but this posting from the New York Times is appropriate:
Q. I am a frequent rider of the Grand Central/Times Square shuttle. At both ends of the line there are tracks numbered 1, 3 and 4. What happened to Track 2?
A. Track 2 used to run exactly where you’d expect: between Track 1 and Track 3. It was taken out of use nearly a century ago to complete a critical expansion to the city’s underground network.
When the first “official” subway opened on October 27, 1904, it was one line with 28 stations. To approximate its route, you can take a downtown 1 train from 145th Street, change to the shuttle at Times Square, then change again at Grand Central to a downtown 6 train. The original line’s southern terminus was the beautiful City Hall beneath City Hall Park. (Although it’s no longer in use, you can catch a glimpse of it by staying on the 6 local when it reaches the end of the line at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall. The 6 train will then loop back around to the uptown track via the old City Hall station.)
Until 1918, this trip, from 145th Street to City Hall, was one contiguous ride.
Today, when you board the shuttle at Times Square, you might notice the tracks are on a curve. That’s because southbound trains on the original line made an abrupt turn east at around 44th Street and Broadway, then ran beneath 42nd Street before turning south again under Park Avenue.
This strange kink — the middle segment of what engineers nicknamed the “Z” system for its shape — became necessary after a court ruled that building straight down Broadway to City Hall would be prohibitively expensive.
Earlier in 1904, as The New York Times was erecting the city’s second-tallest building at 42nd Street and Broadway, city politicians had changed the area’s name to “Times Square.” The new subway station below adopted the name.
Today, Times Square–42nd Street is by far the busiest station in the city’s subway system. In 1904, however, the area warranted only a local stop. Track 2 served downtown express trains, which bypassed the station.
The city was clamoring for more transit, so two major expansions to the original line were planned: One line would continue south from Times Square under Seventh Avenue, and one would go north from Grand Central, under Lexington Avenue. The new configuration, popularly called the “H” system, opened on August 1, 1918.
The result was mass confusion: hundreds of thousands of daily routines were suddenly changed, and the new labyrinthine stations at Times Square and Grand Central seemed to swallow countless lost commuters for hours.
Because the original Times Square station was a local stop, the shuttle at first had just two trains, on Tracks 1 and 4, the former local tracks. With so many people trying to replicate their old routine, however, dangerous crowds overflowed from the shuttle platforms. Just one day after the “H” system’s inauguration, officials announced they were suspending the shuttle service.
Officials briefly considered abolishing the shuttle before agreeing on a fix. In addition to improving signage and adding passageways, they made available a third shuttle track — Track 3, the former northbound express track — and covered Track 2 with wooden flooring so commuters could walk to the new track. Service resumed without problems on Sept. 28; it would take nearly three decades for the wood to be replaced with concrete.
The shuttle is not totally disconnected from the rest of the system. At Times Square, Track 4 links to to the northbound track of the 1 train. That route is usually covered by a pedestrian bridge, which allows passengers to walk around the shuttles.
You can still find evidence of the old Track 2 if you know where to look. When you’re in the tunnel between the two stations, for example, try to spot where the missing track should be. The void is obvious, and somewhat bizarre – as if someone simply forgot to lay down rails.
Sorry, put this on the wrong thread. Apologies!
* Facilitated on board fare collection similar to Dyer Avenue.
NY subway system will be "launching a seat removal pilot program on select lines, beginning with the 'S' 42nd Street Shuttle and the 'L' line to increase capacity by 25 riders per car."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvq57F_bQGQ&t=20m48s
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