K (and the earlier KK) was the label for two completely different New York City Subway services.

Broadway (Brooklyn) Line

The KK started out as the 's 14 in 1924, when the BMT assigned numbers to their services. The 14 was known as the Canarsie Line, and took trains between lower Manhattan and Rockaway Parkway (with a transfer to a streetcar the rest of the way to Canarsie) via the Broadway (Brooklyn) Line and the Canarsie Line. Trains operated to Chambers Street , except in morning rush hours, when they stopped short at Canal Street . Rush hour peak direction trains operated express over the full Broadway (Brooklyn) Line, stopping only in Manhattan, at Myrtle Avenue (morning only) and Eastern Parkway , and along the Canarsie Line. Extra rush-hour local service was provided between Manhattan and Eastern Parkway, as well as between Manhattan and Atlantic Avenue (with a transfer to the BMT Fulton Street Line ). Between 1924 and 1925, rush-hour peak direction local service to/from Eastern Parkway was removed.

When the full 14th Street-Canarsie Line was completed in 1928, the 14 was renamed the Broadway (Brooklyn) Line. Most Canarsie service was moved onto the new line; the 14 now operated local, only on weekdays during rush hours and middays. Normal service ran only between Canal Street and Eastern Parkway or Atlantic Avenue ; rush-hour service still went all the way to Rockaway Parkway .

By 1948, this service was known as the Broadway Short Line (probably changed with city ownership in 1940). By 1959, the service (now called the Broadway Brooklyn Local) ran only during afternoon rush hours, and some trains went to Crescent Street on the Jamaica Line, with the others going all the way down the Canarsie Line to Rockaway Parkway.

Starting on June 18, 1959, the 14 was brought back in morning rush hours (ending at Canal Street as a peak direction skip-stop service (and a fully local service outbound) supplementing the 15, beginning at the end of the Jamaica Line at 168th Street . This 14 service, known as the Jamaica Local, stopped at stations designated "B":

• AB 168th Street
• B 160th Street
• AB Sutphin Boulevard
• B Queens Boulevard
• B Metropolitan Avenue
• A 121st Street
• A 111th Street
• B 102nd Street
• A Woodhaven Boulevard
• A Forest Parkway
• AB Elderts Lane
• B Cypress Hills
• A Crescent Street
• B Norwood Avenue
• A Cleveland Street
• B Van Siclen Avenue
• B Alabama Avenue
• AB Eastern Parkway

Afternoon rush hour 14 trains continued to terminate at Crescent Street or Rockaway Parkway.

In 1960 the TA began to assign letters to BMT services. K was chosen for the 14 (with all trips being KK because it ran local), but was not yet signed.

When the Chrystie Street Connection opened on November 26, 1967, the label KK was not used. Instead the 14 was grouped with the local 15 runs (which ran at non-rush hours) as the JJ. The Rockaway Parkway afternoon runs were cut back to Atlantic Avenue .

The KK was introduced on July 1, 1968, when the Williamsburg Bridge part of the Chrystie Street Connection opened. This service operated only during rush hours, between 168th Street and the new 57th Street station at Sixth Avenue. West of Eastern Parkway , the train operated as a local. The rest of the line continued to run skip-stop with what was now the QJ, stopping only at "B" stations not only inbound in the morning but now also outbound in afternoon rush hours. Trains no longer used the connection at Broadway Junction (Eastern Parkway) between the Broadway (Brooklyn) and Canarsie Lines.

The KK was cut back to Eastern Parkway on January 2, 1973 and renamed the K despite running fully local (a single letter denoted express service). The QJ, renamed the J at that time, now covered both "A" and "B" skip-stop patterns east of Eastern Parkway, but the skip-stop service was once again cut back to inbound morning rush-hour service only.

On August 27, 1976, the K last ran, ending service over the Williamsburg-Chrystie Street connection tracks for good. This was done along with other cutbacks because of the TA's financial problems.

Eighth Avenue Local

In May 1986, as part of the elimination of double letters, the former AA, the Eighth Avenue Local, was renamed the K. This operated between Washington Heights-168th Street and World Trade Center, and not during rush hours or late nights. At the same time, the C was formed as a relabeling of the rush-hour CC, running between Bedford Park Boulevard and Euclid Avenue (cut back from Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street , with the H shuttle replacing this).

The K last ran on December 10, 1988, and on December 11 the C was expanded from its rush-hour only service to include midday service between 145th Street and Euclid Avenue , early evening (until 21:00) service from 145th Street to World Trade Center, and weekend service matching the former K, between Washington Heights-168th Street and World Trade Center.

References

• NYCsubway.org - Historical Maps
• Line by Line History
• Skip Stop on the BMT Jamaica Line, TA service notice, 1959
• Rapid Transit Service Changes, TA service notice, 1968
• KK - a new service, TA service notice, 1968
• Subway Schedules in Queens Changing Amid Some Protest, New York Times January 2, 1973 page 46
• Transit Agency Drops 215 Runs, New York Times August 31, 1976 page 42
• Hey, What's a "K" Train? MTA service notice, 1986
• Big Changes For Subways Are to Begin, New York Times December 9, 1988 page B1