The R Broadway Local[3] is a rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is colored yellow since it uses the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan.[4]
The R operates 24 hours, although service patterns vary based on the time of day. Daytime service operates between 71st Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens, and 95th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, making all stops along the full route; one northbound a.m. rush hour trip terminates at 96th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan instead of 71st Avenue in Queens. Overnight service short turns at Whitehall Street–South Ferry in Lower Manhattan from Brooklyn and does not operate to and from 71st Avenue.
The R was originally the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation's 2 service, running along the BMT Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn then traveling through the Montague Street Tunnel to Manhattan, then running local on the BMT Broadway Line. The 2 became the RR in 1961. The RR ran local along the BMT Astoria Line in Queens, terminating at Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard until it switched terminals with the N in 1987. The RR became the R in 1985. After 1987, the R ran via the IND Queens Boulevard Line to Forest Hills, Queens. A variant of the RR/R, from Bay Ridge to Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan via the BMT Nassau Street Line, ran from 1967 until 1987.
timetable
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).