The entire network consists of 22 lines, plus 3 shuttle services. Total route length is approx. 350 km (some 230 km underground), with some sections having 3 or 4 tracks for express services. There are 472 stations (153 elevated, 38 at grade or in an open cutting and 281 underground). The deepest station on the network is 191 St (Lines 1/9) which lies 60 m below street level. The New York City Subway operates around the clock, about every 4 min during rush hours (06:30-09:30 and 15:30-20:00) and every 20 min after midnight.

Numbered lines correspond to the older small-profile IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) network, whereas letter-coded lines were once the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit) or the IND (Independent Subway) network. The three systems were merged in 1940, but the larger trains of the BMT/IND system cannot operate on the IRT routes.

27 Oct 1904: City Hall - Grand Central/42 St – Times Sq/42 St – 145 St (Broadway) [IRT]
09 Jan 1908: First East River crossing between Bowling Green and Borough Hall
22 June 1915: Grand Central – Vernon Blvd/Jackson Ave [IRT Flushing Line]
04 Sept 1917: 14St/Union Sq – Manhattan Bridge – DeKalb Ave [BMT Broadway Subway]
05 Jan 1918: Prince St – Whitehall St/South Ferry
                  14St/Union Sq – Times Sq/42 St [BMT Broadway Subway]
17 July 1918: Original IRT Subway split into 7th Avenue/Broadway and Lexington Avenue Lines
04 Aug 1918: Essex St – Chambers St [BMT Nassau Street Line]
30 June 1924: 6th Ave (14 St) – Montrose Ave [BMT 14th Street-Canarsie Line]
30 May 1931: Chambers St – Broad St [BMT Nassau Street Line]
10 Sept 1932: Inwood/207 St – Chambers Street [IND 8th Avenue Subway]
15 Dec 1940: West 4 St/Washington Sq – 59 St/Columbus Circle [IND 6th Avenue Subway]
.....
11 Dec 1988: Kew Gardens – Jamaica Center/Parsons/Archer (E)
11 Dec 1988: 121st St (Jamaica Av) – Jamaica Center/Parsons/Archer (J/Z)
29 Oct 1989: 57th St (6th Av) – 21st St/Queensbridge (F)
16 Dec 2001: 21st St/Queensbridge – Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Ave (F)
16 Mar 2009: South Ferry new station
13 Sept 2015: Times Square - 34th St-Hudson Yards (7) 2.4 km
01 Jan 2017: 57th St/7th Av - 96th St/2nd Av (Q) 4.4 km [Second Avenue Subway]
08 Sept 2018: WTC Cortlandt station (1) reopened

PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) links central Manhattan to Jersey City and Newark in New Jersey: PATH operates like a metro (every few minutes during rush hours), 24 hours a day. Opened in 1908, the total length of the network is 22.2 km with 11.9 km underground (including two tunnel routes under the Hudson River). The PATH system is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. More

After 11 Sept 2001 service was interrupted between NYC and New Jersey. Service to Exchange Place station was resumed on 29 June 2003, and from 23 Nov 2003 trains have been back to a provisional World Trade Center station.

This 22 km railway line runs along the eastern side of Staten Island, New York's fifth borough. Except for a short tunnel near St. George the entire line is aboveground and has 22 stations. At the northern terminus it connects to the ferry from Manhattan (near South Ferry station). Subway MetroCards and tokens are valid on this line.

21 Jan 2017: Arthur Kill station added between Richmond Valley and Tottenville at the southern end of the line, replacing the former stops Nassau and Atlantic.

The Long Island Rail Road serves almost any part of Long Island with various branches spreading out east from Jamaica station in Queens. From this station some trains run west to Atlantic Terminal (Flatbush Av.) in downtown Brooklyn, a few terminate in Long Island City in Queens, but most run through to Manhattan's Penn Station. A second route to Manhattan (Grand Central Madison) - East Side Access - eventually opened on 25 Jan 2023, with an initial shuttle service between Jamaica and Grand Central Madison. Find out details here.

The Metro-North Commuter Railroad operates from Grand Central station and serves the areas north of New York City with one branch reaching as far as New Haven in Connecticut. There is a major interchange with subway lines at 125 St and 12 stations lie in the Bronx. MetroCards are not valid and fares are according to distance.

This 13 km long driverless peoplemover system opened at JFK Airport in Queens on 17 Dec. 2003. It links all airport terminalsthe to Howard Beach/JFK Airport subway station (A) to Jamaica LIRR station and Sutphin Blvd-Archer Av subway station (E, J/Z). Terminal 2 station permanently closed on 8 July 2022; Terminal 1 station closed as of 1 May 2023 while construction of New Terminal One continues (until ~2026).

Find out more here!

New Jersey Transit (NJT) operates two light rail systems in Northern New Jersey, the Newark Light Rail and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, as well as an extensive network of commuter rail lines from its Hoboken Terminal on the western shore of the Hudson River, which can be reached from Manhattan by PATH. Some NJT trains run through to Penn Station in Manhattan. For more on urban rail in New Jersey click here!

New York Transit Museum: Subway Style: 100 Years of Architecture & Design in the New York City Subway. - Oct. 2004, 252 p., 12' x 9', Stuart, Tabori and Chang; ISBN 158479349X

Gene Sansone: New York Subways: An Illustrated History of New York City's Transit Cars, 1867-2004. - Nov. 2004, Johns Hopkins Univ Pr; ISBN: 0801879221

Lorraine B. Diehl: Subways: The Tracks That Built New York City. - Sept. 2004, Clarkson Potter; ISBN: 1400052270

Stan Fischler: The Subway and the City. - July 2004, 568 p., Frank Merriwell Inc., ISBN 0837395518

David Weitzman: A Subway for New York. - June 2004, 40 p., Crown Books for Young Readers; ISBN: 0375925376

Michael W. Brooks: Subway City: Riding the Trains, Reading New York . - Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1997, 252 p, bw, ISBN 0813523966 - Great history of the subway illustrated with many historical cartoons and photos

Randy Kennedy: SUBWAYLAND: Adventures in the World Beneath New York. - Feb. 2004, 240 p., Griffin Trade Paperback; ISBN 0312324340

New York Transit Museum: New York City Subway Trains: 12 Classic Punch and Build Trains. - Dec. 2003, 48 p., Gibbs Smith Publisher; ISBN 1586853244

Frattini, Dave: THE UNDERGROUND GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY SUBWAYS. April 2000, 352 pages

Hood, Clifton: 722 MILES : The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York Simon & Schuster, NY, 1993. Rather a novel, with only a few photographs.

Cudahy, Brian J.: UNDER THE SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK : The Story of the Greatest Subway System in the World Fordham University press, 1995.

SUBWAY LIVES : 24 Hours in the Life of the New York City Subway

Cudahy, Brian J.: Cash, Tokens and Transfers. A History of Urban Mass Transport in North America. - Fordham University Press, NY, 1990. - Also deals with tramways and buses and includes a lot of black & white subway photographs of different US cities.

Fischler, Stan: The Subway : A Trip Through Time on New York's Rapid Transit. - ISBN 1882608194

Robert J. Ravelli: CAR-FREE IN NEW YORK. - The Regional Public Transit Guide.- Camino Books, 1994, Philadelphia, 175p, many maps. - A perfect introduction to all public transport in and around NYC

Robert W. Snyder, Pete Hamill: Transit Talk : New York's Bus and Subway Workers Tell Their Stories. - 1998. 192 p., Rutgers University Press; ISBN 0813525772

Tracks of the New York City Subway by Peter Dougherty - Detailed track maps (print + PDF or just PDF)