How bad is the S?

About the S shuttle

The S is the only letter on the subway map painted in gray, and the only line that runs as a shuttle rather than a through-service. In practice, the S operates as two separate short routes: the Rockaway Park Shuttle between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park in Queens, and the Franklin Avenue Shuttle between Franklin Avenue and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. They share the letter but no track — riders transferring between the two segments need to walk or take a connecting line.

The gray roundel dates back to the Independent Subway System's original 1939 map convention for shuttle services. Every other letter and number on the map uses a colored bullet; the S uses a gray one because shuttle service was treated as a different category of train — usually short-turn, often single-track, and frequently replaced by buses on weekends and late nights. Look for the gray S on station signs and on the front of the train itself.

Weekend and late-night S service is the most common source of complaints: full-route bus substitution between Rockaway Park and Broad Channel is scheduled roughly one weekend a month for track maintenance, and the Franklin Avenue Shuttle often runs on a longer headway overnight. If you're heading to the Rockaways late on a weekend, check service notices before you commit to the S — the bus replacement is reliable but adds 15-20 minutes versus the train.