Queens Blvd Express·6 Avenue-Culver Local
The F train is the second-longest New York City Subway Line when it comes to length (behind the A train) running 27 miles from Coney Island in southern Brooklyn to Jamaica-179 Street in eastern Queens. Trains make 45 stops along this route, running local in Brooklyn and Manhattan and always running express in Queens (even during late nights), skipping 10 stations, between Forest Hills and Queensbridge. Trains are scheduled to take approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes to traverse this long route.
During peak direction rush hours 2 <F> 2 trains per AM and PM peak run express from Church Avenue to Jay Street, stopping at 7 Avenue. These “Coney Island Flyer” special rush hour trips were introduced in 2019 to mitigate the fact that the F train stretch from Broadway-Lafayette Street to Coney Island with 26 stops is the longest stretch of local-only service throughout the subway system. These trains save approximately 7 minutes of travel time northbound, and 6 minutes southbound (these amounts differ because of the signaling system). All F trains previously ran Express on this stretch of track in Brooklyn during rush hours (with GG trains providing local service) between 1968 and 1976, with alternating peak direction rush hour trains continuing to run either express to Kings Highway and then onto Coney Island, or local and terminating at Kings Highway. This service format of alternate Coney Island-bound express trains skipping all stops between 18 Avenue and Kings Highway continued until 1987, even after all trains began running local (with GG trains pushed back to Smith-9th Streets, needing to use the Express tracks to terminate) north of Church Avenue.
The F train name follows the original IND naming convention with F indicating a train from the Queens Blvd line via the 6 Avenue subway. Trains have always been labeled F because they have always run express in Queens, an FF train has never operated. Trains have always run local along 6th Avenue in Manhattan. F trains southern terminus varied with trains running to Church Avenue from the lines opening with the 6 Avenue subway in 1940 until 1954 when the Culver Incline opened allowing service to be extended via the BMT Culver Elevated to Coney Island with the D train chosen to run this service to allow a one seat Bronx to Coney Island subway ride. From 1954 until the Chrystie Street connection in 1967 opened, trains terminated in Manhattan at either 2 Avenue or Broadway-Lafayette Street, depending upon how much construction for the Chrystie Street connection was affecting the middle express tracks. In 1967 F train service was restored to Brooklyn and the Culver Subway with trains extended to Coney Island via the Culver Elevated as they operate to this day.
The other major F train service change occurred in 2001, when the 63 Street connector opened. This re-routed F trains at all times from the 53 Street tunnel that trains had used since the line’s creation in 1940 to run via the 63 Street tunnel. The new 63 Street connector converted the former stub-end 63 Street tunnel that opened in 1989 with only one stop in Queens at 21 Street-Queensbridge, into a through subway tunnel, allowing more subway service between Manhattan and the Queens Blvd line. The F train was chosen to be rerouted through the 63 Street tunnel from it’s only previous 53 Street tunnel route with the new V Queens Blvd local train created to provide 6 Avenue line service through the 53 Street tunnel during weekdays (passengers needing 53 Street stations must use the E train during late nights and weekends). F trains had previously been extended through the 63 Street tunnel during late nights from 1989 through 1997 to 21 Street-Queensbridge, with E and G trains (extended to 179 Street-Jamaica) providing late night service along Queens Blvd.
For rolling stock, F trains use entirely 10 car trains of R160 CBTC compatible cars due to the roll out of CTBC on the Queens Blvd Line. Before CBTC was turned on, F trains used a mixture of R46 trains and R160 trains. In the early 2000s, before the R160s were introduced at the Queens Blvd yard, R32s could be seen frequently operating on the F, supplementing R46s.
