The R Broadway Local is a rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet," is colored yellow since it uses the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan.
The R operates local between 71st Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens, and 95th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, at all times except nights, when it short turns at Whitehall Street–South Ferry in Lower Manhattan. The R runs via Queens Boulevard in Queens, Broadway in Manhattan, and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. Notably, one northbound a.m. rush hour trip terminates at 96th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan instead of 71st Avenue in Queens.
Originally, the R was the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation's 2 service, running along the BMT Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn, then traveling through the Montague Street Tunnel to Manhattan and running local on the BMT Broadway Line. The 2 became the RR in 1961, which ran local along the BMT Astoria Line in Queens, terminating at Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard until it switched terminals with the N in 1987. The RR became the R in 1985. After 1987, the R ran via the IND Queens Boulevard Line to Forest Hills. There was also a variant of the RR/R that operated from Bay Ridge to Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan via the BMT Nassau Street Line from 1967 until 1987.
The R Broadway Local currently uses a fleet of R160 cars