IND Concourse Line

The Concourse Line is an IND rapid transit line of the New York City Subway system. It runs from 205th Street in Norwood, Bronx, primarily under the Grand Concourse, to 145th Street in Harlem, Manhattan. It is the only B Division line, and also the only fully underground line, in the Bronx.

Description and service

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

The Concourse Line runs north to south through the Bronx and portions of Harlem, parallel to the mostly-elevated IRT Jerome Avenue Line which lies between two and four blocks to the west for its entire length in the Bronx. Due to the steep topography of the neighborhoods surrounding the Grand Concourse (under which most of the line runs), several stations were built with entrances both above and below the platforms, including 167th Street and Kingsbridge Road. Because the line also connected with Yankee Stadium at 161st Street and with the former Polo Grounds at 155th Street, there were also several switches and a storage track to accommodate additional trains during game days.

The line begins as a two-track line at Norwood–205th Street, running east-to-west underneath East 205th Street, then under private property, then for a short portion under Van Cortlandt Avenue. As it travels west, a center track forms which leads to the Concourse Yard. The line then curves south at Mosholu Parkway to the Grand Concourse, from which it derives its name, at 206th Street. Two tracks from the Concourse Yard arrive between the two revenue tracks with switches and diamond crossovers between all four of them before the yard tracks merge to form the center track at Bedford Park Boulevard. The center track was intended to be used by southbound express trains in the morning and by northbound express trains in the afternoon.

South of this station, the two outer tracks depress into a lower level and merge into a single center express track, while the center track splits to become the local tracks. The line then runs south with diamond crossovers at Tremont Avenue. Due to the terrain, the vicinity of 174th–175th Street station is uniquely built both underground and over 175th Street. Between 170th Street and 167th Street are more switches and crossovers, with a lay-up track adjacent to the Manhattan-bound local track. The line curves west before 161st Street–Yankee Stadium and crosses the Harlem River into Manhattan via the Concourse Tunnel. There is one more stop, 155th Street, before the line curves south. The Concourse Line then joins the IND Eighth Avenue Line at the lower level of 145th Street.

History

Development

The IND Concourse Line, also referred to as the Bronx−Concourse Line, was one of the original lines of the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND). The line running from Bedford Park Boulevard to the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan was approved by the New York City Board of Transportation on March 10, 1925, with the connection between the two lines approved on March 24, 1927. The line was originally intended to be four tracks, rather than three tracks, to Bedford Park Boulevard. This is the only IND line with three tracks (all other IND lines have either two or four tracks). The Concourse line's lower level of the 145th Street station was originally provisioned for four tracks, with the current tracks lining up with those of the upper level.

Construction of the line began in July 1928. It was originally planned to end the line just past the Bedford Park Boulevard station, with a provision for an eastern extension. An alternate approach to the current 205th Street station was proposed in February 1929, extending the line across private property onto Perry Avenue. The current routing was selected by June 1929. The building of the line and proposed extensions to central and eastern Bronx (see below) led to real estate booms in the area. The line was supposed to be completed by January 1933, but this was delayed due to financial difficulties following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Test trains began running on June 18, 1933, when 700 IND employees started operating test trains on a regular schedule. The final cost was $40.5 million.

Operation

The entire Concourse Line opened on July 1, 1933, less than ten months after the IND's first line, the IND Eighth Avenue Line, opened for service. Initial service was provided by the C train, at that time an express train, between 205th Street, then via the Eighth Avenue Line, Cranberry Street Tunnel and the IND South Brooklyn Line (now Culver Line) to Bergen Street. The CC provided local service between Bedford Park Boulevard and Hudson Terminal (now World Trade Center). Trains initially ran every 4 minutes during rush hours, every 5 minutes during the daytime off-peak, and every 12 minutes at night. The timetable called for 92 express trains and 247 local trains a day. In addition to peak-direction express service (southbound in the morning and northbound in the afternoon), there was a "theater express" service, which ran southbound toward the Theater District for about half an hour during the evening.

On December 15, 1940, with the opening of the IND Sixth Avenue Line, the D train began serving the IND Concourse Line along with the C and CC. It made express stops in peak during rush hours and Saturdays and local stops at all other times. C express service was discontinued in 1949-51, but the C designation was reinstated in 1985 when the use of double letters to indicate local service was discontinued. During this time, the D made local stops along the Concourse Line at all times except rush hours, when the C ran local to Bedford Park Boulevard. On March 1, 1998, the B train replaced the C as the rush-hour local on the Concourse Line, with the C moving to the Washington Heights portion of the Eighth Avenue Line.

Kingsbridge Road was rehabilitated with new elevators in December 2014. The 2015–2019 MTA Capital Plan called for the Concourse Line's 167th Street and 174th–175th Streets stations, along w