street. The began on November 27, 1967, as a "super-express" from Brighton Beach on the BMT Brighton Line through Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue, and along the Sea Beach Line express tracks to 57th Street with only seven stops between Stillwell Avenue and 57th Street, three in Brooklyn and four in Manhattan. This service was discontinued on April 15, 1968, due to low ridership, and no regular trains have used the Sea Beach express tracks since.

Later years

In the 1970s, there was a proposal to renovate the Sea Beach open cut, which was deteriorating to the point that a retaining wall along the line was in danger of collapsing onto the tracks. Funding was allocated for the line's infrastructure improvements in 1975. More than $20 million was earmarked for New York City Subway projects in 1977, including for upgrades to the Sea Beach line.

In 1986, the New York City Transit Authority launched a study to determine whether to close 79 stations on 11 routes, including the entire Sea Beach Line, due to low ridership and high repair costs. Numerous figures, including New York City Council member Carol Greitzer, criticized the plans.

thumb|BMT Sea Beach line passes through [[South Brooklyn]]

When Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue was closed for reconstruction from 1993 to 1995 and November 4, 2001, to May 29, 2005, 86th Street was the southern terminal for the N train.<div class="thumb tmulti floatleft"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:204px;max-width:204px"><div class="trow"><div class="tsingle" style="width:202px;max-width:202px"><div class="thumbimage">

alt=|200x200px</div><div class="thumbcaption">Bay Parkway pre-renovation</div></div></div><div class="trow"><div class="tsingle" style="width:202px;max-width:202px"><div class="thumbimage">

alt=|200x200px</div><div class="thumbcaption">Bay Parkway post-renovation</div></div></div></div></div>

In October 2013, it was announced that the line would undergo extensive renovation. All stations would be waterproofed, with their houses and passageways remodeled and stairways rebuilt; they would also get Help Points, and turnstiles would be added to each station. In addition, graffiti, which is prevalent on the line, would be mitigated; this required going onto private property to remove graffiti and fix the roofs of the stations. Eighth Avenue and New Utrecht Avenue/62nd Street would get wheelchair-accessible elevators. The $395,700,000 project was scheduled to begin in the winter of 2015, but work began in late June 2015.

Funding for the renovation was provided for in the 2010–2014 Capital Program. From January 18, 2016, to May 22, 2017, the Manhattan-bound platforms of all stations were closed. At Bay Parkway and Eighth Avenue, temporary wooden platforms were placed on the southbound express trackbed. After a two-month halt in construction, the Coney Island bound platforms closed on July 31, 2017. The southbound platforms at Kings Highway, Avenue U, and 86th Street reopened on October 29, 2018, with closures lasting a month less than for their northbound counterparts. The southbound platforms between Eighth Avenue and Bay Parkway, however, were closed until July 1, 2019, six months longer than their northern counterparts and seven months longer than the other three southbound platforms. The elevators at New Utrecht Avenue/62nd Street opened on July 19, 2019. The northbound elevator at Eighth Avenue opened on November 4, 2019, with the southbound elevator opening on July 30, 2023. From October 21, 2019, until April 27, 2020, N trains terminated at 86th Street so work could be completed to protect Coney Island Yard from flooding. An out-of-system transfer was made available between the N at 86th Street and the F at Avenue X station.

Station listing

{| class="wikitable"

!Neighborhood

!

!Station

!Tracks

!Services

!Opened

!Transfers and notes

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!colspan=7 style="background-color: silver;"|splits from the BMT Fourth Avenue Line ()

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!colspan=7 style="background-color: silver;"|Two center express tracks begin ()<br />(Southbound track disconnected from line; northbound track bi-directional)

|-

|Sunset Park

| align=center |

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|local

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|June 22, 1915

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|-

|rowspan="2"|Borough Park

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|local

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|June 22, 1915

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|-

| align=center |

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|local

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|June 22, 1915

|BMT West End Line () at

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|rowspan="2"|Mapleton

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|local

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|June 22, 1915

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|-

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|local

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|June 22, 1915

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|-

|Bensonhurst

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|local

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|June 22, 1915

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|-

!colspan=7 style="background-color: silver;"|Southbound express track reconnects to line ()

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|rowspan=3|Gravesend

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|local

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|June 22, 1915

| B82 Select Bus Service

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|local

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|June 22, 1915

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|-

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|local

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|June 22, 1915

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|-

!colspan=7 style="background-color: silver;"|Center express tracks end

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!colspan=7 style="background-color: silver;"|connecting tracks to Coney Island Yard

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|Coney Island

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|nowrap|

|all

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|December 13, 1918

|BMT Brighton Line ()<br />IND Culver Line ()<br />BMT West End Line ()

|}

References

Further reading

  • Rapid Transit's Coney Island Route, The New York Times November 30, 1897, page 4
  • Brooklyn's Subway Will Open Today, The New York Times June 19, 1915, page 18
  • New Subway Opens; Mayor Not Present, The New York Times June 20, 1915, page 6
  • To Open New Subway Link, The New York Times January 14, 1916, page 16
  • Open First Section of Broadway Line, The New York Times September 5, 1917, page 8
  • New Subway Extension, The New York Times January 6, 1918, page 37
  • nycsubway.org – BMT Sea Beach Line
  • nycsubway.org – Early Rapid Transit in Brooklyn, 1878 to 1913
  • rapidtransit.net – BMT Sea Beach Express Tracks