IND Culver Line

The IND Culver Line (formerly BMT Culver Line) is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway, extending from Downtown Brooklyn south to Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, United States. The local tracks of the Culver Line are served by the F service, as well as the G between Bergen Street and Church Avenue. The express tracks north of Church Avenue are used by the <F> train during rush hours in the peak direction. The peak-direction express track between Ditmas Avenue and Avenue X has not seen regular service since 1987. as part of the IND. However, BMT radio frequency B1 is used on the elevated portion south of Church Avenue.

Extent and service

The following services use part or all of the IND Culver Line:

{|class="wikitable"

!colspan=2|Route

!colspan=3|Services

!Time period

!North of Bergen St

!Between Bergen St and Church Ave

!South of Church Ave

|all times

|align=center colspan=3|local

|rush hours in the peak direction

|align=center colspan=2|express

|align=center |local

|all times

|align=center |local

The Culver Line is served by the as a local for its entire length, though <F> trains run express between Jay Street and Church Avenue in the peak direction. The portion of the route from Bergen Street south to Church Avenue is also served by the Brooklyn–Queens Crosstown service. Both routes run at all times. However, express service has only been operated on the line from 1968 to 1987, as well as since 2019. The issue came to a head in June 2007, when a petition for express service reached 2,600 signatures and gained media attention. The Culver Line underwent repairs from 2009 until early 2013, during which the express tracks were replaced and rehabilitated to facilitate future express service.

Jay Street to Church Avenue

thumb|225px|[[Jay Street – MetroTech (IND Culver Line)|Jay Street – MetroTech]]

The subway portion of the IND Culver Line was originally designated the Brooklyn Line but has also been called the Smith Street Line, Church Avenue Line, South Brooklyn Line, and various other names. The express tracks beneath Prospect Park are sometimes referred to as the Prospect Park Line.

At Carroll Street, the express tracks ramp up to rejoin the local tracks, and all four tracks rise onto the Culver Viaduct, curving onto Ninth Street. The four mainline tracks ascend to the Culver Ramp on McDonald Avenue between Cortelyou Road and Avenue C, which connects the subway portion of the IND Culver Line with the former BMT Culver Line elevated structure. Despite being a part of the IND Division, the Culver elevated portion is controlled by BMT radio dispatch, so train operators change between the IND (B-2) and BMT (B-1) radio frequencies at this point. The viaduct was constructed due to the depth of the canal (15 feet at its deepest point), due to the topography of the Park Slope neighborhood, Because of this, Smith–Ninth Streets was built at an elevation of , the highest subway station above ground level in the world. Fourth Avenue, meanwhile, is actually at a lower elevation and altitude than the Seventh Avenue underground station.

For most of its history, G service has terminated at Smith–Ninth Streets, relaying using the express tracks and switches at Fourth Avenue. In 2009, the G's terminus was moved to Church Avenue in order to complete renovations on the viaduct.

Ditmas Avenue to Coney Island

thumb|225px|The Culver Line leaves [[Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue (IND Culver Line)|Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue underneath the BMT Brighton Line]]

At Ditmas Avenue, the Culver Ramp ends and the underground line becomes elevated. This is a three-track Dual Contracts elevated on the former BMT line over McDonald (formerly Gravesend) Avenue. The line ran along the surface of McDonald Avenue (then Gravesend Avenue) from Greenwood Cemetery (where it connected with horse car lines including the Vanderbilt Avenue Line, operated by the PP&CI until 1886) to the Culver Depot in Coney Island, on June 25, 1875. The PP&CI began serving the Union Depot at 36th Street, where transfer could be made to the Fifth Avenue Elevated, on June 7, 1890, by using the Prospect Park and South Brooklyn Railroad from a junction at Parkville.

During a period of Long Island Rail Road control, from 1893 to 1899, a ramp at 36th Street was opened in 1895, allowing Brooklyn Elevated Railroad trains to operate over the Culver Line to Coney Island. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT), by then the owner of the Brooklyn Elevated, leased the Culver Line (to the Brooklyn Heights Railroad) on June 18, 1899, and began using it to take not only elevated trains but also trolleys to Coney Island.

Construction of the route was done in four sections: Section 1, 1-A, 2, and 3. Section 1-A extended from a location on the west building line of Tenth Avenue between 38th Street and 37th Street to a location east of the building line on Tenth Avenue, running in an open cut and then a fill over Tenth Avenue. Section 1 extended from a point east of the building line on Tenth Avenue to, over private property and 37th Street, and Gravesend Avenue to a location south of the intersection of Gravesend Avenue and the southern building line of 22nd Avenue. Section 2 stretched from here along Gravesend Avenue to Avenue X, and Section 3 continued from here south along Shell Road and West 6th Street to a point near the southern line of Sheepshead Bay Road, where it would connect with the Brighton Line for access to Coney Island.

