New York City Subway N service to be restored to Coney Island May 29, via the Sea Beach Line

May 4, 2005

On May 29, 2005, the final phase of reconstruction of the Stillwell Avenue Terminal on Coney Island will be completed, with the reopening of the BMT Sea Beach Line to regular N service. N service currently stops one station short of Coney Island, at Gravesend-86th Street, and last reached Coney Island under regular service on November 4, 2001, though various General Orders caused by other closures have resulted in N trains running all the way.

The Sea Beach Line began in 1879 as the New York and Sea Beach Railway, a steam-powered railroad. It was bought by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company in 1897 and soon fitted with trolley wire, with connections to Manhattan via various elevated railways.

Reconstruction into a four-track depressed line was finished in 1915, and subway trains running to Midtown Manhattan started using the line. The Sea Beach Line was the fastest of the four lines connecting Coney Island to Manhattan, especially when the express tracks of the Sea Beach Line (last used in 1968) were in use, as there were no express stations between the split from the BMT Fourth Avenue Line and Coney Island.

The N was both the first service to be cut back from Coney Island and the last to return, and was the only one not replaced by a shuttle bus during its closure. The BMT West End Line (W, later D) was never cut back from Coney Island, but the BMT Culver Line (F) and BMT Brighton Line (Q) were cut back from September 8, 2002 to May 22, 2004 (returning to service May 23).