In 1975 I was doing a grade 10 high school project on urban transportation. Living in Montréal, a city whose Métro has world-renowned architectural merit and quiet-running rubber tires, I naturally chose to write my work on the topic of the New York subway system <grin>. When I wrote to the New York City Transit Authority asking for any maps or plans I could use in my project, I was surprised to receive, some 2 weeks later, a huge envelope stuffed with goodies. Amongst these goodies was a track map, measuring some 12 feet high by about 4 feet wide, and dating originally from just before unification* in 1940 (revised to November, 1967).

[* unification occurred June 1, 1940, when the privately-run Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT - today's numbered routes) and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transportation companies joined the city-run Independent subway, under the umbrella of one public transportation agency]

I got an A.

That map remained in my imagination for a long time after that, however. Unfortunately, I could never think of anything much to do with it. Until about October, 1995.

Starting then, and continuing to this day, I have worked on scanning and re-drawing the entire map, and making it available on line via the Internet. Much has been added (new construction like the Archer-Parsons extension and the 63rd St. tunnel), sadly some has been taken away (Culver shuttle, 3rd Av. el), and a whole lot has been corrected from personal verification.

These online maps were very well received by the internet community, but I was still being asked repeatedly to make them available in printed form. Thus the beginnings of this work. I started going after a printed version around Christmas, 1996. I had to convert all my colour maps back into B&W, but this time as separate files. This has subsequently proven to be a mistake, since whenever I verified something as being different than what was printed, I now had to make the corrections twice, not once. Arrrrgh! make that three times if you also include the overall combination maps, and 4 times if a detail map was also involved! Therefore for the moment, I'm leaving the online maps alone -- errors and all.

Well, after much blood, sweat, tears, pleading, moaning and sheer luck, I got everything ready to go. After a few false starts (and a dead printer) I finally got everything together right at the end of May, 1997, and the first edition rolled off the presses (well, the Xerox Docutech to be precise). I re-printed 7 or 8 times before making any significant changes. 

February, 1998 marked the first major overhaul of the book -- version 1.5. The fifth and final re-printing just occurred in September (called printing 1.5.5 naturally...). it contains a fully-re-written and expanded introduction, several new illustrations and photographs and a spate of track modifications.

Fast-forward to January 1999, and the next major milestone was reached with the release of the second edition. This book added all the to-scale yard maps that you see in place today, and also included a few re-drawn closeup maps.

As time went on, improvements and corrections continued to add up--the Franklin Shuttle closed, got rebuilt and re-opened, track work in the 63rd St. tunnel forced reroutes and several other situations meant revised editions of the book kept being released, up until version, 2.4b.

In case you're wondering if there was ever a version 2.4a, I did a VERY small printing of 2.4 (no a) in December, 2000 to supply the New York Transit Museum for Christmas sales. After it went to press I discovered a few significant errors and I wanted to change a few things editorially. I called the revised version 2.4b (I suppose it technically should have been called 2.4.1 but I didn't want to get into that numbering scheme again as I did in the first edition).

Version 2.5 (May, 2001) was the final version of the Second Edition to be released . This version added new home signals around 241st St. on the #2 line (depicting the progress of the ongoing signal system conversion on the IRT) and encompasses a preview of changes that will occur in the Third Edition. All of my stock of version 2.5 was sold out over the Labour Day weekend, 2001.

Version 3.0 (Dec 4, 2001) This is the latest version to roll off the Docutech. LOTS of new stuff made it in this time. I re-did almost all my image files as TIFFS (many saying the same, many more revised), got rid of the route markers on the TIFFs and added them in my layout program (using Robert Marrero's WONDERFUL True-Type subway fonts) and generally made the behind-the-scenes stuff work a lot better than it did before. Still no way to incorporate colour to the book as printing costs would be hideously expensive.

I finally decided to go offset for the colour signs and signals insert page, so hopefully things won't change too much during the life of that page. I was doing it before on one of several inkjet printers and I never liked the quality it gave. Offset is a lot more expensive but hopefully will save time for reprints. Trust me--it took a LONG time to do those inserts at home, especially on a large print run.

There will be no increase in the suggested cover price of $37 for the forseeable future.

Version 3.1 (February 12, 2002) incorporated the accelerated rebuilding schedule of the IRT line between Chambers St. and South Ferry, the re-opening of the IND's Chambers St. WTC terminal station and other related lower-Manhattan changes. In addition, I corrected a few typos that crept in during the 2.5 to 3.0 update and tracks under 8th Avenue have been redrawn.