The contract to construct Section 2 was awarded to Oscar Daniels Company for $863,775 on July 10, 1915. Work was to be completed in eighteen months. On September 8, 1915, the contract to construct Section 1 was awarded to Post & McCord for $877,859. Work on the section was to be completed in fifteen months. On January 23, 1917, a contract to construct Section 1-A of the line in four months was awarded to Thomas Dwyer for $42,268. Except for the omission of a station at 15th Avenue, all of the station locations from the surface line were preserved as elevated stations. The Culver Line was operated as a branch of the Fifth Avenue Elevated, with a free transfer at Ninth Avenue to the West End Line into the Fourth Avenue Subway. An extension to Avenue X was opened at noon on May 10, 1919. The line, the last of the four to Coney Island, was completed on May 1, 1920, at which time the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was forced to cut the fare from ten to five cents.

This construction tied into the existing lower level of the BMT Brighton Line east of West Eighth Street–New York Aquarium. Some Culver Line (5) trains began using the Fourth Avenue Subway to the Nassau Street Loop in Lower Manhattan when that line opened on May 30, 1931; the Fifth Avenue Elevated was closed on May 31, 1940, in conjunction with the unification of the transit system under city operations. Trolleys continued to use the surface tracks on McDonald Avenue until October 30, 1956.

IND Brooklyn Line (1933–1954)

thumb|[[Church Avenue (IND Culver Line)|Church Avenue]]

One of the goals of Mayor John Hylan's Independent Subway System (IND), proposed in the 1920s was a line to Coney Island, reached by a recapture of the BMT Culver Line.

This line was variously known as the Culver Line Extension, Smith Street Line, Smith Street–Prospect Park Line, Jay–Smith–Ninth Street Line, Church Avenue Line, Prospect Park–Church Avenue Line, Prospect Park–Coney Island Line, Brooklyn Line, This resulted in the only above-ground section of the original IND. The rest of the line opened on October 7, 1933, to the "temporary" terminal at Church Avenue, three blocks away from the Culver elevated at Ditmas Avenue. In 1936, the A was rerouted to the IND Fulton Street Line and trains from the Queens Boulevard line replaced them. On July 1, 1937, the connection to the IND Crosstown Line opened and trains were extended to Smith-Ninth Streets. E trains were replaced by the on December 15, 1940, after the IND Sixth Avenue Line opened. A 1931 proposal had the line travel south from Smith–Ninth Streets station through Red Hook and Gowanus to Saint George Terminal.

The final proposal from the 1939 Second System plan proposed an extension down Fort Hamilton Parkway and/or Tenth Avenue towards the tunnel, with continued service to 86th Street in Bay Ridge near the BMT Fourth Avenue Line station. This route would have diverged near the Fort Hamilton Parkway and Church Avenue stations. None of these proposals were ever constructed.

The proposed Culver Ramp, also referred to as the Culver Line Connection, would allow passenger service between the underground Church Avenue and elevated Ditmas Avenue stations. Construction began in June 1941, and was expected to be completed by the end of the year. The ramp was expected to cost $2 million, and along with new signals, and rehabilitation of the Culver elevated and lengthening of its stations to IND standards, the total cost of the project was estimated at over $11 million. When the project was restarted in 1946, completion was delayed further due to continued material shortages and a lack of rolling stock to facilitate the new service. the connection between the IND Brooklyn Line at Church Avenue and the BMT Culver Line at Ditmas Avenue opened. This allowed IND trains to operate all the way to the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue terminal.

IND Culver Line (1954–present)

thumb|The Coney Island power substation

Following the completion of Culver Ramp, Concourse Express trains (which formerly terminated in Manhattan) replaced service, and were sent over the new connection as the first IND service to reach Coney Island. The service was announced as Concourse–Culver and advertised as direct Bronx–Coney Island service. This Culver Shuttle became full-time on May 28, 1959, and was closed on May 13, 1975, replaced by a transfer to the B35 bus route. The elevated portion has been re-chained as part of the B2 (IND) division, but still uses B1 (BMT) division radio frequencies. From June 1968 to 1987, the Culver Line featured express service during rush hours. F trains ran express in both directions between Bergen Street and Church Avenue, while G trains were extended from Smith–Ninth Streets to Church Avenue to provide local service. Express service on the elevated portion of the line to Kings Highway operated in the peak direction (to Manhattan AM; to Brooklyn PM), with some F trains running local and some running express. With the end of express service, Bergen Street's lower level was taken out of service. Following renovations to the station in the 1990s, the lower level was converted into storage space and is not usable for passenger service in its current state.

