page_title: IND Culver Line
section_title: Rehabilitation and express service
hierarchical_section_title: IND Culver Line / History / IND Culver Line (1954–present) / Rehabilitation and express service
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking northwest towards lower Manhattan and north end of IND station from crossover.
context_page_description: The IND Culver Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway, extending from Downtown Brooklyn south to Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, United States. The local tracks of the Culver Line are served by the F service, as well as the G between Bergen Street and Church Avenue. The express tracks north of Church Avenue are used by the <F> train during rush hours in the peak direction. The peak-direction express track between Ditmas Avenue and Avenue X has not seen regular service since 1987.
  The line is named after Andrew Culver, who built the original Culver Line that preceded the current subway line. The present-day line was built by the Independent Subway System and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation. The northern section of the line, between Jay Street–MetroTech and Church Avenue, is a four-track line that was built by the IND in 1933, running primarily underground except for a short elevated section over the Gowanus Canal.
context_section_description: In 2007, the MTA announced that several portions of the Culver Line would be undergoing extensive rehabilitation. The first renovation involved repairs of the elevated Culver Viaduct (including the Smith–Ninth Streets and Fourth Avenue stations) and modernization of the interlockings at Bergen Street, 4th Avenue, and Church Avenue. The B5 layup track was removed as part of the project. This also allowed the G train to be extended from its longtime terminus at Smith–Ninth Streets to a more efficient terminus at Church Avenue beginning in July 2009. The project was completed in 2013. Around the time the rehabilitation project was announced, a petition to restore express service along the line gained attention, due to increasing ridership on both the F and G services in Brooklyn. The petition, which gained over 2,500 signatures by June 2007 and nearly 4,000 by September, proposed to restore express service by making the Church Avenue extension of the G permanent and extending the V (eliminated in 2010) from its Manhattan terminus to Brooklyn, sharing the Rutgers Street Tunnel with the F. The G extension was made permanent in July 2012, freeing up the express tracks formerly used to relay trains.
  In 2015, some rush-hour peak-direction F trains started skipping local stops between Jay Street and Fourth Avenue, and the MTA used expanded rush-hour express service (from Jay Street to Church Avenue) in both directions in the summers of 2016 and 2017. In May 2016, the MTA announced that half of all rush-hour F trains may start running express in both directions in fall 2017; however, because of rolling stock and track capacity limitations, the train frequency on the rest of the F's route would remain the same. However, with the introduction of the R179s, one more train per hour could be run on the F. The operation of half of the F trains as express would result in operational improvements, with faster service, as southbound F trains would no longer be delayed by terminating G trains discharging at Church Avenue. Overall, the F express will result in an overall reduction of 27,000 minutes during the AM rush hour and 13,000 minutes during the PM rush hour. The change in service will decrease service at local stations, reducing in longer wait times, but it will help riders in South Brooklyn with the longest commutes. F express trains would be slightly more crowded than current F trains, but the F locals would be less crowded. PM rush hour express service would lead to much larger exit surges from less frequent F local trains at Bergen Street and Carroll Street, leading to significant congestion at one staircase at Bergen Street, and moderate congestion at one staircase at Carroll Street. Relieving the congestion, would entail widening the staircases and installing ADA-required elevators that would cost approximately $10 million per station.
  Stations along the three-tracked stretch of the Culver Line were renovated until July 30, 2018 (excluding Ditmas Avenue and the northbound platform of Avenue X, which were rehabilitated in 2015–2016), with the center track being used to bypass closed stations. The Coney Island-bound platforms were rehabilitated between June 7, 2016 and May 1, 2017 (May 8 for Avenue U and Avenue X). During the second phase of the project, beginning on May 22, 2017, the Manhattan-bound platforms were closed between Avenue U and 18th Avenue until July 30, 2018. Even after the rehabilitation, though, peak-direction express service between Church Avenue and Kings Highway will not be restored due to limitations caused by current track configurations, as the switches at Kings Highway previously used were removed in the 1990s. The interlocking at Kings Highway is scheduled to be modernized as part of the 2020–2024 MTA Capital Program, and the modernization could include the reinstallation of the necessary track switches. A switch will be added between the express track and the northbound local track south of Avenue P.
  The possibility of reopening the Bergen Street lower level was looked at as part of the study for the rei
caption: A temporary platform (center) erected at Fourth Avenue during the Culver Rehabilitation Project.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "COOLPIX P6000", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Pro Photo Tools", "Image DateTime": "2011:02:06 12:19:06", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2332", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[40, 40, 3296471704/244617917]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[73, 59, 519979354/21117799]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[0/0, 0/0, 0/0]", "GPS GPSSatellites": "", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "0/0", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "", "GPS GPSDate": "", "Image GPSInfo": "5098", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5486", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6917", "EXIF ExposureTime": "10/3453", "EXIF FNumber": "32/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "64", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:02:06 12:19:06", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:02:06 12:19:06", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2782", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2414", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "4224", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3168", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5350", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "ffe25c3e2a49ebf4979902a75df31c0c", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "3620"}