Queens Blvd-6 Avenue-Myrtle Local
The current Orange M train began operations the weekend of June 26 to 27, 2010, when the original Brown M train route in North Brooklyn was basically replaced by an extension of the V train (except for its one stop at Second Avenue which was left to have only F train service). At this point in time service began operating between Metropolitan Avenue in Queens and 74 Street-Forest Hills in Queens. These two destinations that are only 2.5 miles apart, and only about a 30-minute bus ride (Just 15 minutes on the Q38 from Rego Park, just north of Metropolitan Avenue).
The new “Orange” M train debuted in 2010 and provides passengers along the Broadway and Myrtle Avenue elevateds a one seat ride service to for the first time since the KK/K train was discontinued in 1976. The KK was a quite new subway line and only debuted in 1968 as part of new track connections between the Williamsburg Bridge/Nassau Street Line opened as part of the Chrystie Street Connection.
The two terminuses being so close together are a clear example of the benefits of interlining. Originally the 2010 MTA budget crisis service reductions planned to keep the V train as it was and simply cut Brown M trains back to Broad Street or Chambers Street during rush hours. This met the targeted cost savings for service reductions which targeted discontinuing the low-ridership rush hour extension into South Brooklyn from Nassau Street along 4th Avenue and the West End Line to Bay Parking. Instead by interlining the V train and the M train (why the M train’s terminals are just 2.5 miles apart) was a win, win for everyone. The MTA got even more cost savings, and passengers along the Myrtle Avenue and Broadway elevateds got new one-seat ride service to Midtown.
The only reason the Orange M was created (and the combined route was not named the V train as an extension to this longer route) was to please local politicians, who didn’t want to remove the history of the M train as the subway route along Myrtle Avenue that dated back to the BMT receiving letters in the 1961, the V train had no nostalgia, only being created in 2001 when the 63 Street connector opened.
The M train currently operates on weekdays between 5:00am to 9:30pm along its entire route from Forest Hills-71 Avenue to Metropolitan Avenue via all local tracks via Queens Blvd, 6 Avenue, and the Broadway (Brooklyn) elevated. During evenings and on weekends it could just be a Brown M operating between Essex Street and Myrtle Avenue, with late night service (from 11:30pm to 5:00am the next morning) operating as a Shuttle between Myrtle Avenue-Broadway and Metropolitan Avenue.
M trains operate with R160 New technology Trains in 8 car trainsets. This is because the Broadway and Myrtle Avenue elevateds can only accommodate 8 60 Foot cars not 10 due to shorter platforms along with tight curve that restrict using longer 75-foot long R46s and R68. When the R42s (primarily) and R32s were still in service and still assigned to Eastern division lines they weren’t operated on the M train because this would reintroduce the “Brown M” since the new Orange M bullet wasn’t found on any rollsigns. M shuttle trains to either Essex Street or Myrtle Avenue operate with just 4 cars, using One-Person-Train Operation (OPTO). M trains when they terminate at Essex Street is the only place where OPTO operates in Manhattan.
The M train has had a few service changes since it debuted in 2010. On June 8, 2014 weekend and late evening service which was previously a shuttle between Myrtle Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue (like today’s late night service) was extended into Manhattan and Essex Street, allowing a single transfer instead of two transfer trip to reach F trains.
Other service changes have all been because of long-term construction. From July 1, 2017, to April 30, 2018 service on the M train’s Myrtle Avenue line was fully discontinued for the reconstruction of the Myrtle Viaduct (the decaying concrete connection between the Myrtle Avenue and Broadway elevateds) M trains were extended to Broadway Junction for better bus connections except late nights when no service operated.
Special M Shuttle trains (using R42s with the return of the Brown M, I wasn’t living in New York and never had a chance to photograph them) operated between Wycoff Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue starting in September 2017 until April 2018 after the Fresh Pond Bridge was reconstructed over the LIRR Lower Montauk Branch (no service operated at all in Summer 2017). This special M shuttle had no track connection to the rest of the subway system and a special inspection shed and pit had to be built in the Fresh Pond Yard to keep the R42s in operation, previously the Fresh Pond Yard was just used for train storage with maintenance performed at the East New York and Jamaica Yards.
Starting on August 28, 2023 until the First Quarter 2024, the KK is quasi-returning, as M trains are currently running during weekdays between 57 Street and 6 Avenue and Myrtle Avenue, and not along the Queens Blvd Line with F trains rerouted via the 53 Street tunnel to allow the 63 Street tunnel track bed (F shuttle trains are single tracking between Lexington Avenue and Queensbridge) to be rebuilt for the second time (first time was in 1998).
Finally, when L trains to Manhattan aren’t running due to trackwork on weekends M trains operate farther into Manhattan generally to 96 Street via the Second Avenue subway. When I first rode the Second Avenue subway on an October weekend in 2018, M trains were the only service on the new subway line, with Q trains not running due to construction along the Brighton Line in Brooklyn.
