The No. 9 train rolled off into history last Memorial Day weekend, but a year later, the memory of the lost line survives in a surprisingly
prominent place. Large signs for the 1, 2, 3, and, yes, 9 trains can still be
found at 34th Street and
Seventh Avenue, a stone’s throw from Macy’s. One is outside the Footaction store next to the LIRR entrance, and the other touts the
phantom line across the street, by the H&M store. Above the LIRR entrance, however, a smaller sign is properly missing the ‘9.’
The MTA began blacking out the ‘9’ signs in the weeks before it was discontinued, joining other retired lines such as
the No. 8. (Yes, such a thing existed briefly in the early 1970s in the Bronx, helping to explain
the gap in the 1 through 9 designations.)
The ‘9’ came to life in 1989, skipping several stops uptown during
the weekday rush. But the size of the fleet serving the Broadway-Seventh Avenue line grew during the 16 years of the No. 9's existence. By 2005, the No. 9 was no longer needed, the TA said, especially since more people were living in the neighborhoods that it was skipping. Its fate was sealed, but the line lives on in common parlance (“let’s take the 1/9”) and, for now at least, across the street from Macy’s.
-- Rolando Pujol
Just one more thing: If the mysterious No. 8 train captures
your fancy, check out this Forgotten-NY page on the Bronx portion of the Third
Avenue elevated. The number wasn't widely known, Forgotten explains, because it was not listed on the front of the trains that served that line. And you can add the surviving '9' signage to this list of signs from another transit era.
