Jerome Av Local·Lexington Av-Eastern Pkwy Express
The 6 train is the IRT Lexington Avenue local line; and operates a slightly complicated service pattern in the Bronx, after trains (combined with its 6 “Express Stops in the Bronx” variant) provide local service on one of the subway’s busiest lines in Manhattan. Service patterns are a bit complicated:
Trains reverse at Brooklyn Bridge using the historic City Hall loop, which unlike all other locations on the subway where trains reverse beyond a station and need to be fumigated and removed of all passengers is considered revenue track and a fun subway thing to do is stay on a 6 train after it leaves Brooklyn Bridge and ride around the City Hall Loop to see the abandoned station (that I’ve been to 4 times on various tours and at the Subway Centennial). Normally when subway trains terminate and continue beyond the station to reverse direction trains must be fumigated meaning they are checked for any straggling passengers who are kicked off. Terminating 6 local trains at Parkchester are an example of this. They discharge their passengers on the local track, switch to the express track north of the station to change direction, at the same crossover where Express 6 trains switch onto the local track to continue north to Pelham Bay Park.
Historically the southern half of the line in Manhattan south of Grand Central was part of the opening day Subway Line on October 27, 1904. The northern half of the line was part of the dual-contracts with service to 3 Aveune-138 Street arriving on August 1, 1918 and the subway portion of the line opening to Hunts Point Avenue on January 7, 1919. Service on the elevated portion of the line opened in phases, reaching Pelham Bay Park in 1920. The line (along with the 1 train) never received track connections to any of the now abandoned and demolished Manhattan elevated lines, although due to power issues originally wooden elevated cars were used to provide shuttle service between Hunts Point Avenue and Pelham Bay Park with regular subway service slowly phased in throughout the 1920s.
The Lexington Avenue local and Pelham Line have received few robust service along the Pelham Line has always connected to the Lexington Avenue local tracks, there has never been regularly scheduled Pelham Line trains that have operated express in Manhattan. At various times overnight service has operated Shuttle-like (it still had 19 stops) during late nights between Pelham Bay Park and 125 Street only, with passengers needing to climb stairs in one direction to continue south on 4 trains that operated local overnight, this was last done between 1980 and October 3, 1999 (with a short reprieve and extension back to Brooklyn Bridge in 1990).
Service has never extended into Brooklyn, although trains operated in regularly scheduled service as far south as to South Ferry (to replace the shuttle trains from Bowling Green) during overnight hours between the closure of the City Hall Station in 1946 and the discontinuation of service between Bowling Green and South Ferry in 1977.
For Rolling Stock 6 trains currently operate exclusively using R62As. These subway cars, built in the 1980s have come full circle back to the 6 train. Originally in the 1990s 6 trains were mostly R62As with some older Redbirds also supplementing service. The 6 train was the launch subway route for the R142A New Technology Trains, and by 2002 these had replaced the Redbirds and R62A that operated the 6 train throughout the 1990s. The R62As were migrated over to the 7 train to replace its Redbirds. From 2012 through 2016 the R142A trains on the 6 train were pulled from service and rebuilt into R188 trains (including the addition of a brand-new subway car, which has different lighting than the rest of the trainset) to allow the 7 train to be converted to operate with CBTC signaling. The 6 train than received the 7 trains R62A subway cars, with the remaining R142A subway cars that weren’t converted to R188-CBTC compatible cars now operating exclusively on the 4 train.
