Division B (BMT/IND) Levels 2 Borough Manhattan Level 2 | Structure Underground Phone +1 877-690-5116 Opened 10 September 1932 Locale West Village, Chelsea | |
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Line IND Eighth Avenue Line
BMT Canarsie Line Services A (all times)
C (all except late nights)
E (all times)
L (all times) Transit connections NYCT Bus: M12, M14A, M14D, M20 Address New York, NY 10011, United States Similar W 14 St/8 Av, 8 Av/w 14 St, Hudson St/w 13 St, 8 Av/Jane St, 14 Street / 7 Ave | ||
14th Street–Eighth Avenue is an underground New York City Subway station complex shared by the IND Eighth Avenue Line and the BMT Canarsie Line. It is located at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan, and served by the:
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The whole complex is ADA-compliant, with the accessible station entrance at 14th Street. This complex was renovated at the beginning of the 21st century.
This station had two artworks installed here. The first one was in 1989 by Ross Lewis named Parallel Motion. It shows images of moving bodies in the mezzanine drawn by brushstrokes using Chinese calligraphy. It was removed in 1995 and is now at the lobby of Public School 89 in Battery Park City. The second art installation by Tom Otterness, called Life Underground, was installed in 2001. It features whimsical bronze sculptures, including a sewer alligator, scattered about the station.
There are a number of MTA New York City Transit Authority training facilities located in the Mezzanine.
Exits
The station complex's three sets of entrances are located at the intersections of Eighth Avenue and 14th, 15th, and 16th Streets. The northernmost one has an unstaffed bank of turnstiles, two staircases going up to the northwest corner of 16th Street and Eighth Avenue, and one going up to each eastern side of the intersection. A passageway leads to the front entrance of 111 Eighth Avenue (the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey building now occupied by Google) at the southwest corner. A sign on the sidewalk outside the building indicates an entrance to the station is available inside. On either side the center of the mezzanine, a set of full height turnstiles leads to a staircase going up to either northern corners of 15th Street and Eighth Avenue.
The full-time fare control area is at the south end of the mezzanine. On the east side is the transfer passageway between the platforms containing a ramp, staircase, and elevator. A set of full height turnstiles leads to a staircase going up to the northeast corner of 14th Street and 8th Avenue. The full-time turnstile bank has a token booth, two staircases to either southern corners of the aforementioned intersection, and one staircase and elevator going up to the northwest corner. There is a direct entrance/exit to the BMT platforms at one bank of turnstiles here. This area has a signal training school for New York City Transit employees.
IND Eighth Avenue Line platforms
14th Street is an express station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line that has four tracks and two island platforms. Opened on September 10, 1932, this is the southernmost Eighth Avenue Line station that is actually under Eighth Avenue itself. South of here, the line curves east to Sixth Avenue via Greenwich Avenue.
During daytime hours, C and E trains stop on the outer local tracks while A trains stop on the center express tracks. During late night hours, all service is on the local tracks. Both outer track walls have a medium Yellow-Orange trim line with a Terra Cotta Brown border and "14th" written in black on the white tiles below. Both platforms have yellow i-beam columns running along their centers. The original 1931 trim line was a deep yellow-orange set in a course three tiles high with no border. There are many staircases and one elevator from each side going up to the full-length mezzanine above, which has same style trim line, name tablets, and columns.
BMT Canarsie Line platform
Eighth Avenue on the BMT Canarsie Line has two tracks and one island platform. It is the western (railroad north) terminal of the BMT Canarsie Line. The station is served by the L train at all times.
Eighth Avenue station opened on May 30, 1931 and was the last station to open on the Canarsie Line, built as an extension from the main line that opened seven years earlier westward to Sixth Avenue, the previous terminal.
Eighth Avenue uses a single island platform with two tracks which are designated officially as Q1 and Q2; however, these chaining numbers are only used by train crew and MTA personnel as their main purpose is distance-marking. Originally, they were named QW1 and QW2 since Eighth Avenue was a western extension of the Canarsie Line, but the line has been re-chained simply as Q. Eighth Avenue is the zero-point of the Canarsie Line's chaining, that is, it is the starting point of all distances on the line. The tracks end at bumper blocks just past the west end of the platform.
The station was originally decorated in a more IND style than the rest of the Canarsie Line, which was built by the BMT. The original tile band was two-tone ultramarine blue with "8th Av" captions. However, a 1999 renovation subsequently removed the IND style and replaced it with the BMT quilt-like tile pattern that exists on all other subway stations on the BMT Canarsie Line. The current tile color scheme is white with red stripes and historically-correct mosaics predominantly beige and tan, with an oddly "regular" pattern of red, yellow, green and off-white in the center. To signify the station's location, there are small "8" decorations set in teal-green hexagons, as found in other stations on the line.