Contracts 1 and 2 Operation of the
first subway began on October 27, 1904, with the opening of all stations from
City Hall to
145th Street on the West Side Branch. Service was extended to 157th Street on November 12, 1904, as that station's opening had been delayed because of painting and plastering work. The West Side Branch was extended northward to a temporary terminus at
221st Street and Broadway on March 12, 1906, served by shuttle trains operating between 157th Street and 221st Street. However, only the
Dyckman Street,
215th Street, and 221st Street stations opened on that date as the other stations were not yet completed. The
168th Street station opened on April 14, 1906. The station at
207th Street was completed in 1906, but since it was located in a sparsely occupied area, it did not open until April 1, 1907. The original system as included in Contract 1 was completed on January 14, 1907, when trains started running across the
Harlem Ship Canal on the
Broadway Bridge to
225th Street, and the nearby 221st Street station was closed. An extension of Contract 1 north to
242nd Street at
Van Cortlandt Park was approved in 1906 (The original plan had been to turn east on 230th Street to just west of Bailey Avenue, at the
New York Central Railroad's
Kings Bridge station.) When the line was extended to 242nd Street, the temporary platforms at 230th Street were dismantled, and were rumored to be brought to 242nd Street to serve as the station's side platforms. The 191st Street station did not open until January 14, 1911, because the elevators and other work at the station had not yet been completed. Between 1904 and 1908, one of the main service patterns was the West Side Branch, running from
Lower Manhattan to
Van Cortlandt Park via what is now the
Lexington Avenue,
42nd Street, and Broadway–Seventh Avenue Lines. There were both local and express services with express trains south of
96th Street. Some express trains ran to
Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn via the
Joralemon Street Tunnel during rush hours while all other trains turned around at
City Hall or
South Ferry.
Dual Contracts Planning and construction The
Dual Contracts, which were signed on March 19, 1913, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in the
City of New York. The contracts were "dual" in that they were signed between the City and two separate private companies (the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company), all working together to make the construction of the Dual Contracts possible. The Dual Contracts promised the construction of several lines in Brooklyn. As part of Contract 3, the IRT agreed to build a branch of the original subway line south down Seventh Avenue, Varick Street, and West Broadway to serve the West Side of Manhattan. The construction of this line, in conjunction with the construction of the
Lexington Avenue Line, would change the operations of the IRT system. Instead of having trains go via Broadway, turning onto 42nd Street, before finally turning onto Park Avenue, there would be two trunk lines connected by the
42nd Street Shuttle. The system would be changed from looking like a "Z" system on a map to an "H" system. One trunk would run via the new Lexington Avenue Line down Park Avenue, and the other trunk would run via the new Seventh Avenue Line up Broadway. In order for the line to continue down Varick Street and West Broadway, these streets needed to be widened, and two new streets were built, the Seventh Avenue Extension and the Varick Street Extension. Originally, there were to be no express stops between
34th Street–Penn Station to the north and
Chambers Street to the south. By late 1912, local merchants were advocating for the construction of an express station at 14th Street and Seventh Avenue. Construction started on the extension in 1914. To allow for the extension of the line south from Times Square, the entire western wall of the subway between 43rd Street and 44th Street was removed, all while service continued uninterrupted. The line was mostly built in an open-cut, excluding the segments within the limits of Battery Park, the widened portions of Varick Street, and the new Varick and Seventh Avenue Extensions. Filled in ground was found south of Varick Street along Greenwich Street, which approximately marked the old shore line of the Hudson River during the time of the American Revolution. Many buildings had to be underpinned during the construction of the line, especially those on the lower sections through Greenwich Street.
Opening On June 3, 1917, the first portion of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line south of
Times Square–42nd Street, a shuttle to
34th Street–Penn Station, opened; a separate shuttle service, running between 42nd and 34th Streets, was created. This short extension was opened even though the rest of the route was not yet completed in order to handle the mass of traffic to and from
Pennsylvania Station. Only the northern part of the station was opened at this time, and piles of plaster, rails, and debris could be seen on the rest of the platforms. On June 27, 1918, the Public Service Commission (PSC) announced that on July 1, the shuttle would be extended south to
South Ferry, with a shorter shuttle on the Brooklyn branch between
Chambers Street and
Wall Street, on July 1, 1918. The PSC's decision to open the line before the Lexington Avenue Line was completed was unexpected. The new "H" system was implemented on August 1, 1918, joining the two halves of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and sending all West Side trains south from Times Square. An immediate result of the switch was the need to transfer using the 42nd Street Shuttle. The completion of the "H" system doubled the capacity of the IRT system. Extensions of the
Eastern Parkway Line and the connecting
Nostrand Avenue Line and
New Lots Line opened in the next few years, with the end result being that West Side trains ran to
Flatbush Avenue or
New Lots Avenue.