In 1986, the New York City Transit Authority launched a study to determine whether to close 79 stations on 11 routes, including the segment of the Culver Line south of either Kings Highway or Avenue U, due to low ridership and high repair costs. Numerous figures, including New York City Council member Carol Greitzer, criticized the plans.

Rehabilitation

thumb|right|A temporary platform (center) erected at [[Fourth Avenue (IND Culver Line)|Fourth Avenue during the Culver Rehabilitation Project.]]

In 2007, the MTA announced that several portions of the Culver Line would be undergoing extensive rehabilitation. The first renovation involved repairs of the elevated Culver Viaduct (including the Smith–Ninth Streets and Fourth Avenue stations) and modernization of the interlockings at Bergen Street, 4th Avenue, and Church Avenue. The B5 layup track was removed as part of the project. The Coney Island-bound platforms were rehabilitated between June 7, 2016, and May 1, 2017 (May 8 for Avenue U and Avenue X). During the second phase of the project, beginning on May 22, 2017, the Manhattan-bound platforms were closed between Avenue U and 18th Avenue until July 30, 2018. The interlocking at Kings Highway is scheduled to be modernized as part of the 2020–2024 MTA Capital Program, and the modernization could include the reinstallation of the necessary track switches.

Express service

Around the time the Culver Viaduct rehabilitation project was announced in 2007, a petition to restore express service along the line gained attention, due to increasing ridership on both the F and G services in Brooklyn. The petition, which gained over 2,500 signatures by June 2007 and nearly 4,000 by September, proposed to restore express service by making the Church Avenue extension of the G permanent and extending the (eliminated in 2010) from its Manhattan terminus to Brooklyn, sharing the Rutgers Street Tunnel with the F. In May 2016, the MTA announced that half of all rush-hour F trains may start running express in both directions in fall 2017; however, because of rolling stock and track capacity limitations, the train frequency on the rest of the F route would remain the same. With an increase in rolling stock caused by the introduction of the R179s, one more train per hour could be run on the F. The operation of half of the F trains as express would result in operational improvements, with faster service, as southbound F trains would no longer be delayed by terminating G trains discharging at Church Avenue. This service is represented with a diamond <F>, similar to the symbol used on other peak-direction express services. Though the estimated completion date was scheduled for March 2015, it was completed in December 2015. The installation was expected to be permanent. A third supplier, Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc., was given permission to demonstrate that its technology could be interoperable with the Siemens/Thales technology. The $1.2 million Mitsubishi contract was approved in July 2015. If Culver Line express service was implemented in 2017 as it was proposed, the express service would not initially have used CBTC, and testing of CBTC on the express track would be limited to off-peak hours.

In 2017, the MTA started testing ultra-wideband radio-enabled train signaling on the IND Culver Line. The ultra-wideband train signals would be able to transmit more data wirelessly in a manner similar to CBTC, but can be installed faster than CBTC systems. The ultra-wideband signals would have the added benefit of allowing passengers to use cellphones while between stations, instead of the current setup where passengers could only get cellphone signals within the stations themselves.

As part of the MTA's 2015–2019 Capital Program, CBTC is being installed on the section of the line between Church Avenue and West Eighth Street–New York Aquarium, replacing 70-year old signals. The contract for the installation of CBTC and the modernization of the Ditmas Avenue and Avenue X interlockings, was awarded in February 2019 to Tutor Perini for $253 million. Substantial completion of the project was expected in August 2022. As part of the project, switches north of Ditmas Avenue will be removed, and will be replaced by two new interlockings directly south of Church Avenue and a new interlocking north of 18th Avenue. To allow the CBTC project to enter its next phase, F service was suspended south of Church Avenue during most weekends starting in early 2020. Work to install CBTC continued into 2021.

In December 2022, the MTA announced that it would award a $368 million design–build contract to Crosstown Partners, a joint venture between Thales Group and TC Electric LLC, to install CBTC along the length of the G route. The contract includes not only the Crosstown Line between Court Square and Bergen Street, but also the Culver Line between Bergen Street and Church Avenue.

|BMT Brighton Line () BMT Sea Beach Line () BMT West End Line ()

References

External links

NYCsubway.org – IND Crosstown Line
NYCsubway.org – BMT Culver Line
The Prospect Park and South Brooklyn Railroad Company and The Culver Shuttle (Arrt's Arrchives)
Brooklyn F Express Study and Culver Line Track Diagram
G Line Track Diagram: Court Square to Church Avenue
Track Diagram: Bergen Street to Church Avenue