Empire City Subway on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Empire City Subway is an American company in 
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
which is responsible for maintaining underground conduits in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
and The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, and the manholes
A manhole (utility hole, maintenance hole, or sewer hole) is an opening to a confined space such as a shaft, utility vault, or large vessel. Manholes are often used as an access point for an underground public utility, allowing inspection, m ...
by which those conduits are accessed.
History and operations
The company was formed in 1891 as part of a plan for common utility ducts to consolidate all utilities underground. Incompatibility among theutilities
A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and ...
limited the range of utilities that could share their ducts, so the company now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon New York Telephone under a franchise from the city. In addition to Verizon, the company provides service to cable television and other telecommunications companies.
Business model
Empire City Subway makes its money by renting manhole space and conduits to New York City DoITT Telecommunications Franchisee's. Although wholly owned by Verizon, Verizon is their largest tenant in the Empire City Subway system. They have construction crews on staff that perform excavation for conduit and points of entry (POEs) for their tenants and well as rodding and roping services so tenants may pull new cable through the ducts. Tenants that choose to pull their own cables through the system are overseen by the Manhole Activity Program (MAP) Group. There is a fee charged per hour to the tenants for this service.Manholes
Manholes owned by Empire City Subway can be recognized by the abbreviation ''ECS'' (or ''ECS Co. Ltd'') cast into the metal covers. This should not be confused with ''CT & ES'' (Consolidated Telegraph & Electrical Subway), now owned by the Electrical utility, Consolidated Edison of New York.See also
* List of New York City manhole cover abbreviations * List of companies based in New York CityReferences
External links
* , the company's official website {{Verizon 1891 establishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1891 Companies based in New York City New York City infrastructure Verizon Communications