The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the
private operator of
New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier
elevated railways and additional
rapid transit lines in
New York City.[2] The IRT was purchased by the city in June 1940, along with the younger
BMT and
IND systems, to form the modern
New York City Subway. The former IRT lines (the numbered routes in the current subway system) are now the
A Division or IRT Division of the Subway.
History
The
first IRT subway ran between
City Hall and
145th Street at
Broadway, opening on October 27, 1904.[3] It opened following more than twenty years of public debate on the merits of subways versus the existing
elevated rail system and on various proposed routes.[4]
Founded on May 6, 1902, by
August Belmont, Jr., the IRT's mission was to operate New York City's initial underground rapid transit system after Belmont's and
John B. McDonald's Rapid Transit Construction Company was awarded the rights to build the railway line in 1900, outbidding
Andrew Onderdonk.[5]: 20–22 The
Manhattan Railway Company was the operator of four elevated railways in
Manhattan with an extension into
the Bronx.
On April 1, 1903, over a year before its first subway line opened, the IRT acquired the Manhattan Railway Company by lease, gaining a monopoly on rapid transit in Manhattan. The IRT coordinated some services between what became its subway and elevated divisions, but all the lines of the former Manhattan elevateds have since been dismantled.
In 1913, as a result of massive expansion in the city, the IRT signed the
Dual Contracts with
Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) in order to expand the subway.[6] The agreement also locked the subway fare at 5 cents for forty-nine years.[7] The IRT unsuccessfully attempted to raise the fare to seven cents in 1929, in a case that went to the
United States Supreme Court.[8]
The IRT ceased to function as a privately held company on June 12, 1940, when its properties and operations were acquired by the City of New York.[9]
Today, the IRT lines are operated as the
A Division of the subway. The remaining lines are underground in Manhattan, except for a short stretch across
Harlem at
125th Street and in northern Manhattan. Its many lines in the Bronx are predominantly elevated, with some subway, and some railroad-style right-of-way acquired from the defunct
New York, Westchester and Boston Railway, which now constitutes the
IRT Dyre Avenue Line. Its Brooklyn lines are underground with a single elevated extension that reaches up to
New Lots Avenue, and the other reaching
Flatbush Avenue via the underground
Nostrand Avenue Line.
The
Flushing Line, its sole line in
Queens, is entirely elevated except for a short portion approaching its East River tunnel and its terminal at
Flushing–Main Street (the whole Manhattan portion of the line is underground). The Flushing Line has had no track connection to the rest of the IRT since 1942, when service on the
Second Avenue El was discontinued. It is connected to the
BMT and the rest of the system via the
BMT Astoria Line on the upper level of the
Queensboro Plaza station.
Flushing Line, in October 1949, the joint BMT/IRT service arrangement ended. The Flushing Line became the responsibility of IRT. The
Astoria Line had its platforms shaved back for exclusive BMT operation.
Several pieces of pre-unification IRT equipment have been preserved in various museums. While some of the equipment are operational, others are in need of restoration or are used simply as static displays.
Note that this is a list of New York City Subway lines, which are the physical infrastructure over which
services operate. Lines with colors next to them are
trunk lines; trunk lines determine the color of
New York City Subway service bullets, except for
shuttles, which are dark gray.