Just what was the ‘A’ Train, and why should I have taken it?
As I’m sitting here whiling away the afternoon on the internet while chewing my steak, watching train videos on youtube.com and listening to my collection of train music, one selection came across my playlist “Take the “A” Train” by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys (just one of many versions). It’s a jumpy little tune with a good beat, so I wondered what kind of train could have inspired such a toe-tapping rythm. I Googled the “A” Train and after getting a google + 1 results I found some music videos and a Wikipedia entry on the “A” Train.
It says the “A” Train is a jazz number Billy Strayhorn played mostly by Duke Ellington’s band. And it says it refers to the A Subway service to Harlem. So, Wikipedia says the A Subway system is the longest (31 miles) one-seat ride subway.
In the lyrics, I’m advised that taking the “A” Train is the way to go if I want the quickest ride to Harlem. Has anyone ever tested this theory?
Browsing further through Google I found links that the “A” Train is also a set of NASA satellites and there’s also an “A” Train (as in railroad train) in Sydney.
Being naturally skeptical of most internet sources, my question presented here is will the real “A” Train please stand up?
It’s funny I never tried to get to the bottom of this mystery before. I used to joke about every train I took was the “A” Train, especially when I didn’t know which train I was getting on. It became worse when I moved to Germany because there are a lot more passenger trains here than in America. Everytime I’ve taken a train ride with someone here I get in the following altercation:
The “A” train I believe you are referring to IS a New York City subway system train that (if my recollections from my youth are correct) runs in the borough of Brooklyn. I am sure others on this forum can shed more light on the details of where this train runs. Hope this limited information helps you.
When I visited NYC a few years ago, I made it a point to ride the “A” train. IIRC, I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn, then I caught the Subway A line back through Manhattan Island, through Harlem and to the Bronyx.
There was a MLB pitcher named John Rocker that said he rode the train. According to him it was full of unwed mothers, pimps and drug dealers. Saturday Night Live picked up on that.
Rocker was suspended for the first 14 days of the 2000 season by Selig for making racial and ethnic remarks the commissioner deemed insensitive. The penalty, originally set to cover 28 days, was reduced by an arbitrator following a grievance.
The “A” train was definitely a New York subway train, as all the above have stated. I don’t know its route, but I have the Duke Ellington version among my music.
Since you’re speaking of trains in Germany, I once rode the Schnellzug Osten (Orient Express), coming out of Paris, and changed trains somewhere to get myself back to Frankfurt. I was tempted to stay on the train and go AWOL, hoping to meet up with a beautiful lady spy, but thought better of it.
John Rocker made his comments about the 7 line, not the A. The 7 line runs out to Shea Stadium, where the New York Mets play. John Rocker frequently visited Shea when he played for the Atlanta Braves.
The A train runs from Inwood 207th Street in Manhattan to Far Rockaway in Queens, passing through Brooklyn along the way. It’s the longest subway line in the city. It was one of the first parts of the IND subway constructed.
You must take the “A” train
To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem
If you miss the “A” train
You’ll find you missed the quickest way to Harlem
Hurry, get on, now it’s coming
Listen to those rails a-thrumming
All aboard, get on the “A” train
Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem
Written by Billy Strayhorn, performed by Duke Ellington, and most famously sung By Ella Fitzgarald
Sugar Hill is a neighborhood in Harlem, accessible from the 125th Street Station. The reason that the “A” train was the quickest way to get to Harlem (from midtown) was that it ran as an express. The “D” train made all the local stops.
As a high school and college student I used to ride it quite frequently. That was more than fifty years ago, and I haven’t been anywhere near it in all that time.
The original A train route was opened in 1932 and extended from Chambers Street on Church Avenue in lower Manhattan, near but not at what became the World Trade Center, via Church, Lafayette, a diagonal without street directly above, Eighth Avenue, Central Park West, Eighth Avenue, St. Nicholous Avenue, another diagonal, Fort Washington Avenue, to West 207th Street in Washington Heights, all in the borough of Manhattan. About a year later it was extended to Jay and Schermerhorn Streets in Brooklyn, a few years later along Fulton Street (Broooklyn) under the still-operating BMT elevated to Rockaway Avenue. Upon Unification of the subway system in 1940, the BMT elevated was cut back to Rockaway Avenue, with a free paper transfer between the el and subway stations, and the same proceedure inaugurated at the Franklin Avenue station for free transfer to the remaining part of the el station used by the Birghton Line Franklin Shuttle and sunny summer Sunday Coney Island - Franklin Express. This made the A train part of the only route giving a nickel (5 cent ride) between Coney Island and all parts of New York City not served by the BMT. When the 10-cent fare replaced the nickel, other free transfer points were inaugurated and the A-train and Franklin Shuttle lost this exclusivity.
The reason for the song: At the time, 125th Street, Harlem’s “Main Street”, was served by the original subway, the IRT Broadway line, at the elevated “Manhattanville viaduct” 125th Street Station, the second station at 125th at Lenox Avenue used by the Broadway-7th Avenue line to the Bronx (Lenox is now “Malcome X”), and the Lexington Avenue line station at Lexington Avenue. The 3rd Avenue Elevated was still running with its station at 125th Street and 3rd Avenue. Prior to 1940’s unification there were also elevated stations at 125th Street and EIGHTH Avenue used by the 9th Avenue Elevated, and the Second Avenue E
True…but MN is a whole lot safer than the subway. I rode MN (back before it was MN) to and from GCT back in the 1970’s and when we stopped at 125th. Street on our way in and out…wow, what a depressing area. I understand, though, that the 125th. Street area has really been cleaned up and “gentrified” quite a bit and upwardly mobile New Yorkers are finding it THE place to buy loft apartments, etc.
My Grandmother used to tell me of the days when she was a little girl and they lived in Manhattan (this would have been back in the very early 1900’s) and would travel up “into the country” up to 125th. Street in Harlem to buy produce and other items and traveling all the way to Yonkers and the like would take all day by horse and buggy. Grandma passed away in 1986 at age 89. Oh my oh my, how things have changed Grandma!
Ya I rode the A Train when I was in New York 10 years ago. I was coming from JFK, but I can’t rememeber now if I had to switch trains…I don’t think so, I think it went through Brooklyn and under the river to Manhattan, I got off around 42nd st. to go to the hotel I would be staying at, so didn’t go all the way to Harlem.
Another good train ride in NYC is the commuter line going from Grand Central up the east side of Manhattan then along the east bank of the Hudson up to Poughkeepsie, the old New York Central ‘water level route’. IIRC 72 miles one way, in 1996 a round trip was under $20. Nice trip for a Sunday afternoon.
After WWII the A was extended to Lefferts Avenue via a portion of the old Fulton el structure, the outer and more modern portion beyond Grant Avenue that could acommodate regular weight subway equipment. Then an elevated junction was built, and the A took over the old LIRR route to Rockaway Park and Far Rockaway. Generally, A’s alternate between Lefferts and Far Rockaway, with shuttle connections to Rockaway Park, but with two or three inbound rush hour through A’s and outbound in the evening for Rockaway Park. There is a station for Kennedy Airport and the connecting air train (was a bus 10 years ago) on the Rockaway line.