A (New York City Subway service)

For other uses, see A Train.

Eighth Avenue Express
Note:dashed line shows rush hour only service
Northern end	Inwood – 207th Street
Southern end	Lefferts Boulevard, Far Rockaway, or Rockaway Park (limited rush hour service)
Stations	65

The A Eighth Avenue Express is a rapid transit service of the New York City Subway. Its route bullet is colored blue on route signs, station signs, and the official subway map since it runs on the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan.

The A service operates at all times. The usual service pattern is from 207th Street in Inwood, Manhattan to Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway, Queens (this is the longest one-seat ride in the system, at over 31 miles or 50 km) or Ozone Park – Lefferts Boulevard in Richmond Hill, Queens via Central Park West Express and Eighth Avenue Express in Manhattan, Fulton Street Express in Brooklyn and Rockaway Local in Queens.

Five rush hour trips (designated in the schedule) run from Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, Queens to Manhattan during the morning hours and five rush hour trips run to Beach 116th Street from Manhattan during the late afternoon hours. At all times, a shuttle train (S – Rockaway Park Shuttle) connects Rockaway Park to the mainline at Broad Channel.

During late nights, approximately 10:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. (Saturdays to 6 a.m., Sundays to 7 a.m.), the A service makes all stops along its entire route. After about 12:30 am, mainline A service runs between Manhattan and Far Rockaway and a separate A shuttle (Lefferts Boulevard Shuttle) runs between Euclid Avenue in City Line, Brooklyn and Lefferts Boulevard. This service is identified on the late night map as a grey A.

The A is the only service that has a transfer to each of the three shuttle services in the system (42nd Street in Manhattan, Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn (late nights), and Rockaway Park in Queens).

History

A train of R46 cars in A service enters 190th Street station.

The A and AA were the first services on the IND Eighth Avenue Line when it opened on September 10, 1932. The A ran express between 207th Street and Chambers Street (adjacent to Hudson Terminal), and the AA was a local between 168th Street and Hudson Terminal (today's World Trade Center station). During late nights and Sundays, the A did not run and the AA made all stops along the line.

The A was extended to Jay Street – Borough Hall on February 1, 1933, when the Cranberry Street Tunnel to Brooklyn opened; an extension to Bergen Street opened on March 20, and to Church Avenue on October 7.

On April 9, 1936, the IND Fulton Street Line was opened to Rockaway Avenue. The 1936 completion played an integral part in the establishment of Bedford-Stuyvesant as Brooklyn's central African American community. The A train connected Harlem, Manhattan's central African American community to areas of Bedford-Stuyvesant that provided residential opportunities for African Americans not found throughout the rest of New York City.

On December 30, 1946 and November 28, 1948, the line was extended to Broadway – East New York (now Broadway Junction) and Euclid Avenue, respectively.

On April 29, 1956, Grant Avenue was opened, and the line was extended over the BMT Fulton Street Line to Lefferts Boulevard. Two months later, on June 28, 1956, the former Long Island Rail Road Rockaway Line was rebuilt to subway specifications, and service began to Rockaway Park and Wavecrest (Beach 25th Street). At this time, rush hour express service on the Fulton Street Line with the E train began.

On January 16, 1958, a new terminal was created at Far Rockaway – Mott Avenue, and the through connection to the Long Island Rail Road's Far Rockaway station was severed. In 1963, the E train was extended to the Rockaways, and the A train ran local to Euclid Avenue or Lefferts Boulevard at all times. (HH shuttle service from Euclid Avenue provided all service to the Rockaways). On July 9, 1967, the A train was extended to Far Rockaway middays, evenings, and weekends, replacing the HH shuttle on that branch. Five years later, it would also be extended during rush hours. On January 2, 1973, the A train became the express service along Fulton Street and the E train became the local. Finally, in 1976, the C became the Fulton Street Local during rush hours.

In 1985, the Independent Subway System's practice of using double letters to indicate local service was discontinued. The AA service was renamed the K. In 1988, it was discontinued and replaced by the C.

Until 1990, the main service was to Lefferts Boulevard, while the Far Rockaway service did not run late nights; at this time, a transfer to a shuttle at Euclid Avenue was available. In 1990, this pattern was switched, with late-night A service running to Far Rockaway only. A shuttle now provides service from Euclid Avenue to Lefferts Boulevard during late nights. A few years later, special A service began running from Rockaway Park to Dyckman Street during the morning rush, and from 59th Street – Columbus Circle to Rockaway Park during the evening rush.

In 1999, the A became the express on the Fulton Street Line on evenings and weekends after C service was moved from World Trade Center to Euclid Avenue during that time.

On January 23, 2005, a fire at the Chambers Street signal room crippled A and C service. Initial assessments suggested that it would take several years to restore normal service, but the damaged equipment was replaced with available spare parts, and normal service resumed on April 21.

Cultural references

• Take the A Train is a jazz standard by Billy Strayhorn, referring to the A subway service that runs through New York City, going at that time from eastern Brooklyn up into Harlem and northern Manhattan, using the express tracks in Manhattan. It became the signature tune of Duke Ellington and often opened the shows of Ella Fitzgerald. Part of the significance of this is sociological: it connected the two largest Black neighborhoods in New York City, Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
• There is also a play by New York playwright Stephen Adly Guirges called Jesus Hopped the A Train.
• Cinderella & The "A" Train is a song by Joe Purdy. Purdy has several songs about (or with references to) New York City.
• "Walking Down Madison" by Kirsty MacColl mentions the 'A-Train'.

