IND Queens Boulevard Line

IND Queens Boulevard Line
Stations on the IND Queens Boulevard Line are served by E, F, M and R trains.
Overview
Type	Rapid transit
System	New York City Subway
Locale	New York City
Termini	50th Street Jamaica–179th Street
Daily ridership	467,779 (2015, weekday)
Operation
Owner	City of New York
Operator(s)	New York City Transit Authority
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)

The IND Queens Boulevard Line, sometimes abbreviated as QBL, is a line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan and Queens, New York City, United States. The line, which is underground throughout its entire route, provides crosstown service across Manhattan under 53rd Street and east through Queens to Jamaica. The two-track section in Manhattan and Long Island City, Queens, is also known as the IND 53rd Street Line.

The IND Queens Boulevard Line begins with a large storage yard consisting of two levels with four tracks each south of 185th Street and Hillside Avenue. Once the tracks from the lower level merge with the tracks on the upper level, there is the first station Jamaica–179th Street (E F trains), and the line continues as a four-track subway under Hillside Avenue. Just after curving north under the Van Wyck Expressway, a flying junction joins the two-track Archer Avenue Line (E train) to the local and express tracks. Soon after, the line turns west under Queens Boulevard.

East of Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike, another flying junction ties the eastward tracks to Jamaica Yard. The other side of the wye curves west to become a lower level of the subway just west of Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike. After passing through 75th Avenue, those tracks join the local and express tracks at another flying junction.