Astoria-Broadway-Sea Beach Express
The N train is a major, operating at all times, New York City Subway train. N trains run between Astoria-Ditmars Blvd Queens to Coney Island via the Broadway, 4 Avenue, and Sea Beach Lines. N trains during weekdays (when it’s local variant the W train is operating) operates express on the Broadway Line (stopping at 49 Street), via the Manhattan Bridge, express along 4 Avenue, and then along the Sea Beach Line. During weekends when the W isn’t operating trains run local along Broadway to Canal Street before continuing over the Manhattan Bridge and via the 4 Avenue express tracks. Late Night N train service is fully local along Broadway and 4 Avenue, with service operating via the Montague Street tunnel, this is the only time N trains stop at DeKalb Avenue as well. This requires late night N train service at Canal Street to stop at the platform normally used by R trains, while daytime N trains stops at the Q train platform.
There is a special variant of the N train that runs during rush hours, (as of Summer 2022) with two round-trips during the AM peak, and 4 round-trips during the PM peak, between 96 Street-Second Avenue and Coney Island. These trips are signed as Q trains northbound and N trains southbound to make the trains terminuses clearer to waiting passengers. This means you can catch a Manhattan-bound only Q train along the Sea Beach Line, and a Coney Island-bound N train along the Second Avenue Subway. These unique routings are from former trips that ended at 57 Street-7 Avenue, skipping 49 Street, before the Second Avenue Subway opened in 2016, making 57 Street-7 Avenue a no longer functional terminus.
The N train was the letter assigned to the Sea Beach Line trains in 1961 when the formerly numbered BMT lines were transitioned to letters, replacing the Number 4 Sea Beach Express. This route opened starting with the Sea Beach Line replacing a former surface railway in 1915, reaching Times Square by 1918. Historically the line ran from 57 Street-7 Avenue, via the Broadway Express tracks, Manhattan Bridge, 4 Avenue Express tracks and onto Coney Island via the Sea Beach Line local tracks.
N trains were first extended to Queens in 1976, but to Forest Hills-71 Avenue, combining the N train with the former EE route, with special rush hour diamond N trains running from Whitehall Street to Forest Hills via the Broadway Local while regular N train service continued to run express on the Broadway Line and via the Manhattan Bridge. In 1987 the N and R trains switched terminals in Queens. This was done to smooth operations since the N train at the time had two train yards on its route, Jamaica and Coney Island, while the R train had none. This meant all R trains had to be deadheaded via the Sea Beach Line to and from the Coney Island Yard. This Queens terminus switch gave the R train access to the Jamaica Yard, while N trains still have access to the Coney Island Yard which houses N trains to this day.
The reconstruction of the Manhattan Bridge from 1986 through 2004 resulted in the re-routing of N trains via the Broadway Local tracks and Montague Street tunnel via lower Manhattan at all time. The only Express service that operated on the line was along 4 Avenue in Brooklyn, during weekdays only. The N train didn’t operate at all after the September 11 attacks until October 28, 2001 after tunnel damage in lower Manhattan with W trains replacing service in Manhattan and Queens with M trains replacing N trains in Brooklyn as an all times route extended to Coney Island () via the Sea Beach Line.
From 2002 until 2004 the reconstruction of the Coney Island terminal, which resulted in W trains being the only service to Coney Island, pushed N trains back to a Pacific Street-Atlantic Avenue to 86 Street shuttle (via the Express tracks) during weekends and late nights, with W trains replacing N train service in Manhattan and Queens.
The current N train routing was restored in 2004, with W trains following their current routing as Broadway to Astoria Locals. although from 2010 through 2016 the W train was discontinued do to budget cuts, resulting in N trains running via the Broadway Local tracks at all times (still via the Manhattan Bridge and 4 Avenue Express except late nights), and Q trains extended to Astoria-Ditmars Blvd.
For rolling stock, N trains currently use a mixture of R46s and R68s (shared with the W train), although this is a relatively recent development caused by the introduction of CBTC on the Queens Blvd line. Previously to 2021 N trains used primarily R160 New Technology Trains with R68s (and assorted R40/R42 trains) operating on the line before those new trains were introduced starting in 2006.
