BMT Franklin Avenue Line

BMT Franklin Avenue Line
The Franklin Avenue Shuttle serves the entire BMT Franklin Avenue Line at all times.
Overview
Type	Rapid transit
System	New York City Subway
Termini	Franklin Avenue Prospect Park
Stations	4
Operation
Opened	1878
Owner	City of New York
Operator(s)	New York City Transit Authority
Character	Elevated Open Cut
Technical
Number of tracks	1-2
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Electrification	600V DC third rail
Route map former BMT Fulton Street Line Franklin Avenue  IND Fulton Street Line Bedford (demolished) Dean Street (demolished) Park Place Botanic Garden  IRT Eastern Parkway Line Consumers Park (demolished) BMT Brighton Line express tracks Prospect Park BMT Brighton Line This diagram:

The BMT Franklin Avenue Line (also known as the Brighton-Franklin Line) is a rapid transit line of the New York City Subway in Brooklyn, New York. All service is provided full-time by Franklin Avenue Shuttle trains.

The Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railway, or Brighton Line, was incorporated in 1877 in order to connect Downtown Brooklyn with the hotels and resorts at Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, and Brighton Beach. The line opened on June 2, 1878, originally running from the entrance of Prospect Park to the Brighton Beach Hotel. However, the railroad desired to get the line closer to downtown Brooklyn. There was a problem–the line could not pass through Prospect Park as this was before subway started to be built in New York, and therefore the line was to be built in a trench through the hill at Crown Heights, connecting with the Long Island Rail Road tracks at Atlantic Avenue. The route, was built on the surface between Atlantic Avenue (Bedford Terminal) and Park Place. The line was then built in an open cut to the rest of the line at Prospect Park in order to avoid grade crossings and anger from the local community. This portion of the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway's mainline would become the Franklin Avenue Line. Later on, in order to accommodate larger locomotives for LIRR through service, the open cut had to be dug deeper.

This portion formally opened on August 19, 1878, about six weeks after the rest of the Brighton Line opened. This portion of the Brighton Beach Line represented a routing compromise. The BF&CI would have preferred a more direct route to downtown Brooklyn, but instead had to settle for a route which took it north to the Bedford station of the Long Island Rail Road, where Brighton trains could operate to the latter railroad's terminal at Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue. The LIRR, however, gained control of the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway, a competitor of the BF&CI, and breached its agreement to provide equal access to the Flatbush Avenue terminal. After the 1882 season, the Brighton was forced to end its trains at Bedford, a situation which soon led to bankruptcy. The line, in 1887, was reorganized as the Brooklyn and Brighton Beach Railroad.