14th Street–Union Square (New York City Subway)

Exits

IRT Lexington Avenue Line platforms

14th Street–Union Square, opened on October 27, 1904, is an express station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line that has four tracks and two island platforms. The uptown and downtown platforms are offset from each other and slightly curved. Gap-filling movable platforms on the downtown side are automatically operated via proximity sensors when trains arrive. The station's mezzanines are located over the platforms.

The station has two abandoned local side platforms; the northbound one is visible through windows, bordered with wide, bright red frames. From the north end of the downtown platform's mezzanine, the adjacent side platform can be seen through a hole in the plywood.

1991 accident

On August 28, 1991, an accident just north of the station killed five riders and injured 215 others in one of the worst wrecks since a crash at Times Square–42nd Street on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line in 1928 that killed 16 people. The train operator, Robert Ray, was intoxicated and had been overshooting platforms during the entire run from Woodlawn in the Bronx. Just north of this station, his Utica Avenue-bound 4 train was to be shifted to the local track due to repair work on the express one. He was running at 40 mph (65 km/h) at a 10 mph (16 km/h) zone and took the switch so fast that only the first car made it through the crossover. The rest of the train was involved in a derailment that led to a massive pile-up. Cars 1435, 1436, 1437, 1439, and 1440 were essentially scrapped on the site, and the IRT Lexington Line suffered heavy structural damage as a result. Service was disrupted for six days (with trains terminating at 59th Street for the duration) as transit workers cleaned up the wreckage. The entire infrastructure, including signals, switches, track, roadbed, cabling, and 23 support columns needed to be replaced. Ray was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison, but released in April 2002 for good behavior.

The wreck occurred at the entry to a former pocket track. Like 72nd Street on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, this station was built with extra tracks on the approach to the station. These were between the local and express tracks and approximately 300 feet (91 m) long. The idea was to have a "stacking" track where a train could be held momentarily until the platform cleared for it to enter the station. The tracks here and at 72nd Street were rendered useless when train lengths grew beyond these tracks' capacity. When the damage from the 1991 wreck was repaired, the stacking track was removed.

BMT Broadway Line platforms

14th Street–Union Square, opened on September 5, 1917, is an express station on the BMT Broadway Line that has four tracks and two island platforms.

It is the southernmost station in Manhattan with a cross-platform interchange between all four Broadway services. A mosaic on the platform side walls is a depiction of "the junction of Broadway and … Bowery Road, 1828," as the area was once known. The mezzanine and crossover level has been reconstructed as well. Some former passageways and stairways have been closed off, including one immediately adjacent to the southernmost staircase on the northbound side.

This station was overhauled in the late 1970s. The MTA replaced the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting with the 1970s wall tile band and tablet mosaics, signs and fluorescent lights. They also fixed staircases and platform edges. In 2002, the station was upgraded for ADA-accessibility and its original late 1910s tiling was restored. As part of the upgrade, the MTA repaired the staircases, re-tiled for the walls and floors, upgraded the station's lights and the public address system, installed yellow safety treads along the platform edge, new signs, and new trackbeds in both directions. The station now has an elevator on both platforms as well as connection to the station entrances and passageway to the IRT Lexington Avenue Line.

In 2005, an artwork called City Glow by Chiho Aoshima was installed here.

BMT Canarsie Line platform

Union Square on the BMT Canarsie Line opened on June 30, 1924, as part of the 14th Street–Eastern Line, which ran from Sixth Avenue under the East River and through Williamsburg to Montrose Avenue and Bushwick Avenues. The station has two tracks and one island platform with numerous stairways and exits leading from it. There is one mezzanine attached to this station with entrances on the south side of 14th Street between Broadway and University Place. Other entrances in the complex serve the other services that stop here. The original mosaic band of sky blue, sea green, lime green and yellow ochre stands clearly visible above new green-bordered tile panels. The station has been renovated and is now ADA-accessible with a single elevator going up from the platform to the mezzanine.