1940s to 1990s In 1948, platforms on the line from 103rd Street to 238th Street were lengthened to to allow full ten-car express trains to platform. Previously the stations could accommodate only six car local trains. The platform extensions were opened in stages. On April 6, 1948, the stations from
103rd Street to
Dyckman Street had their platform extensions opened, with the exception of the
125th Street station, which had its extension opened on June 11, 1948. On July 9, 1948, the platform extensions at stations between
207th Street and
238th Street were opened for use at the cost of $423,000 (). During the early 1950s, it was considered to convert the Columbus Circle station from a local stop to an express stop in order to serve the anticipated rise of ridership at the stop resulting from the proposed
New York Coliseum and the expected redevelopment of the area. Under a $100 million () rebuilding program, increased and lengthened service was implemented during peak hours on the 1 train. To the north of 96th Street, delays occurred as some trains from the Lenox Avenue Line switched from the express to the local tracks, while some trains from the Broadway Branch switched from the local to the express tracks. This bottleneck was removed on February 6, 1959. All Broadway trains became locals, and all Lenox Avenue trains became expresses, eliminating the need to switch tracks. All 3 trains began to run express south of 96th Street on that date running to Brooklyn. 1 trains began to run between 242nd Street and South Ferry at all times. Trains began to be branded as Hi-Speed Locals, being as fast as the old express service was, with 8-car trains consisting of new
R21 and
R22 subway cars from the
St. Louis Car Company. During rush hour in the peak direction, alternate trains, those running from 242nd Street, made no stops except 168th Street between Dyckman and 137th Streets in the direction of heavy traffic. The bypassed stations were served by locals originating from Dyckman Street. The improved service could not be implemented until the platform extensions at all stations on the line were completed. The original IRT stations north of Times Square could barely fit five or six car locals based on whether the trains had one or two ends with cars that had manually operated doors. In 1958, the platform extensions at the local stations were nearly completed, but there were more problems with the platform extensions at the two express stations, 72nd Street and 96th Street. To make room for the platform extension at 72nd Street, the track layout was changed. However, in order to fit the platform extension at 96th Street, the local tracks and the outside walls had to be moved. A new mezzanine with stairways to the street was built between West 93rd Street and West 94th Street. Since the
86th Street and
96th Street stations had their platforms extended in order to accommodate 10-car trains, the
91st Street station was closed on February 2, 1959, because it was too close to the other two stations. In 1961, the
New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) awarded a $11 million () contract to
General Railway Signal to upgrade the line's signals between the 96th Street and 242nd Street stations. On August 9, 1964, the NYCTA announced the letting of a $7.6 million () contract to lengthen platforms at stations from
Rector Street to
34th Street–Penn Station on the line, and stations from
Central Park North–110th Street to
145th Street on the Lenox Avenue Line to allow express trains to be lengthened from nine-car trains to ten-car trains, and to lengthen locals from eight-car trains to ten-car trains. With the completion of this project, the NYCTA project to lengthen IRT stations to accommodate ten-car trains would be complete. During the 1964–1965 fiscal year, the platforms at
Park Place,
Fulton Street,
Wall Street,
Clark Street and
Borough Hall were lengthened to to accommodate a ten-car train of long IRT cars. In 1986, the NYCTA launched a study to determine whether to close 79 stations on 11 routes, including the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line north of 215th Street, due to low ridership and high repair costs. Numerous figures, including New York City Council member
Carol Greitzer, criticized the plans. On August 21, 1989, the 1/ weekday skip-stop service started. The plan was to have skip-stop service begin north of
116th Street–Columbia University, but due to objections, most notably that riders did not want
125th Street to be a skip-stop station, skip-stop service was only implemented north of
137th Street–City College between the hours of 6:30 am and 7:00 pm. All 1 trains skipped
Marble Hill–225th,
207th,
191st and
145th Streets, while all 9 trains skipped
238th,
215th,
Dyckman and
157th Streets. On September 4, 1994, midday
skip-stop service was discontinued, and 191st Street was no longer a skip-stop station.
