Division B (BMT) Services L (all times) Structure Underground Opened 30 June 1924 Locale Williamsburg | Line BMT Canarsie Line Transit connections NYCT Bus: B62 Platforms 1 island platform Borough Brooklyn Tracks 2 | |
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Address Brooklyn, NY 11211, United States Similar Lorimer Street/Metropolitan Avenue, Graham Avenue, Canarsie–Rockaway Parkway, Montrose Avenue, Driggs Avenue | ||
Bedford Avenue is a station on the BMT Canarsie Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and North Seventh Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, it is served by the L train at all times. With an annual total of 9,388,289 passengers for 2015, Bedford Avenue is the busiest subway station in Brooklyn outside of the borough's central business district, as well as the busiest station in Brooklyn served by one subway service.
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History
Bedford Avenue opened on June 30, 1924, as part of the initial segment of the underground Canarsie Line that originally stretched from Sixth Avenue station in Manhattan to Montrose Avenue station, built by the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) under the system of Dual Contracts.
Ridership
Bedford Avenue has experienced a surge in ridership along with the recent gentrification of Williamsburg. In the 1970s, the station had a fairly low annual ridership of 1.2 million, amounting to an average of 3,000 entries during weekdays. In 2000, there were 3,783,000 boardings recorded at the station, but after the neighborhood was re-zoned in 2005, the MTA noted even higher ridership. By 2007, ridership had increased over 50%, to 5,776,000 annual passengers. In 2008, Bedford Avenue was used by more than 6 million people, making it the 53rd most-used subway station in New York City and one of the busiest in Brooklyn. In 2015, approximately 9.4 million riders used this station, amounting to 27,132 passengers per weekday.
Growing passenger numbers along the line, partly influenced by Bedford Avenue station, have made the L train one of the most overcrowded in the system, a fact that has adverse effects on riders. For the first time, Bedford Avenue broke seven million entries in 2010, receiving press for its particularly high weekend passenger volume. Crowding has become such an issue that politicians have called upon the MTA to "create a schedule that is more reflective of ridership patterns."
Station layout
At platform level, Bedford Avenue utilizes a simple island platform setup with two tracks. Trains to Canarsie use track Q1 with trains to Manhattan using track Q2; the Q- prefix denotes that the track is on the Canarsie Line, but this is only used by MTA officials and not by the general public. Bedford Avenue station has a brown-and-green mosaic pattern with geometric shapes and embellished "B" ornamentations.
In 2019, as part of the wide scope in the rebuilding of the Canarsie Tubes that were damaged during Hurricane Sandy, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is going to renovate the Bedford Avenue station. At the Bedford Avenue entrance, two new street-level stairways will be built, platform stair capacity would be increased, the mezzanine would be expanded, turnstiles would be added, and new elevators would be built. At the Driggs Avenue entrance, two new street-level stairways would be added, the mezzanine area would be redesigned with additional turnstiles installed, and a new platform stairway would be built.
Exits
There are two sets of entrance and exit points. The western exits are one stair each to the southern and eastern corners of Bedford Avenue and North 7th Street and contains a 24-hour booth. The eastern exits are one stair each to the southern and eastern corners of North 7th Street and Driggs Avenue. The northbound B62 bus connects at the former exit and the southbound B62 connects at the latter.
In popular culture
In the Netflix TV series Marvel's Daredevil, a scene in "Into the Ring" has Foggy Nelson meet with Sgt. Brett Mahoney outside the entrances to Bedford Avenue, with the signage on the stairwell altered to dress it up as 50th Street on the IND Eighth Avenue Line.