IND 63rd Street Line - Extent and Service

Extent and Service

The IND 63rd Street Line and BMT 63rd Street Line share only one point of contact, west of Lexington Avenue, where diamond crossovers allow northbound and southbound trains of either line to crossover to the other line. At Lexington Avenue, a double-decked station will allow cross-platform interchange between the two lines when future service is up and running on the long planned Second Avenue Subway line, which will use the BMT 63rd Street Line as a connection for service downtown along the BMT Broadway Line. This double-decked arrangement is reversed from the arrangement at Queensboro Plaza. Trains to Queens (and later Upper Manhattan) use the lower level and trains to downtown Manhattan the upper level. Currently the BMT tracks are behind a wall on the platforms on each level, which will be removed when the tracks are put into active service.

The 63rd Street Line uses the 63rd Street Tunnel to cross the East River. The 63rd Street Tunnel is a two-level tunnel under the East River, which hosts the 63rd Street Line on its upper level. The lower level, currently without service, is reserved for the Long Island Rail Road's new East Side Access service to Grand Central Terminal, which is expected to commence operations in 2018.