21st century After the
September 11 attacks, all 1 trains had to be rerouted since the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line ran directly under the
World Trade Center site and was heavily damaged in the collapse of the Twin Towers. 1 trains ran only between 242nd Street and
14th Street, making local stops north of and express stops south of 96th Street. The skip-stop service with the 9 train was suspended. On September 19, after a few switching delays at 96th Street, service was changed. All 1 trains made all stops from 242nd Street to New Lots Avenue via the Clark Street Tunnel and
IRT Eastern Parkway Line, to replace all trains (which terminated at 14th Street) at all times except late nights, when it terminated at
Chambers Street in Manhattan instead. On September 15, 2002, all 1 trains returned to the
South Ferry Loop and 9 skip-stop service was reinstated.
Cortlandt Street, which was directly underneath the World Trade Center, was demolished as part of the clean-up, to be rebuilt as part of the
World Trade Center Transportation Hub. In June 2002, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that ten subway stations citywide, including 103rd Street, 110th Street, 116th Street, 125th Street, and 231st Street on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, would receive renovations. As part of the project, fare control areas would be redesigned, flooring, and electrical and communication systems would be upgraded, and new lighting, public address systems and stairways would be installed. In addition, since 110th Street, 116th Street, and 125th Street had landmark status, historical elements would be replaced or restored, including their white wall tiles. At the ends of the station platforms at 103rd Street, 110th Street, and 116th Street, a small section of station wall, which would look identical to the existing station walls, would be added to provide space for scrubber rooms. Work on the ten citywide renovation projects was estimated to cost almost $146 million, and was scheduled to start later that year, and be completed in April 2004, in time for the 100th anniversary of the station's opening, and the 250th anniversary of Columbia University. Columbia University agreed to contribute $1 million to the renovation of the 103rd Street station following its announcement in April that it would purchase a building adjacent to that station. In September 2002, the university was in negotiations to provide funding for the renovation of the 110th Street station. As a condition of the funding allocation for the station renovation at 103rd Street, the university wanted work on the project to be expedited. Residents of Morningside Heights approved of the renovations plans, but were concerned that the expedited repairs would come at the cost of damaging the stations' historic elements. Block associations near the 103rd Street station contracted a firm to develop a plan to renovate the station quickly while maintaining its historic elements. A similar plan was already completed for the 110th Street station. The MTA was expected to decide whether preservation or speed would be prioritized in the station renovation projects by the end of the year. On February 4, 2003, Community Board 7 voted in favor of renovating the 103rd Street and 110th Street stations, but against the inclusion of any new artwork in the stations, going against the board's initial vote to support the installation of artwork at 103rd Street. The opposition to the addition of artwork at that stop stemmed from the belief among opponents of the plan for artwork that the station's historic features would be more vulnerable as the station was not landmarked. The station renovation project at 116th Street began in January 2003. On May 27, 2005, the 9 train was discontinued and all 1 trains began to make all stops. On March 16, 2009, the new
South Ferry station opened, replacing the original loop station. The loop station
could only accommodate the first five cars of a train and required the use of
gap fillers because of the sharpness of the loop curve. The new station was built as a two-track, full (10-car)-length
island platform on a less severe curve, permitting the operation of a typical
terminal station. The newer station does not have a connection to the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, and is underneath the loop station. The MTA claimed that the new station saved four to six minutes of a passenger's trip time and increased the peak capacity of the 1 service to 24 trains per hour, as opposed to 16 to 17 trains per hour with the loop station. This was the first new station to open since 1989 when the
IND 63rd Street Line stations opened. 1 service was
affected by
Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, following serious flood damage at South Ferry. Rector Street served as a temporary terminal until April 4, 2013, when the 1 returned to the reopened old loop station. Hurricane Sandy also damaged the Clark Street Tubes, necessitating a full closure on weekends from June 27, 2017, to June 24, 2018, thus affecting 2, 3,
4, and
5 service. In addition, as a result of the closure for repairs of the Clark Street Tubes, the stations on the Brooklyn Branch of the line (Park Place to Borough Hall, as well as Hoyt Street on the Eastern Parkway Line) saw closures on weekends as well (2 trains continued to operate to Brooklyn on weekdays and weekday late nights as did 3 trains on weekdays except late nights). The new South Ferry station reopened on June 27, 2017, in time to accommodate the Clark Street closures. Throughout the duration of the Clark Street tunnel closures, a free out-of-system MetroCard transfer was provided between South Ferry (where 2 trains were rerouted from 11:45pm Fridays to 5:00am Mondays), and Bowling Green (where 4 and 5 trains ran local in Brooklyn in place of the 2 and 3 trains during those same times). Normal service on the Brooklyn Branch resumed on June 25, 2018. The Cortlandt Street station reopened on September 8, 2018 as WTC Cortlandt. == Extent and service ==