W Train Graces Us With Its Presence After 6-Year Break

NEW YORK CITY, NY — The W train was back with a vengeance Monday, offering alternate service for the N, Q, and R lines, and ostensibly acting as a replacement for the Q train in Queens for when the Second Avenue Subway is supposed to open in December.

Starting Monday, the W train runs from Astoria, where it will make local stops, to Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan. It will stop along the same seven stops in Queens — Queensboro Plaza, 39th Avenue, 36th Avenue, Broadway, 30 Avenue, Astoria Boulevard, Ditmars Boulevard — the Q train currently makes. It will make all local stops in Manhattan, similar to the R train, but will terminate at Whitehall Street.

Meanwhile, the Q trains now terminate in Manhattan at 57th Street/7th Avenue until the Second Avenue Subway makes its debut. Once the Second Avenue Subway is open, the Q will go from 96th Street in Manhattan to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn. The Q will make express stops along the Broadway line in Manhattan.

The N line service is the same in Brooklyn and Queens, but during weekday peak hours, midday, and evenings, the N runs express between Times Square/42nd Street and Canal Street. N trains always stop at 49th Street.

The overnight R shuttle that operates in Brooklyn from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. will be extended to Lower Manhattan's Whitehall Street, and will make all local stops between Whitehall and Bay Ridge-95 Street in Brooklyn, seven days a week.

The MTA nixed the W train in 2010 in a round of budget cuts, but it's kind of exciting to see our old friend back in action.

Photo credit: Mark Osborne/Patch