Church Avenue (BMT Brighton Line)

Church Avenue is an express station on the BMT Brighton Line of the New York City Subway, located at Church Avenue near East 18th Street in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. The station is served by Q at all times and by the B on weekdays only.HistoryThe original station at this location was a two-track side platform station that ran south from Church Avenue, whereas the current station runs to the north. At a point about 150 feet south of Church Avenue, a clear difference in the form of the concrete retaining wall is visible on both sides of the right-of-way. This marks the point where the original Brighton Beach Line transitioned from an open-cut line depressed below ground level to a surface railroad for the remainder of the run to Coney Island. The line south of this point was converted from a two-track surface line to a four-track grade-separated line in 1907, and the portion north of this point was rebuilt from a two-track open cut to a four-track open cut in 1919.After August 1, 1920, through service was shifted from the current BMT Franklin Avenue Line to a new subway alignment under Flatbush Avenue, which permitted direct access to Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge and the Montague Street Tunnel.During the 1964–1965 fiscal year, the platforms at Church Avenue, along with those at six other stations on the Brighton Line, were lengthened to 615 feet to accommodate a ten-car train of 60-foot IND cars, or a nine-car train of 67-foot BMT cars.