The End of the Line – Rochester’s Subway: The story of the smallest city in America to build and abandon a subway
Directed by James P. Harte and Frederick Armstrong
Animatus Studio, 1994 (original VHS release) and 2005 (DVD release), 45 minutes with 45 minutes of DVD bonus features

Two weeks ago, I posted a short history of the Rochester Subway (see here). The original Erie Canal ran through the center of Rochester, but when state engineers relocated the canal three miles south in the early-1900s, the city was left with a nine-mile-long empty ditch. City fathers decided to create a trolley system including a two-mile underground portion in the city center covered by the newly fabricated Broad Street. The subway opened in 1927 to great fanfare and high expectations, but shut down only 29-years later in 1956 due to dwindling passenger traffic.
In 1994, Rochester filmmaker James P. Harte and animator Frederick Armstrong put together The End of the Line – Rochester’s Subway, a 45-minute docu-history of the subway. It aired on the local PBS station and also on History Channel (which actually presented history documentaries back in the day). The film was available on VHS and of course I purchased a copy.
In 2005, Harte and Armstrong decided to re-release The End of the Line on DVD. In addition to the original 45-minute documentary, the DVD edition also features 45-minutes of bonus features (see below).
Harte and Armstrong did a “decent” job putting together the original documentary twenty-nine years ago. The production quality isn’t top notch by today’s standards, but we must take into account that digital tools for filmmaking have advanced quite a bit in the intervening years. I appreciated the many historic photo stills and film clips the creators were able to gather. The story, narration, and accompanying folksy music score are well-done.
I delayed purchasing the DVD version for 18 years, but I’m so glad I finally did. I appreciated seeing the 45-minute documentary once again and I especially enjoyed viewing the 45-minutes of bonus features for the first time.
DVD copies of The End of the Line – Rochester’s Subway are still available from Animatus Studio at $24.94. Order here. The documentary is also conveniently available on Amazon Prime Video.
DVD Bonus Features:
- Three docu-shorts that debuted with the 2005 DVD release:
- The Steel Wheel (10:40) – Take a round trip ride on the subway as it existed in the 1950s
- Prodigal Son – Rochester Car 60 (13:45) – Footage of the last surviving subway passenger car filmed during its transport from Albany, NY to the Rochester chapter of the NRHS in 1998. Included is an interview with the last surviving subway motorman, Don Espenmiller (d. 2011).
- Motherless Child – Remnants of the Subway (8:30) – A look at some of the crumbling remains of the subway as they existed in 2005, including “Phantom Run,” a ride through the two-mile-long abandoned Broad Street tunnel.
- Outtakes
- Photo Archive – 150 still images