9th Avenue lower level

There is a abandoned lower level on 9th avenue. It opened June 1916 and closed when the Culver Shuttle was discontinued on May 10, 1975.

Construction and operation
9 Ave station is part of the Dual System project of 1913. From the extensive track junctions north of the station, branched off the new 4 Ave subway and the old 5 Ave El to reach two elevated lines with separate stations at 9 Ave. The upper level hosts the New Utrecht Ave line, commonly called the West End line, and the lower level formerly hosted the Gravesend Ave line, commonly called the Culver line.

Before 1916, the 5 Ave El had operated service into ground level Culver and West End lines that ran from the edge of nineteenth century Brooklyn to Coney Island. Both were originally shortline steam railroads running in private right of way mostly along public highways, and had been acquired by the BRT system and converted to electric trolley operation. From 1895 and 1900 respectively, the Culver and West End lines saw a summer-only service from the 5 Ave El to Coney Island. The el trains shared the tracks with trolley cars. Because of increasing housing development along the lines, starting in March 1907, both routes were converted to all-year el service. The trains, operating off trolley wire, faced a grade crossing every block and loaded from rail-level platforms. The situation led to the Dual System plan to build elevated versions of almost the same routes. Once the elevated Culver and West End lines opened, trolleys returned to the surface lines for a few decades longer.

The right of way in which 9 Ave station is built was that of the South Brooklyn Railroad, a steam railroad built to mainline standards with terminal and dock facilities. Some West End and Culver trains ran via the South Brooklyn to boat connections for Manhattan, at various dates from 1892 onward. The original route was an open cut for two tracks. Details are lacking but the thousand-foot brick arch tunnel from about 5 Ave to 6 Ave is either original or was built in 1902 to close part of the cut. It was extended another hundred feet east in 1905.

Alongside the South Brooklyn cut was separate property used by the West End and Culver lines themselves. The 5 Ave El route came down a ramp built in 1895 at 37 St, into the property around the Union Depot established in 1890 by the Brooklyn, Bath and West End Railroad and Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad, just north of the South Brooklyn cut. It is still transit property today, occupied by a bus garage and a rail materials yard. East of the South Brooklyn's tunnel, the surface route crossed over to the south side of the cut. Both the cut and and surface routes had junctions at 9 Ave from which tracks led to the Culver line, almost straight ahead, and the West End line, which ran along the east side of New Utrecht Ave.

The Dual System routing appropriated the South Brooklyn line by agreement with the BRT system. A junction with the subway was built at 4 Ave, in open cut, from which subway trains entered the old tunnel and then into a huge widened cut. 5 Ave El trains were re-routed into the same cut. At 9 Ave, a two-level station was built, with the West End line on the upper level because it goes into an elevated viaduct just beyond the station. The Culver line on the lower level comes up into the Culver right of way and then ran from there to its own elevated structure.

For one reason or other, the BRT paired the 4 Ave subway with the West End line, and the 5 Ave El with the Culver. So at 9 Ave, the subway station is over the el station, and the el trains are in a subway station, even though the tunnel is barely longer than the station itself.

9 Ave station opened in June 1916, when the new West End line opened. The new Culver line did not open until March 1919, so for almost three years, 5 Ave El trains ran off the el, through the modern junction and underground station, and then into the old surface level railroad, past the ramp being built to the new elevated Culver line.

Culver train service has a fairly complex history. Up to 1931, 5 Ave El trains provided all the service, and 9 Ave must have been busy with Culver passengers changing to the West End subway trains for a faster ride and access to many more places. The wooden el trains were slow and ran no farther than the end of the Brooklyn Bridge at Park Row, Manhattan.

When the Nassau St loop in lower Manhattan finally opened in 1931, the BMT began operating a mixture of subway and el services to the Culver line. Subway service ran Monday to Saturday, to Kings Highway in rush hours and summer Saturdays, and to Coney Island midday and other Saturdays. El service went to Coney Island rush hours, nights, summer Saturdays, and all Sundays, and otherwise ended at 9 Ave station. Is that clear? The BMT didn't have enough subway cars for full service, so at rush hours and summers, the el had to pick up the service to the end of the line, so the subway trains could shortline. 9 Ave lower level saw its peak train service in these years, with both el and subway trains, and el trains reversing in the middle track during some hours.

The 5 Ave El was one of the many that closed in 1940 when the City bought the IRT and BMT systems. The subway had to handle all Culver service, except that because of the car shortage, a few el trains still handled service beyond Kings Highway in rush hours. Culver trains never ran to Broadway, but always ran either via Nassau St to end at Chambers St, or in rush hours around the loop, bridge to tunnel.

The Transit Authority fulfilled a longstanding Board of Transportation plan in October 1954 when the IND subway was connected to the Culver line at Ditmas Ave station and took over all service to Culver stations beyond that point. BMT Culver service from a single track terminal at Ditmas Ave continued as before on weekdays, but nights and weekends it was a shuttle to 36 St. Ridership dropped, and in May 1959, it was made a shuttle full time, between Ditmas Ave and 9 Ave only.

The Culver shuttle was a rail fan route by the late 1960's. It was one of the last places to find the old BMT standard subway cars, which ran it almost to the end. The dark, deteriorating lower level at 9 Ave, and the partly dismantled elevated line gave it a mood of decay. There was just one track, the center at 9 Ave and the west side on the el, and one train operated all the service. The end was obviously in sight, but it somehow hung on until 1975. Passenger use was light. For a time after abandonment, passengers were allowed a free transfer to the parallel 39 St bus line, as a replacement.