Archer Avenue lines

Planning

What is now the Archer Avenue subway was originally conceived as an extension of the IND Queens Boulevard Line under the IND Second System in the 1920s and 1930s. The original plans had a line diverging south of Van Wyck Boulevard station (now called Briarwood), running down what is now the Van Wyck Expressway to Rockaway Boulevard near modern John F. Kennedy International Airport. A bellmouth with two additional trackways was built into the station to facilitate this extension, which was never constructed due to lack of funding.^[6]

The current Archer Avenue plans emerged in the 1960s under the city and MTA's Program for Action. It was conceived as an expansion of Queens Boulevard service to a "Southeast Queens" line along the right-of-way of the Long Island Rail Road Atlantic Branch towards Locust Manor, and as a replacement for the dilapidated eastern portions of the Jamaica Avenue elevated within the Jamaica business district which business owners and residents sought removal of; both would meet at the double-decked line under Archer Avenue. The two-track spur from the Queens Boulevard Line would use the original Van Wyck Boulevard bellmouths.^{[4][6][7][11][12][13]} The lines and the Jamaica El removal were part of urban renewal efforts in the Downtown Jamaica area. This included the construction of the York College campus, which was planned to be built in conjunction with the LIRR Atlantic Branch connection.^[7][13][14]

The original plan for the upper level (now the E train) was for it to continue as a two-track line along the LIRR Atlantic Branch. It would have run through Locust Manor and Laurelton stations, with stops at Sutphin Boulevard, Parsons Boulevard (which was called Standard Place in planning documents), Linden Boulevard, Baisley Boulevard, and Springfield Boulevard.^[15] The line would have served a large-scale housing development at Rochdale Village; such a line would have required conversion involving modifying existing platforms at Locust Manor and Laurelton to accommodate the IND loading gauge, as well as constructing new stations to serve Southeast Queens. It would have also run parallel to the eastern Montauk Branch, which already provided parallel service through St. Albans to Jamaica. The lower level (now the J and ​Z trains) would have been extended eastward toward 190th Street–Hollis Avenue (near the Hollis LIRR station). Due to a lack of funding as well as some political opposition, these plans were never implemented.^[4][6][11]

Construction and opening

Construction on the Archer Avenue subway began on October 23, 1973 at 159th Street and Beaver Road, just south of Archer Avenue, paving the way for the southeast Queens subway line and the demolition of the Jamaica Avenue Elevated from 129th Street to the 168th Street terminal. It was then expected that the subway would be complete by 1980 or 1981;^[4] the Jamaica elevated between Queens Boulevard and 168th Street was closed in September 1977.^[12] The first tunnel between the Jamaica Avenue Elevated and the Archer Avenue subway was holed through in October 1977. The second tunnel connection holing through of the Archer Avenue subway tunnels occurred in December 1977. In October 1979, groundbreaking for a 1,300 feet (396 m) cut-and-cover section of the Archer Avenue line occurred, which would connect the line with the IND Queens Boulevard Line. This section also included the Jamaica–Van Wyck station. Most of the project was constructed via cut-and-cover methods, with portions of the lines excavated with tunneling shield methods.^[7]

In October 1980, the MTA considered stopping work on the line, due to its budget crisis and the bad state of the existing subway system. Originally set to be opened in 1980, the line kept getting delayed, and by the late 1970s, the opening was delayed to 1983, then to 1985 or 1986.^[16] In 1981, due to lack of money, all bidding on new subway and bus projects for the MTA was suspended, except for the already-built portions of the 63rd Street and Archer Avenue lines, which were allowed to continue.^[17] Progress of the Archer Avenue Line temporarily stopped in March 1982, when on March 5, part of the tunnel caved in around the vicinity of Archer Avenue and 138th Street, where one construction worker was killed, and three others narrowly escaped injury.^[18]

Despite the delays, disagreements over the condition of the line and the speed of construction, and the federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration's reluctance to provide funding to complete the line due to concerns over the quality of concrete and the leakage of water into the tunnels, construction was completed a year ahead of schedule, in 1983.^[19] Due to the New York City fiscal crisis in 1975, the subway line was truncated to Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer.^[2] The line opened on December 11, 1988, at a cost of nearly five times its original budgeted cost and severely cut back to a length of 2 miles (3 km). It consisted of the first stations added to the subway system since the 57th Street station opened in 1968, and the first stations in Queens since the IND Rockaway Line in 1956.^[2][20][21]

In the original service plan, the G and N local trains were to serve the Archer Avenue upper level,^[22][23] while the E and F express trains would have remained on the Queens Boulevard mainline towards 179th Street. (The N ran on the IND Queens Boulevard Line until 1987, when the N and R swapped northern terminals in Queens.^[24]) The N train was to run between Jamaica Center and Coney Island during weekdays while G trains were to terminate at 71st Avenue. During weekends the train was to run between Jamaica Center and Smith–Ninth Streets, while N trains would terminate at 57th Street–Seventh Avenue or 71st Avenue. During late nights there was supposed to be a G train shuttle between Jamaica Center and Van Wyck Boulevard.^[25] When the Archer Avenue Line opened in 1988, a simpler service plan was put into effect. The E was extended to Jamaica Center and the F ran to 179th Street, and all Queens Boulevard local service terminated at 71st Avenue.^[2]