Serves: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and through mta staten Island Railway (sir) Staten Island. Ridership

12/28/1990	Electrical fire in tunnel near Clark Street, Brooklyn kills two and injures 188.
07/26/1990	36 people are injured when a B train rear-ends an M train in Borough Park, Brooklyn.
06/18/1989	An “A” train derailed on a crossover north of 59 Street-Columbus Circle. R-44 215, the seventh car in the train hit the retaining wall and was badly damaged. R-44 281 received some light damage. The consist was (s) 374-375-333-208-284-281-215-176 (n).
06/04/1987	Train overshoots end of track at 179th St., Queens, and hits end of tunnel. No passenger injuries.
07/03/1981	A subway motorman was killed and more than 135 passengers were injured when an IRT train crashed into the rear of a train stopped in a Brooklyn tunnel.
11/24/1979	Rear-ending accident at Morris Park, Dyre Avenue line.
05/18/1978	R-33’s 9014-9015 were slightly damaged in a derailment within 207th St. Yard.
05/22/1975	Collision on the center track of the Astoria Line near 30th Avenue (Grand Avenue) Station. R-30s 8507 and 8545 were badly damaged. The car bodies were reportedly transported by truck to the Corona Yard. (They must have been removed from the el by crane.) The damaged end of 8507 was cut off and transported to the Coney Island Yard. R-30 8507 was later scrapped but 8545 returned to service around June of 1977. The mate of 8507, #8506, ended up part of the Transit Museum collection.
10/25/1973	Fire in master controller unit of car 9203, in Pelham line tunnel near Longwood Avenue station. Fire also affected car 9224 which had a large floor section cut out during firefighting (it was subsequently scrapped). The following train ended up rear-ending the disabled train due to low visibility caused by the smoky fire.
10/04/1973	Southbound #4 train derails near Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, around 10:00 pm. All four tracks closed due to subsequent fire. Service restored around midnight. Consist: s-8756-7,6620,6677,7615,6632,7600,7128,6226,5998-n.
09/12/1973	A southbound #3 train derailed south of Borough Hall, Brooklyn, at 4:45 pm. Consist: s-7319,5966,5967,5975,7305,5748,5718,8610-1-n.
08/28/1973	A 20 foot long chunk of a concrete ceiling duct in the Steinway Tunnel near 1st Avenue hit the first car (R36 9759) of a Queens bound 7 train at about 4:50 PM. One person in the first car was killed, 18 injured.
08/23/1973	A northbound #2 train derailed in the Clark Street tunnel heading toward Manhattan at 12:08pm. Full service was not restored til the next day. Consist: n-8793-2,5823,5859,7693,7081,8735-4,8711-0-s.
08/11/1973	"State of the Art" SOAC cars derail during testing at US DOT test track in Pueblo, Colorado. Train rams standing freight cars alongside test track; the operator is killed. The cars seriously damaged but rebuilt and arrive in New York City for testing on April 18, 1974.
08/06/1973	Southbound #4 train derails at Rogers Junction, Brooklyn at 6:15am. Service resumed by 10:00 am. Consist: s-8910-1,8718-9,7133,8956-7,8789-8,7633-n.
05/18/1973	A northbound #5 Lexington Av Express derailed south of Grand Central-42 Street Station about 10PM. The first eight cars of the ten car train derailed. The consist was (n) 6239,7912,7771,7093,6633,7733,5822,6598,7071,7260 (s). Car 6239 sideswiped the wall and car 7771 hit the northbound local rail. #6239 is now part of the Transit Museum collection; #7771 is now a school car at Rockaway Parkway (Canarsie) Yard.
