page_title: Dual Contracts
section_title: Conditions
hierarchical_section_title: Dual Contracts / Conditions
caption_attribution_description: Chambers Street (BMT Nassau Street Line)
context_page_description: The Dual Contracts, also known as the Dual Subway System, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in the City of New York. The contracts were signed on March 19, 1913, by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. As part of the Dual Contracts, the IRT and BRT would build or upgrade several subway lines in New York City, then operate them for 49 years.
  Most of the lines of the present-day New York City Subway were built or reconstructed under these contracts. The contracts were "dual" in that they were signed between the City and two separate private companies. Both the IRT and BRT worked together to make the construction of the Dual Contracts possible.
context_section_description: Several provisions were imposed on the companies, which eventually led to their downfall and consolidation into city ownership in 1940:
  The fare was limited to five cents; that led to financial troubles for the two companies after post-World War I inflation. The BMT could charge ten cents for fare to Coney Island Terminal, as well as to stations "where such ten cent fare is now allowed, until the time when trains may be operated for continuous trips over wholly connected portions of the railroad" between Coney Island and the Chambers Street station in Manhattan.
  The City had the right to "recapture" any of the lines it built and run them as its own.
  The City was to share in the profits.
  There were other conditions in regards to specific operations of the lines, as part of a deal between the IRT, the BMT, and the Public Service Commission. Many of the conditions applied all across the dual system. For example:
  After the Commission finished constructing the line, the company was to operate it, providing its own rolling stock and furnishings.
  The companies, if they operated lines temporarily, had to operate them as if they were subway extensions. For subway extensions, if a company accepted the extension, it could operate it as part of its system; if not, the company had to pay a significant amount to the city every three months to operate it. This was implemented as part of the Queensboro Plaza trackage-sharing operation.
  The companies had operate these lines "according to the highest standards of railway operation and with due regard to the safety of the passengers and employees thereof, and of all other persons."
  Free transfers would be given at stations where needed, such as transfer stations between lines of the IRT and BMT, bus–subway transfer stations, elevated–subway transfer stations, or streetcar–subway transfer stations, according to the Commission's discretion.
  Freight, mail and express trains could use these companies' tracks if they did not disrupt passenger operations.
  Advertising was prohibited in stations, railroad tunnels, elevated structures, or other places. Bulletins telling of service changes were allowed.
  Selling things in the stations was prohibited, except if it needed for the operation of the subway, or if it was a newspaper, periodical, or magazine that the Commission had permitted.
  Each company was to post their intentions to operate newsstands in the form of proposals to the Commission.
  Some conditions applied only to certain parts of the system:
  The BMT agreed to hand out transfers at the 86th Street/Gravesend station in Brooklyn. These transfers are to the Third Avenue Line and the Fifth Avenue Line streetcar lines to 86th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway. They were also to extend these streetcar lines to 86th Street and Fourth Avenue, where a transfer could be made at the 86th Street/Fourth Avenue station.
  The BMT also agreed to make transfers with the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad from the 34th Street subway station to the 33rd Street PATH station. The transfers applied to passengers going to Grand Central Terminal, since the H&M had originally planned an extension there.
  The IRT agreed to equip and operate the Steinway Tunnel until it was rebuilt and completed. Then, the Steinway Tunnel was still a trolley tunnel with no subway connection. Transfers were to be made to IRT rapid transit lines at the Grand Central–42nd Street station. The Commission approved single-car rolling stock for the line.
caption: The large Chambers Street station was the BMT's Manhattan hub.
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