The New York City Subway Lines Project:
F Train (6th Avenue Local)

The F Train runs from 179th Street in Queens to Coney Island in Brooklyn. It runs local at all times in Brooklyn and Manhattan. From 6:30am - midnight it runs express in Queens. It is a part of the Orange Line and while in midtown Manhattan it can be found on 6th Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), thus the name.

Station Information for the F Train is as follows:

Queens:

179 Street , Hillside Av
Bus connections: Q1 Q2 Q3 (to JFK Airport) Q17 Q36 Q43 Q75 Q76 Q77 N1 N2 N3 N6 N22 N22A N24 N26

169 Street , Hillside Av
Bus connections: Q1 Q2 Q3 (to JFK Airport) Q17 Q30 Q31 Q36 Q75 Q76 Q77 N1 N2 N3 N6 N22 N22A N24 N26

Parsons Blvd , Hillside Av
Bus connections: Q25/34 Q65 Q83 Q110 Q111 Q112 Q113

Sutphin Blvd , Hillside Av
Bus connections: Q40 Q43 Q44

Van Wyck Blvd , Main Street
Bus connections: Q60

Union Turnpike - Kew Gardens , Queens Blvd
Transfers: E
Bus connections: Q10/Q10A (to JFK Airport) Q37 Q46 Q74

75 Avenue, Queens Blvd

71 - Continental Avs - Forest Hills, Queens Blvd
Transfers: E G R
Bus and other connections: Q23 Q65A LIRR

Roosevelt Av - Jackson Heights, Broadway
Transfers: 7 E G R
Bus connections: Q19B Q32 Q33 (to LaGuardia Airport) Q45 Q47 (to LGA Marine Air Terminal) Q53

Queens Plaza, Queens Blvd
Transfers: E G R
Bus connections: Q19A Q32 Q39 Q60 Q66 Q67 Q101 Q102 B61

23 Street (Ely Avenue), 44 Drive
Transfers: E G
Bus connections: Q19A Q39 Q66 Q67 B61

Manhattan:

Lexington - 3rd Avenue, 53 Street
Except late nights (use E).
Transfers: 4 (late nights) 6 E
Bus connections: M98 M101 M102 M103

5 Avenue, 53 Street
Transfers: E
Bus connections: M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Q32

47-50 Streets - Rockefeller Center, Avenue of Americas
Transfers: B D Q
Bus connections: M27 M50

42 Street, Av of Americas
Transfers: 7 B D Q
Bus connections: M42 M104

34 Street - Herald Square, Avenue of Americas
Wheelchair accessible.
Transfers: B D N Q R
Bus and other connections: M4 M6 M16 M34 Q32 PATH LIRR Amtrak NJTransit

23 Street, Avenue of the Americas

14 Street, Avenue of Americas
Transfers: 1 9 L
Bus and other connections: M5 M6 M7 PATH

W 4 Street - Washington Square, Avenue of Americas
Transfers: A C B D E Q
Bus connections: M5 M6 M8 PATH

Broadway - Lafayette St, Houston Street
Transfers: B D Q 6 (Downtown Only)
Bus connections: M1 M5 M6 M21

2 Avenue, Houston Street
Bus connections: M15 M21

Delancey St, Essex St
Transfers: J M Z
Bus connections: M9 M14 B39

East Broadway, Canal St, Rutgers St
Bus connections: M9 M22

Brooklyn:

York Street, Jay Street
Bus connections: B57 B61 B69

Jay Street - Borough Hall, Fulton Mall
Transfers: A C
Bus connections: B26 B37 B38 B41 B45 B51 B52 B54 B61 B65 B67 B75

