IRT Dyre Avenue Line

The Dyre Avenue Line is a rapid transit line of the New York City Subway, as part of the IRT division. The line serves part of the northern Bronx, splitting from the IRT White Plains Road Line at East 180th Street.

Extent and service

The Dyre Avenue Line is served by one service, the 5, which makes all stops.

For revenue purposes, the line is double-tracked. Two center "express" tracks exist in two places – between Eastchester-Dyre Avenue and Baychester Avenue, and from Pelham Parkway to just north of the south end. In the late 1990's the "downtown express" track was extended from south of Dyre Avenue to the stub end track at Pelham Bay Park for the purpose of testing new subway cars for the A division. At Dyre Avenue the former "uptown express" track is only useful for storage, as it connects nowhere on its south end; The "uptown express" stub end track at Pelham Parkway (which is the only station with two island platforms, between the local and express tracks, rather than the two side platforms elsewhere on the line), was used at one time for storage but this was discontinued when the yard just north of East 180th Street was expanded.

The north end of the line is a simple two-track stub, with crossover tracks south of the Dyre Avenue terminal station. The south end is a flying junction into the local tracks of the IRT White Plains Road Line (with crossovers to the express track).

History

The Dyre Avenue Line was originally part of the four-track main line of the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway, an interurban railway that connected White Plains and Port Chester to a station at the Harlem River adjacent to the IRT Third Avenue Line. The NYW&B opened on May 29, 1912. Soon a transfer station opened at East 180th Street, with transfers to the IRT White Plains Road Line and various surface lines. Express trains stopped only at Pelham Parkway and East 180th Street, within the Bronx.[1] The NYW&B was abandoned on December 31, 1937 due to bankruptcy.

Plans were made for a parallel subway line even before the NYW&B's abandonment; the 1929 IND Second System plan includes a line along Morris Park Avenue, Wilson Avenue and Boston Road to Baychester Avenue, being fed by the IND Second Avenue Line. In 1939, after abandonment, the plan was to integrate the former NYW&B to Dyre Avenue into the IRT system (as it has been), but to branch it off the IRT Pelham Line as the Westchester and Boston Line.

The New York City Board of Transportation bought the NYW&B within the Bronx north of East 180th Street, and opened it for service on May 15, 1941 as a shuttle, with a transfer to the IRT White Plains Road Line at East 180th Street. Plans for restoring the old line north into Westchester County failed.

A direct track connection was opened on May 6, 1957, and the old NYW&B station was closed. At first, direct service used the express tracks of the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line, running during the day; the shuttle continued to run evenings, and the line did not run at nights. Between 1964 and 1966, Dyre Avenue service was moved to the IRT Lexington Avenue Line in its current form. The line is still operated as a shuttle late nights; for more information on current and past services on the line see 2, 5 and 9.

Station listing

External links

• NYCsubway.org – IRT Dyre Avenue Line
• NYCsubway.org – New York, Westchester & Boston Railway

References

• Westchester Line Passes with 1937, New York Times January 1, 1938 page 36
• Rail Line is Added to Subway System, New York Times May 16, 1941 page 25
• Subway Trains Run to Dyre Ave., New York Times May 7, 1957 page 37