53rd Street Crosstown Line

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The 53rd Street Crosstown Line was a streetcar route in Manhattan, running along 53rd Street in Midtown between Sixth Avenue and Ninth Avenue. It served as a north–south link when the city’s crosstown lines weren’t connected to the 59th Street Crosstown Line. Today, 53rd Street is no longer used by buses, which connect across town via 59th Street.

Tracks on 53rd Street were added in 1894 when the Broadway and Columbus Avenue Line (a cable car line) opened. The Metropolitan owned the 59th Street Crosstown Line and used 59th Street as a connection in the Sixth and Amsterdam Avenues Line. After the Broadway and Columbus Avenue Line was electrified in 1901, those cars moved to 59th Street and a new 53rd Street Line service was created.

The route began at Sixth Avenue and 50th Street, went north on Sixth Avenue for three blocks to 53rd Street, turned west on 53rd Street to Ninth Avenue, and then headed north on Ninth Avenue to 54th Street.

On August 6, 1908, the Central Park, North and East River Railroad was separated from the bankrupt Metropolitan, and three lines—Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue Line, Broadway and Columbus Avenue Line, and Sixth and Amsterdam Avenues Line—were placed on 53rd Street. The Ninth Avenue Railroad, which owned the 53rd Street trackage between Seventh and Ninth Avenues, split from New York Railways in 1919. The Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue Line and the Sixth and Amsterdam Avenues Line were discontinued, while the Broadway and Columbus Avenue Line remained, using trackage rights over Ninth Avenue’s 53rd Street and Ninth Avenue south of Broadway to reach Columbus Avenue. The Ninth Avenue Railroad revived the old 53rd Street shuttle to Sixth Avenue.

On February 12, 1936, buses replaced the trolleys on the Broadway and Columbus Avenue Line, ending the use of the 53rd Street tracks. The replacement bus, known as the M7, then ran along 54th Street eastbound and 55th Street westbound until the 59th Street Crosstown Line was replaced by buses.