Buzz
Riders of the New York City subway are familiar with the system's use of alphabetic (and numeric) labels for various trains, though we're focusing on the lettered ones here.
Frequent NYC subway riders will notice some alphabetic designations are missing. It's not just the last letters—there are A, B, and C trains, but no H or Y trains. And several other letters are skipped as well.
The reasons for these missing letters mostly fall into two main categories.
Discontinued Trains
H, K, T, V, and W are all former train lines that have been retired. A closer look at the history of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) reveals a pattern of regularly cycling through letters as trains are introduced and taken out of service. Now, let’s dive into the current letters that are missing in action.
H
Technically, the H train is still in operation. It refers to the internal designation for the Rockaway Park shuttle in Queens, which connects to the A train for service to the western part of the peninsula. After a few years without any map label, the shuttle was rebranded as the HH train in 1962. Over time, it became known as the E and then the CC train. By the 1980s, the MTA dropped the double-letter names, and the shuttle was labeled as H. Eventually, all shuttles adopted the grey S designation on maps, but the MTA still calls it the H train internally.
The H train made a brief comeback as a free shuttle that replaced a section of the A train service following Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The letter was used since the storm also disrupted the Rockaway Park Shuttle service. Once both the shuttle and the A train resumed full service in 2013, H was retired from public view again.
K
The K train once operated on the same Eighth Avenue track now used by the A, C, and E trains. It was the new name given to the former AA train when double-letter designations were discontinued in 1985. Essentially, the K train served as the opposite of the C train. Both operated locally between 168th Street and the World Trade Center, but while the C was a rush-hour service, the K covered midday, nights, and weekends. The K last ran on December 10, 1988, after which the C train expanded to cover all hours.
T
T (and TT) was the former name of what we now know as the D train. It was incorporated into the B train in the 1960s, which later became the W train and eventually the D train in the early 2000s. If you miss the T train, don't worry—it’s set to return as the future designation for the Second Avenue Subway, with its first phase expected to open in December 2016.
V
Many longtime New Yorkers will recall the brief existence of the V train. Introduced in December 2001 to replace a rerouted F train, it ran between the Lower East Side in Manhattan and Queens. Sadly, its limited schedule—running only on weekdays from around 6:30 a.m. to midnight—combined with budget cuts, led to its demise. By June 2010, the V train was merged with the M train and discontinued under its original name.
W
Another short-lived, late-alphabet train, the W debuted in 2001 to cover for the B train during construction on the Manhattan Bridge tracks. Over its nearly nine years of service, the W's route changed several times, initially reaching Coney Island before eventually abandoning Brooklyn altogether. In Manhattan, it operated along the Broadway line—now shared by the N, Q, and R trains—until it was merged into those lines in 2010 due to financial constraints.
Potential Confusion
The letters I and O were deliberately excluded from the subway system's train designations due to their visual resemblance to the numbers 0 and 1, given the system’s use of both alphabetical and numerical identifiers.
U and Y were excluded from consideration because they are homophones of common words—specifically, "you" and "why." It seems the MTA's founders didn’t share Abbott and Costello's sense of humor about the potential confusion, finding the possibility of a "Who’s on First" situation less amusing.
The Problem with P
That leaves all letters accounted for, except for P. There are various theories about nearly-P trains. It was supposed to be the name for the final stretch of the Culver service (now part of the F line) into Manhattan, but at the last minute, it was replaced by a shuttle (marked as S, like all shuttles). It was also proposed for an emergency train to deal with the 1992 Amtrak strike that never happened due to last-minute congressional intervention. The P was later associated with a broken-down Penn Station. However, neither of these cases explains why the P letter was never used for any new trains between the creation of the Culver shuttle and the 1992 near-strike. It’s a fun theory, though not particularly likely, that the P was simply too immature for polite commuter conversation.
