BMT Jamaica Line

BMT Jamaica Line
The J and Z trains serve the entire BMT Jamaica Line. The M serves the line west of Myrtle Avenue.
Overview
Owner	City of New York
Termini	Marcy Avenue 121st Street
Stations	22
Service
Type	Rapid transit
System	New York City Subway
Operator(s)	New York City Transit Authority
Daily ridership	66,532 (2023)[1]
History
Opened	1885-1918
Technical
Number of tracks	2-3
Character	Elevated
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Electrification	600V DC third rail
Route map Legend 168th Street 160th Street Sutphin Boulevard Queens Boulevard Metropolitan Avenue Archer Avenue Line 121st Street 111th Street 104th Street Woodhaven Boulevard 85th Street–Forest Parkway 75th Street–Elderts Lane Queens Brooklyn Cypress Hills Crescent Street Norwood Avenue Cleveland Street Van Siclen Avenue Alabama Avenue Fulton Street Line to Lefferts Boulevard East New York Yard Canarsie Line Broadway Junction (Bay Ridge Branch) Fulton Street Line to Jay Street–MetroTech Chauncey Street Halsey Street Gates Avenue former BMT Lexington Avenue Line Kosciuszko Street Myrtle Avenue Line Myrtle Avenue (upper level abandoned) former Myrtle Avenue Line Park Avenue Flushing Avenue Lorimer Street Crosstown Line Hewes Street Marcy Avenue Driggs Avenue Broadway Ferry Williamsburg Bridge (East River) Brooklyn Manhattan Nassau Street Line Legend Closed station This diagram: view talk edit

The BMT Jamaica Line, also known as the Broadway - Brooklyn Line, is an elevated rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Brooklyn and Queens. It runs from the Williamsburg Bridge southeast over Broadway to East New York, Brooklyn, and then east over Fulton Street and Jamaica Avenue to Jamaica, Queens. In western Jamaica, the line goes into a tunnel, becoming the lower level of the Archer Avenue lines in central Jamaica. The J and Z trains serve the entire length of the Jamaica Line, and the M serves the line west of Myrtle Avenue.

The longest elevated line in the system, the Jamaica Line includes the oldest existing elevated structure in the system – the original 1885 line of the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad, the former BMT Lexington Avenue Line between Gates Avenue and Van Siclen Avenue – as well as the newest elevated structure, the 1988 ramp into the Archer Avenue subway.

The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) originally operated the line with "westbound" trains heading toward Manhattan and "eastbound" trains heading toward Canarsie, Middle Village, or Jamaica, generally in agreement with compass direction. However, NYCT's railroad directions, which are north and south, replaced the BMT's west and east railroad directions, respectively. This reclassification resulted in services which ran through the BMT Nassau Street Line to Downtown Brooklyn having two south ends. To eliminate any confusion, the directions of train services in the eastern division were switched, with trains running towards Jamaica being considered Northbound.^[2][3] The KK (later K) and current M services were an exception to this, with Jamaica, Broadway Junction, or Metropolitan Avenue remaining the south terminal, since they used the Chrystie Street Connection from the Jamaica Line to the IND Sixth Avenue Line.