The E and F Trains in Queens

Today’s topic is the Queens Boulevard express trains, the E and F trains. They run roughly across the borough along Northern and Queens Boulevards terminating in the neighborhood of Jamaica where subway service as a whole ends. As express trains, they are complimented by the M and R trains who act as local trains up to the neighborhood of Forest Hills and are supplemental to the Queens Branch of the LIRR City Terminal Zone which they run parallel to. Overall, these lines are some of the actually more useful, systematic, and well planned lines in the borough. Queens as a whole needs improvement in its subway system, but these two trains do a fairly decent job for borough residents residing in much of the urban stretch of it headed into Manhattan.

The E and F trains enter from Manhattan and Roosevelt Island on 44^th Drive and 41^st Avenue respectively. The F is the only train that stops on Roosevelt Island itself, and both the E and F enter the borough of Queens in the neighborhood of Long Island City joining roughly at Queensboro Plaza near the Federal Courthouse. After this point, the trains run along Northern Boulevard along with the M and R trains as express service making only 3 stops while the local trains make 13 stops in the same stretch to Forest Hills. Leaving Long Island City, the trains travel through Hunter’s Point, Astoria, Woodside, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Rego Park before reaching Forest Hills. At Forest Hills, the E and F continue to Jamaica while the M and R end. I shall describe the neighborhoods above on the blog dedicated to the M and R in Queens as they provide no service outside of those neighborhoods.

Leaving Forest Hills, the E and F go through Kew Gardens before reaching Jamaica where the E train continues to its terminus at Jamaica Center on Archer Avenue and the F train continues to 179^th street on Jamaica Avenue. The area traversed along Queens Boulevard up to Kew Gardens where they split is largely comprised of medium to tall condominiums and apartment buildings along Queens Boulevard which gradually shrinks to smaller residential buildings and single family homes further off the Boulevard. The side streets are a large contrast from the main streets as shown below because they resemble more of a small village in both their architecture and neighborhood feel. From the separation of the local trains, the area gradually becomes less densely populated along the route of both express trains and while remaining with an urban feel across the major avenues becomes more of a residential suburb off of the main avenues.

Jamaica where the trains terminate in is more of a region than a single neighborhood of varying sections. Several parts of Jamaica are comprised of large single family estates while several parts are comprised of a more rundown setting. To me, Jamaica represents the turning point of the mass transit system as the subways don’t just end there but the LIRR truly begins there. I’ve explained that in my blog regarding Jamaica Center but I emphasize it again in this one as the E and F trains both end here. The E and F trains terminate in a different manner, the E strategically ends at Jamaica Center while the F ends at an obscure street in an incomplete manner. There has been talk to expand the F past 179^th street, the E could be expanded but it can always be argued that the neighborhoods it would expand to have efficient LIRR service. Amongst subways, these are the fastest ways back into the City from Queens but given their more expensive, faster competetion in the LIRR which runs parallel to them, they are surely lacking in quality.

My conclusion about the E and F trains is that they are a more systematic and more strategic route than the other Queens bound subways but their incomplete service hurts them when being compared to the LIRR. Anything the E and F do, the LIRR can also do in Queens, it runs through the same neighborhoods, it runs parallel to their route off by a half mile at its furthest point, it is expensive but saves on time tremendously, and it finishes the route through the borough that the E and F do not. The E and F are best for passengers looking to briefly see parts of Queens Boulevard communities without going through the hassle of local trains. The subways are underground however adding to their demise in the greater scheme of things. To me, the trains would be better if expanded to the Cross Island Expressway, but as a non-Queens resident, my word will not dictate what the future is to come for these lines.