Version 3.2 (March 25, 2002) Essentially a reprinting of version 3.1, version 3.2 also incorporates the changes found on the Rockaway line between Rockaway Blvd. and Howard Beach. Also changed the introductory section around a bit to expand the section on signaling.

Version 3.3 (Oct. 01, 2002) Now includes the JFK AirTrain track maps, incorporates the return of the 1 and 9 trains to lower Manhattan, the re-opening of the Cortlandt St. BMT station, the closing of three Brooklyn stations and the rebuilding of Stillwell Terminal. Route markers were changed to reflect the service changes on the 2 and 3 and the re-addition of the 9. Yard notes have been changed to reflect fleet changes as best as possible (bearing in mind the constant delivery of new cars and retirement of the Redbird fleet).

In October 2002, I started adding incremental update pages to this Web site.

Version 3.4 (November 25th, 2002) is essentially a reprint of version 3.3, but with some major changes to the Canarsie Line and the Canarsie Yard, as well as an up-to-date listing of the entire fleet and its yard and line assignments. This edition will probably be the last one showing northbound Canarsie service over the Snediker Avenue elevated portion and the temporary reroute of northbound service south of Broadway Junction.

Version 3.5 (November 25th, 2003) was a major revision to the Third Edition. 2003 was a relatively quiet year, hence only two small reprintings during the spring and summer. Over the Labour Day weekend the long-planned-for changes in the Canarsie line finally came to fruition and the Snediker Elevated was closed forever. Lots of little improvements went on elsewhere -- new access to the Q3-4 center track on the Canarsie line at Myrtle Avenue, new signals and switches on the 2/5 in the Bronx to name but a few. The biggest changes in 3.5 are the opening of the new WTC PATH station, a complete re-working of the towers and rolling stock assignments and a preview of version 3.6 new routes over the Manhattan Bridge.

Version 3.6 (March 15th, 2004) This is a major revision to the Third edition, detailing the service changes resulting from the completion of the North Side Manhattan Bridge rehabilitation and the subsequent increse in service between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Note that version 3.6 was a short-lived edition.

Version 3.7 (July 15th, 2004,updated December 21st 2004) Also known as the Centennial Commemorative Edition (with a modified COVER design!). This is the final release of the third edition. It chronicles the reopening of six of the eight tracks at the Stillwell Avenue terminal at Coney Island and the conversion of the 2 and 5 lines' signaling in the Bronx, as well as updates on several other construction projects. A to-scale map of Linden Yard was added as well as numerous corrections. Added two pages of ultra-basic information for non-New Yorkers to help get them up to speed. SIRT track plans were updated and the final Nassau St. line details were added. A re-print in February 2005 depicts the aftermath of the Chambers Street relay room fire.

On February 1st 2005, the price rose to $39.95 from $37 on account of skyrocketing printing costs. Barring another huge rise in print costs or increased postage, I hope to keep this price in effect until at least 2008.

Contrary to popular thought, there is NO map of the original system in this book; its title merely celebrates the 100th anniversary of the subway system, which occured on Oct. 27, 2004. I kept selling this past the new year, and the final copies sold in June 2005.

Work on the Fourth Edition continued slowly during the summer of 2005 but the release date was pushed back due to some very positive development's in your humble scribe's life (my wife and I are buying our first home). It was intended to go to print on Dec. 5th, 2005 with a release date of Dec. 15th planned. However your humble scribe was slightly injured in an accident and as such the book was delayed a few weeks.

Finally, after some R&R and the holidays, version 4.0 was printed and shipped on January 6th, 2006. As always, it incorporated all the latest changes and a couple of new surprises...track maps of Penn Station, new signs and signals in colour, new SIRT signals in colour and an expanded introduction. Despite a rise in postage costs, the shipped price of the book remained the same for 2006.

Version 4.1 came out in early January 2007. This version was a reprint of version 4.0 with a few editorial changes here and there. The biggest change was a new page showing the track plan for the new South Ferry terminal.

Version 4.2 was released on September 14th, 2007. This was a significant update and included four new pages in the bound edition, plus two online here on this Web site that will be part of version 4.3 in 2008. The four new printed pages show the alignment of the Second Avenue Subway. One of the two web-only pages show the extension of the 7 line and the now-deferred Times Square shuttle reconfiguration. The second is a single page edit of the South Ferry terminal as it will appear in version 4.3.

Version 4.3 was released on June 1st, 2008. The biggest changes were the inclusion of 7 line extension and the Times Square potential re-configuration that were previously only available online as well as the new track plant configuration at 74th and B'way on the Flushing line. Car and Yard notes reflect the new R-160 series cars entering service and the older B-division cars' retirement.

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