01/06/1971	Accident at 59 Street/Colombus Circle involving R-10 #3283 hitting R-42 #4798 on NB crossover.
08/01/1970	Tunnel fire near Bowling Green kills 1, injures 50. The one death occured when a woman, who returned to the train to retreive her purse, died of smoke inhalation.
07/17/1970	An Manhattan bound E train keyed by a red signal north of the Hoyt-Schmerhorn Street and rammed a halted A train, injuring 37. The E train consisted of 10 R-6’s, (n) 986-1161-1183-1318-1055-1141-944-958-905-1136 (s). The A train consisted of 10 R-10’s, (n) 3065-3173-3076-3309-3234-3327-3089-3080-3338-3133-3062 (s). Cars 986 and 3062 were damaged.
05/20/1970	An empty Brooklyn bound GG train running on the southbound local track (D1) crashed into another GG train west of Roosevelt Avenue that was crossing from the southbound express track (D3) to the southbound local track (D1). The empty GG had left Continental Avenue at 7:13 AM and developed brake trouble. Passengers were discharged at Woodhaven Boulevard and the first two cars were cut out. The motorman then operated the train from the third car with the conductor signaling with a flashlight from the front of the train. Because of the stalled train southbound EE and GG trains were routed to the express track (D3) and then crossed back over to the local track (D1) west of Roosevelt Avenue. The home signal tripper on the local track (D1) was working but as the empty train was running with the first two cars cut out it did not engage the trip cock in time. The empty train rammed into the train crossing over to the local track between the 6th and 7th cars. Two passengers were killed and 77 injured. The motorman, conductor, and an inspector were held responsible by an inquiry. The consist of the empty train was (s) 4501-0, 4043-2, 3992-3, 4548-9 (n). Note that this was a mixed consist of R-38, R-40M and R-42. R-40M 4501 was badly damaged. The rerouted GG train had cars (s) 6344-6492-6318-6469-6304-6468-6315-6355 (n). 6304 was so badly damaged that she was cut up on the spot. 6468 was moderately damaged. The other six R-16s were back in service in a week.
02/27/1970	An IRT train hit a bumper at the Pelham Bay Park station (Bronx), injuring 7. An inquiry found that the train apparently came into the station too fast.
12/29/1969	A southbound IRT train derails near east 180th St. in the Bronx, injuring 48. An inquiry found that the motorman misread a signal and failed to slow his train. Car 5815 cut up and scrapped on spot.
04/21/1964	Suspicious fire at the Grand Central shuttle platform destroys several train cars including the "SAM" test train 7509, 7513, 7516. Shuttle & SAM
06/19/1955	Two Sea Beach express trains collided at Stillwell Ave. in the only known accident involving Triplexes. Units 6043C and 6078 A and B suffered extensive damage and were scrapped. 6078C was grafted onto 6043B and renumbered 6043C. The number of injuries and/or fatalities is unknown.
08/27/1938	IRT collision at 116th Street kills 2, injures 51.
08/24/1928	Derailment in Times Square kills 16, injures 100.
08/06/1927	Two bombs explode, one in the 28th St IRT (Lex Line) station and the 28th St (B'way) BMT station. "[The bombs] injured many persons, one of them it was believed, fatally." (NYT 8/6/1927).
11/01/1918	A dispatcher, filling in for striking motormen, loses control while entering the tunnel at Malbone Street (Empire Boulevard) and 97 are killed, with 200 injured. (The worst accident in subway history.) The Malbone Street Wreck.

The Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) subway opened in 1904. The city contracted construction of the line to the IRT Company, ownership was always held by the city. The IRT built, equipped, and operated the line under a lease from the city. Its route followed today's 4-5-6 line from City Hall to Grand Central, then turned west and followed today's shuttle line, and then north at Times (Longacre) Square following the 1-2-3 lines to 145 Street and Broadway. Service to the Bronx was established in 1905 (actually the Bronx portion opened in 1904 from 149 St 3rd Avenue to Bronx Pk as a branch of the 3rd Avenue El, while the Harlem River Tunnel was being completed). The line was quickly extended to Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, in 1908. The IRT also leased the Manhattan Railway elevated lines - the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 9th Avenue Elevated lines in Manhattan and the Bronx for 999 years!

The Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT, formerly the Brooklyn Rapid Transit, BRT) was the rapid transit company which built, bought, or assumed control of the Brooklyn elevated lines (the Culver, West End, Lexington, Myrtle, Broadway, Fulton St and Fifth Ave Els, of which the Culver, West End, Broadway and part of the Myrtle still exist, and the ground-level extensions to southern Brooklyn, of which the Sea Beach and Brighton Beach were rebuilt for subway service. A portion of the Fulton Street El also remains as it was rebuilt as an extension of IND A train service to the Rockaways in the 1950s.

Beginning in 1913, the city embarked on a project called the Dual Contracts, under which the city built additional lines that were operated as part of the IRT and BMT systems. Finished mostly by 1920, some of the new lines (the Flushing and the Astoria lines in Queens) had trains operated by both companies. The Dual Contracts IRT lines were the Seventh Ave (south from Times Square) and Lexington Ave (north from Grand Central) lines, the Jerome, White Plains Road and Pelham Bay Park branches in the Bronx, and the Brooklyn lines beyond Atlantic Ave. The BMT lines were the Broadway Subway and Nassau Street Subway in Manhattan, the 14th St-Eastern District line from Manhattan to Brooklyn, and Fourth Ave, West End, and Culver lines in Brooklyn. Connections were also made to the company's Sea Beach and Brighton Beach lines.

The Independent Subway (IND) was formed by the City in the 1920s as an "independent" system that was not connected to the IRT or BMT lines. When no private operator could be found, the City's Board of Transportation began operation itself. This system consisted of entirely subway construction with only one elevated portion, a short section over the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The IND lines were the 8th Avenue and 6th Avenue trunk lines in Manhattan, the Queens Boulevard subway in Queens, the Concourse subway in the Bronx, the Fulton Street subway in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn/Queens Crosstown, and the line in Brooklyn via Smith/9th Sts. to Church Avenue. Certain IND lines underpinned existing IRT and BMT elevated lines (6th Av and Fulton St).

The trains of the BMT and IND lines are longer and wider than those of the IRT lines. Therefore an BMT/IND style train cannot fit into an IRT tunnel (the numbered lines and the 42nd Street Shuttle). An IRT train CAN fit into a BMT/IND tunnel but since it is narrower the distance from car to platform is unsafe. Cars from the IRT division are moved using BMT/IND tracks to Coney Island Overhaul Shops for major maintenance on a regular basis.

After city takeover of the bankrupt BMT and IRT companies on June 1, 1940, many of the elevated lines were closed, and a slow "unification" took place, marked notably by establishment of several free transfer points between divisions in 1948 and a few points of through running between IND and BMT lines beginning in 1954 (the connection of the BMT Culver line to the IND at Ditmas Avenue, and the BMT Broadway 60th Street tunnel to the IND Queens Boulevard line). In 1956, the IND connected with the ex-BMT Fulton St El for access to the Rockaways. The Chrystie Street connection in Manhattan, which opened in November, 1967, unified the Manhattan Bridge lines of the BMT with the Sixth Avenue lines of the IND, such that trains from Brooklyn now had access to all of the BMT and IND trunk lines in Manhattan (6th, 8th, Broadway, and Nassau St.). The 63rd Street Tunnel connection will form another link between the Broadway BMT Subway and Sixth Avenue IND Subway and the Queens Boulevard IND Subway (work to be completed by 2001).

Officially, the names IRT, BMT, and IND are no longer used, and the old systems are now designated as the "A Division" (ex-IRT lines), "B-1 Division" (BMT lines), and "B-2 Division" (IND lines), following the Chrystie St Connection opening in 1967. The distinction between the B divisions is blurred because of the unification projects noted above. There is one exception: the IND lacks a number of the sharp curves that one would find on the BMT (such as Crescent St - J, Graham Av - L).