In the Broadway musical In the Heights, during the title song, Usnavi tells the audience to "take the A Train" (to the melody of Strayhorn's Take the A Train) "even farther than Harlem to Northern Manhattan and maintain. Get off at 181st and take the escalator. I hope you're writing this down, I'm gonna test ya later."

Route

Service pattern

The following table shows the lines used by the A service, with shaded boxes indicating the route at the specified times:

Line	From	To	Tracks	Times
				Lefferts Service		Rockaway Service
				all ex. nights	late nights	all ex. nights	late nights	rush peak
IND Eighth Avenue Line	Inwood – 207th Street	168th Street	all
	163rd Street – Amsterdam Avenue	Canal Street	express
			local
	Chambers Street	High Street – Brooklyn Bridge	all
IND Fulton Street Line	Jay Street – MetroTech	Shepherd Avenue	express
			local
	Euclid Avenue		all
	Grant Avenue	Rockaway Boulevard	local
	104th Street	Ozone Park – Lefferts Boulevard
IND Rockaway Line	Aqueduct Racetrack	Howard Beach – JFK Airport
	Broad Channel		all
	Beach 67th Street	Far Rockaway – Mott Avenue
	Beach 90th Street	Rockaway Park – Beach 116th Street

Stations

For a more detailed station listing, see the articles on the lines listed above.

Station service legend
	Stops all times
	Stops all times except late nights
	Stops late nights only
	Stops weekdays only
	Stops rush hours in the peak direction only
Time period details

	Stations		Subway transfers	Connections/Other Notes
Manhattan
	Inwood – 207th Street			Bx12 Select Bus Service
	Dyckman Street
	190th Street
	181st Street
	175th Street			George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal
	168th Street		C  1  (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line)
	163rd Street – Amsterdam Avenue
	155th Street
	145th Street		C  B  D  (IND Concourse Line)
	135th Street
	125th Street		B  C  D	M60 bus to LaGuardia Airport
	116th Street
	Cathedral Parkway – 110th Street
	103rd Street
	96th Street
	86th Street
	81st Street – Museum of Natural History
	72nd Street
	59th Street – Columbus Circle		B  C  D  1  2  (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line)
	50th Street		E	Station is ADA-accessible in the southbound direction only
	42nd Street – Port Authority Bus Terminal		C  E  1  2  3  (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line) 7  <7> (IRT Flushing Line) N  Q  R  (BMT Broadway Line) S  (42nd Street Shuttle) at Times Square – 42nd Street	Port Authority Bus Terminal M34A Select Bus Service
	34th Street – Penn Station		C  E	M34 / M34A Select Bus Service Amtrak, LIRR, NJ Transit at Pennsylvania Station
	23rd Street		E
	14th Street		C  E  L  (BMT Canarsie Line)
	West Fourth Street – Washington Square		C  E  B  D  F  M  (IND Sixth Avenue Line)	PATH at Ninth Street
	Spring Street		E
	Canal Street		C  E
	Chambers Street		C  E  (IND Eighth Avenue Line at World Trade Center) 2  3  (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line at Park Place)	PATH at World Trade Center
	Fulton Street		C  2  3  (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line) 4  5  (IRT Lexington Avenue Line) J  Z  (BMT Nassau Street Line)
Brooklyn
	High Street – Brooklyn Bridge		C
	Jay Street – MetroTech		C  F  (IND Culver Line) N  R  (BMT Fourth Avenue Line)
	Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets		C  G  (IND Crosstown Line)
	Lafayette Avenue
	Clinton–Washington Avenues
	Franklin Avenue		S  (BMT Franklin Avenue Line)
	Nostrand Avenue		C	LIRR Atlantic Branch at Nostrand Avenue
	Kingston–Throop Avenues			B15 bus to JFK Airport
	Utica Avenue		C
	Ralph Avenue
	Rockaway Avenue
	Broadway Junction		C  J  Z  (BMT Jamaica Line) L  (BMT Canarsie Line)
	Liberty Avenue
	Van Siclen Avenue
	Shepherd Avenue
	Euclid Avenue		C
	Grant Avenue
Queens
	80th Street
	88th Street
	Rockaway Boulevard
Services to Lefferts Boulevard and The Rockaways split
Service to Lefferts Boulevard
	104th Street
	111th Street
	Ozone Park – Lefferts Boulevard			Q10 bus to JFK Airport
Rockaway Line services
	Aqueduct Racetrack			Station serves northbound trains only, and is open between 11:00 AM–7:00 PM on racing days at Aqueduct Racetrack.
	Aqueduct – North Conduit Avenue
	Howard Beach – JFK Airport			AirTrain JFK
	Broad Channel		S  (Rockaway Park Shuttle)
Services to Far Rockaway and Rockaway Park split
Service to Far Rockaway
	Beach 67th Street
	Beach 60th Street
	Beach 44th Street
	Beach 36th Street
	Beach 25th Street
	Far Rockaway – Mott Avenue			LIRR Far Rockaway Branch at Far Rockaway
Service to Rockaway Park
	Beach 90th Street		S  (Rockaway Park Shuttle)
	Beach 98th Street		S  (Rockaway Park Shuttle)
	Beach 105th Street		S  (Rockaway Park Shuttle)
	Rockaway Park – Beach 116th Street		S  (Rockaway Park Shuttle)

External links

• MTA NYC Transit – A Eighth Avenue Express
• MTA NYC Transit – A train timetablePDF – Effective December 4, 2011