Q, B & F Trains Used To Stop At Roosevelt Island Subway Station - Opened In 1989 As Subway To Nowhere

A blast from the past. Many years ago, three different subway lines, the Q, B and F stopped at the Roosevelt Island subway station.

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According to the MTA:

... October 29, 1989

Service begins to the 63 rd Street Extension's three new stations: Lexington Avenue, Roosevelt Island (Manhattan) and 21 st Street (Long Island City, Queens)....

The NY Times reported on October 29, 1989:

Twenty years after its conception, a new subway-line extension - dubbed the subway to nowhere by its critics -made a ceremonial maiden run yesterday, rumbling under the East River from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island and into Queens. Regular service was to start today on the $868 million line, the first subway to the island....

and:

... ''This has been a planning disaster from day one,'' said Representative Bill Green of Manhattan, who was at a first-day ceremony on Roosevelt Island. ''It's been an enormous waste of money.''

The new line ends abruptly 1,500 feet short of the E, F, G and R lines at Queens Plaza which are used daily by half a million commuters. The M.T.A. hopes to build a connection with these lines, but it may take several years, Ms. Gardner said....

... Q trains will serve the new stops on weekdays and B trains on weekends. The express to Kennedy International Airport will add the Lexington Avenue and Long Island City stops to its service. Service between Manhattan and Queens will operate 24 hours a day.

Survivor of Major Plan

The extension was originally part of a $1.3 billion proposal to build 11 subway lines as well as a lower-level tunnel for the Long Island Railroad. Work under the plan was hampered by the city's fiscal crisis in the mid-1970's and delayed by structural problems and neighborhood protests....

Click here for the entire NY Times article on 1989 Roosevelt Island subway station opening.