The Q Second Avenue/Broadway Express/Brighton Local[3] is a rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is colored yellow since it is a part of the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan.
The Q operates at all times between 96th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn, via Second Avenue and Broadway in Manhattan, the south side of the Manhattan Bridge, and the BMT Brighton Line in Brooklyn. Daytime service in Manhattan runs express between 57th Street–Seventh Avenue and Canal Street; overnight service makes all stops in between these two stations.[3]
The Q was originally the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT)'s 1 service; beginning in 1920, it ran along the Brighton Line in Brooklyn and Broadway Line in Manhattan. In the past, the Q has run many different service patterns in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, both local and express, including QB service on the Manhattan Bridge and QT service via the Montague Street Tunnel. From 1988 to 2001, Q service ran along the IND Sixth Avenue Line in Manhattan, with a bullet colored orange. The Q also ran in Queens at various points, including along the BMT Astoria Line to Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard on weekdays from 2010 to 2016, along the IND Queens Boulevard Line to Forest Hills–71st Avenue during temporary post-9/11 service reroutes, and along the IND 63rd Street Line to 21st Street–Queensbridge until 2001. There was also a <Q> variant from 2001 to 2004, which ran express on the Brighton Line and terminated at Brighton Beach due to construction on the north side of the Manhattan Bridge. On January 1, 2017, the Q was rerouted along the Second Avenue Subway.