Do all NYC trains go above ground?

Large portions of the subway outside Manhattan are elevated, on embankments, or in open cuts, and a few stretches of track run at ground level. In total, 40% of track is above ground. Many lines and stations have both express and local services. These lines have three or four tracks.



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In the early evening of May 12, 1955, a train pulled out of Lower Manhattan's Chatham Square, near City Hall, bound for upper Manhattan and the Bronx via Third Avenue. It was the last run of the Third Avenue elevated, and the last time a train ran up a large chunk of Manhattan east of Lexington Avenue for six decades.

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Changing economics and evolving public needs motivated policymakers to remove elevated lines and replace them with subways, which continued to burgeon. In the 1930s those forces, in combination with the Great Depression and upheaval in New York city and state politics, doomed the Manhattan Elevated system.

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An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short) is a railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks).

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The Manhattan Railway Company was an elevated railway company in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City, United States. It operated four lines: the Second Avenue Line, Third Avenue Line, Sixth Avenue Line, and Ninth Avenue Line.

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Out of all the stations on the New York City Subway, 275 are fully underground (59%)

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Maneuver Manhattan's train system like a local Here, Archer Hotel New York's consummate host offers timely tips on navigating the New York City subway (aka train) system like a boss. LOCAL TIP: New Yorkers typically call the subway “trains” (not underground or metro) or by their alpha name (the C or the Q).

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According to the MTA, much of the 7 line is elevated because the two divisions that operated it, the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT), specialized in elevated railroads. The IRT and the BRT continued to build on this line up until 1928.

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Above ground subways are typically referred to as elevated railways or el trains. They are typically supported by steel or concrete columns or viaducts and run above street level, often with stations located at elevated platforms.

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Tiffany-Ann Taylor, the vice president for transportation at the Regional Plan Association, said that most subway platforms, barring the new ones such as at Hudson Yards, are hot because the air-conditioning on the trains generates heat that is pushed onto the subway platforms and then trapped.

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