Borough Manhattan Division B (BMT) | Locale Midtown Manhattan Line BMT Broadway Line | |
 | ||
Address West 57th Street & Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10019 Services N (all times)
Q (all times)
R (all except late nights)
W (weekdays only) | ||
57th Street–Seventh Avenue is an express station on the BMT Broadway Line of the New York City Subway. Located in Midtown Manhattan at the intersection of 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, it is served by the N and Q trains at all times, the R train at all times except late nights, and the W train on weekdays.
Contents
On the subway map and on announcements, the station is called 57th Street–Seventh Avenue, but is also sometimes called Midtown–57th Street. It is directly adjacent to Carnegie Hall.
Station layout
When this station opened on July 10, 1919, the BMT Broadway Line had ended north of this station as six trackways, of which only two tracks (local tracks) continued to the 60th Street Tunnel to Queens. The other four trackways, both the express tracks and the outermost trackways (both of the outermost trackways are ramps which have never been used) curve slightly west before ending, which were a provision for the line to run to Upper Manhattan via Central Park West.
With four tracks and two island platforms, this station is the northernmost express station on the BMT Broadway Line. Much of the BMT system is chained from the zero point here. The N, R, and W trains use the local tracks, which continue north under 59th and 60th Streets to Queens, while Q trains and selected rush-hour N trains use the center express tracks to continue north along the BMT 63rd Street Line to Lexington Avenue–63rd Street and the Second Avenue Subway. Before the BMT 63rd Street Line was built in 1989, the express tracks continued as layup spurs north of the station (although construction of the 63rd Street line from 1971 to 1978 continued the section between this station and Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station). The express tracks ran for about 400 feet.
North of the station, the local tracks continue into the 60th Street Tunnel to Queens, while the express tracks continue to 63rd Street, with switches to the 60th Street tunnel. South of the station, there are also crossovers between the two express tracks, between both northbound tracks, and between both southbound tracks.
This station underwent an overhaul in the late 1970s, which included fixing the station's structure and replacing the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting with 1970s modern-look wall tile band and tablet mosaics, signs and fluorescent lights. Staircases and platform edges were also repaired.
In 1992–1993, the station received a major overhaul with state-of-the-art repairs as well as upgrading the station for ADA compliance. The original late 1910s tiling was restored, repairs were made to the staircases, new tiling on the floors, upgrades to the station's lights and public address system, installation of ADA safety treads along the platform edge, new signs, and new trackbeds in both directions. Accessibility to the mezzanine was further increased by the addition of a usable elevator on the southwest corner of 57th Street. While elevators have yet to be installed for platform access, it allows disabled access to the fare booth and MetroCard vending machines.
Exits
Proposed extension
North of this station are tunnel stub headings running straight from the local tracks for a proposed line under Central Park West or Morningside Avenue, that would have terminated at 145th Street or 155th Street.
When the BRT / BMT was building the Broadway line as part of the Dual Contracts, the company also wanted to be awarded the Central Park West / Eighth Avenue route, which was on the planning boards at that time. The company figured that if they built ramps from the Broadway line that could naturally be extended to an Eighth Avenue line, they would get a toehold on being awarded that line, rather than lose out to the IRT, the only other subway operator when the Dual Contracts were built. The BMT / BRT never built that line for various reasons including the bankruptcy of the company after the Malbone Street Wreck and Mayor Hylan's plan to include the Eighth Avenue / CPW route in the IND system. The ramps were built but never used for revenue service. They were eventually used for storage until the tracks were disconnected.
The disused trackways for the proposed line ramp up and run for about 500 feet.
The ramp on the northbound side has a Maintenance-of-Way shed built on it, and the trackway on the southbound side also has a storage shed sitting in it, just north of where the local tracks come in, but this shed is few hundred feet north of the shed on the opposite trackway of the other side of the tunnel.
Some of the actual track on the trackways remain, but are covered by many years of dirt. They can be seen from passing trains. The never-used trackways curve slightly west before ending.