Bergen St, Smith Steet
Transfers: G
Bus : B65 B75

Carroll St, Smith Steet
Transfers: G
Bus : B75

Smith - 9 Sts
Transfers: G
Bus and other connections: B75 B77

4 Avenue, 9 Street
Transfers: N M R
Bus and other connections: B77

7 Avenue - Park Slope, 9 Street
Bus and other connections: B67

15 Street - Prospect Park, Prospect Park W
Bus connections: B68 B69 B75

Fort Hamilton Pkwy, Prospect Av
Bus connections: B16

Church Av, McDonald Av
Bus and other connections: B35 B67

Ditmas Av, McDonald Av
Bus and other connections: B23

18 Avenue, McDonald Av
Bus connections: B8

Avenue I, McDonald Av
Bus connections: B11

Bay Parkway, McDonald Av
Bus connections: B6

Avenue N, McDonald Av
Bus connections: B9

Avenue P, McDonald Av

Kings Highway, McDonald Av
Bus connections: B82

Avenue U, McDonald Av
Bus connections: B3

Avenue X, McDonald Avenue
Bus connections: B1 B4

Neptune Av, West 6 St

West 8 St - NY Aquarium, Surf Av
Transfers: D
Bus connections: B36

Stillwell Av - Coney Island, Surf Av
Transfers: B D N
Bus connections: B36 B64 B74

The F train is one of the coolest subway line in the whole damn city. I know, for months I lived (alas, no longer live) less than a block off of 173rd St. and Hillside Ave. in Jamaica, Queens, and right near the first stop on the F train. The F train will take you through cool places like Jamaica, Greenwich Village, and Soho.

The way I see it, the F train is a line over which you can divide humanity. Yesterday I wore a T shirt with the F train symbol on it and a caption below that read "Brooklyn to Queens". And my high school principal freaked out that I was walking around with a big "F" (as in fuck) on my chest and she made me button the shirt I was wearing on top. This is as opposed to a horse rancher I met on a bench one night in Safed, Israel, who told me he was from Holliswood, Queens, and sure, the F train was his lifeline to Washington Square Park, too.

In Ani Difranco's song Cradle and All she says:

The F train is full of teenagers
So much noise, so much laughter
Last night's underwear in my back pocket
Sure sign of the morning after

UPDATE: I have discovered something wonderous- the Van Wyck Blvd/Main Street station on the F train is painted in the E2 jukka theme color scheme.

The line that is now the F train came into being gradually. The initial segment was the current Culver portion, from Ditmas Ave. to Coney Island in South Brooklyn. It was built in the 19th century to take vacationers to the resorts at Coney. The Culver Line made its way into the hands of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT), later the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit (BMT), the holding company that owned and operated the network of elevated commuter railways throughout the city and later borough of Brooklyn. A connection was built from the northern end of the Culver line at Ditmas Ave. running west along 37th street to Fifth Avenue and into the Fifth Avenue elevated tracks which ran north through Park Slope and into the BRT network of elevateds that eventually made its way over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan. Now the Culver line was part of a commuter railway. After the BRT completed the Fourth Avenue subway south through Brooklyn in the early teens (part of today's B, N, and R trains), the connection along 37th street was extended to Fourth Avenue and tied into the subway for additional service to downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan.

When the city built the Independent subway system (IND) lines in the early 1930s, the rest of the route that would become the F train was built. The section from Church Ave. to Bergen was part of the Crosstown Line (the current G Train) but was soon connected between Bergen and Jay Street for service into Manhattan. The section from Jay Street through the Rutgers Street tunnel under the East River to Manhattan, the trunk line up Sixth Avenue, the 53rd Street Tunnel back under the East River, and the Queens Boulevard trunk line all the way through Queens to the current end at 179th st. were also completed as a large part of the original IND construction. The elevated section over the Gawanus Canal from Fourth Avenue to Caroll was the only elevated portion of the Independent system as originally built, and still contains the highest elevated trackage and highest station on the subway system.

After the city unified the competing transit systems in 1940, the F Train as we know it now began to take shape. The short connection between the Culver portion at Ditmas and the Independent portion at Church Ave. was made and the now obsolete part along 37th street from Ditmas to 4th Ave. was reduced to a shuttle and torn down altogether in 1975. The moniker 'F' was applied to the current line sometime around then and it assumed its present form.

In 1979, the MTA instituted the color pattern we recognize today and the F joined the 'orange' family of trains, so grouped because they run down 6th Avenue together.

There are unused express tracks that diverge from the local tracks between Jay Street and Bergen, run under the local tracks to Caroll, run beside the local tracks to 7th Avenue, and then diverge and follow a separate tunnel to Church. The express tracks have never been in regular service, although occasionally they are used to perform maintenance on the local tracks.

Currently (2001) the F line runs only R44-46 rolling stock, characterized by well appointed cars of 75' length that were built in the early 1970s. The cars have an LED display that still says '6th Ave - Culver Local' on Coney Island bound trains.

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