The shuttle was first operated in February 1909 to allow all rush hour trains to go to Brooklyn; the shuttle only operated during rush hours. Formerly, all Broadway express trains had terminated at South Ferry, with all Lenox Avenue express trains through to Brooklyn. Locals all ended at
City Hall. In 1967, the Bowling Green–South Ferry shuttle and all others in the New York City Subway system was given the label . The
New York City Transit Authority decided that the shuttle was more trouble to operate than the benefit it provided. At midnight between February 12 and 13, 1977, the Bowling Green shuttle was discontinued without replacement; because of this, IRT Lexington Avenue Line passengers have had to walk a relatively short distance from Bowling Green station in order to access
South Ferry and the
Staten Island Ferry terminal. In August 1989, the MTA proposed linking the Bowling Green platform to the
Whitehall Street station of the BMT Broadway Line and the
South Ferry station of the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. The two latter stations were connected in 2009. Since 2007, there has been an entrance to the Bowling Green station in front of the
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House (now the
George Gustav Heye Center), just around the corner from two entrances to the Whitehall Street station (which are set into the building's eastern elevation). ==Signage history==