From TheBestLinks.com
The 42nd Street Shuttle dates to Day One of the New York Subway: 27 October 1904. The original Interborough Rapid Transit line was continuous from City Hall on the east side, up Broadway on the west side, using 42nd Street to get across town. When the two north-south lines were extended as part of the Dual Contracts construction, the crosstown connection was severed and changed into a crosstown shuttle operation.
Operation of this line is unique in that the operator and conductor swap jobs. The operator is in the front and conductor in the rear of the OPTO (One Person Train Operation) Trains. When they arrive at a terminal, the rear person opens the doors. When the train leaves, the rear person becomes the new operator and the old operator becomes the conductor. Passenger volume and quick turn-around time is the reason for this operation. Before OPTO, this line had two operators and a conductor. The conductor was cut with OPTO, as the second operator fills the role of conductor. Time for riding the line is officially shown as one minute. Length of line is 0.8 miles (1,2 km). The trains at 42nd Street-Times Square usually use tracks 1 and 4 and at 42nd Street-Grand Central they use tracks 1 and 3. Track 4 is usually chained off due to construction at 42nd Street-Grand Central.
The station at 42nd Street-Times Square is an example of transit changing with the needs of the riders. The 42nd Street west side station was originally called 42nd Street and was a local stop. At the time the subway was built, the area was still known as Longacre Square and was not the popular destination it is today. The original station was at track 4 and at track 1 of the existing shuttle station. When the New York Times moved to the area, Times Square was born. Load soon dictated more than a local stop. As the new extensions were built, the main line was provided with an express station and the shuttle had a third platform installed over top of the existing track #2. You can still see where track 2 was by the diagonal braced columns typical for Interborough Raid Transit trackways. Track 4 connects to the northbound main line local track underneath a metal walkway that is removed only during midnight hours if needed for train swaps.
The 42nd Street-Times Square shuttle platform has a gap filler underneath the platform in a different style than South Ferry and 14th Street-Union Square. These gap fillers are solid plates rather than the slotted type and are underneath the platform. To operate the gap fillers, the train operator pushes a button on a selector board.
The original configuration of the 42nd Street-Times Square station featured an underpass between the side local platforms was accessed via a narrow stairway in mid-platform. Notice that the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation Broadway line is directly below the shuttle, and its express tracks actually spread apart to make way for the underpass, which must have been closed as surplus around the time the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation line opened. Also, until 1948, the free transfer between the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation station and Interborough Rapid Transit station at 42nd Street-Times Square did not exist; each company needed its own fare. Find where the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation paid area actually crossed under the Interborough Rapid Transit mezzanine, to reach the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation entrance located just west of the shuttle. It's a storage space today, but it can be sort of seen from the mezzanine that is downstairs across from the shuttle station.
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