Division A (IRT) Services 4 (all times) Opened 2 June 1917 Tracks 3 | Line IRT Jerome Avenue Line Structure Elevated Borough The Bronx | |
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Transit connections NYCT Bus: Bx32, Bx40, Bx42 Platforms 2 island platforms
cross-platform interchange Address Bronx, NY 10453, United States Locale Morris Heights, University Heights Similar Woodlawn, Mount Eden Avenue, 183rd Street, 176th Street, Mosholu Parkway | ||
Burnside Avenue is an express station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Burnside and Jerome Avenues in the Bronx, it is served by the 4 train at all times.
Contents
It also serves as a rush hour short turn northern terminal for select 4 trains from Crown Heights–Utica Avenue; they usually arrive at the Woodlawn bound platform on the express track and then run light to the Mosholu Yard.
Station layout
Burnside Avenue is the only express station (with three tracks and two island platforms) on the elevated portion of the Jerome Avenue Line. The only other express station on the Jerome Avenue Line is the underground 149th Street–Grand Concourse station.
Exits
Four exits lead from the mezzanine to either southern corner of Burnside and Jerome Avenues (two to each corner). There are extra side exits from the wooden mezzanine near the stairs to the platform, and the station is three to four stories above street level.
History
Burnside Avenue first opened as Burnside Avenue–New York University on June 2, 1917, which is further noted by the fact that New York University had a Bronx campus located northwest of the station; the neighborhood that developed there became known as University Heights before NYU sold its campus to the City University of New York under a threat of imminent bankruptcy in 1973. CUNY then acquired it to be used for the Bronx Community College, which would move its operations from the Bronx High School of Science during the Fall semester of that year to the NYU Bronx campus.
A year after the acquisition, the station was renamed to Burnside Avenue–180th Street because 180th Street was used as another name for Burnside Avenue at the time; it would further be renamed Burnside Avenue in 1979.
In a June 11, 1981 article by The New York Times, the MTA listed the station as one of 69 stations in dire need of renovation; the discovery of 69 stations by the MTA came to light on June 10 before the Times published the article. Given the urgency of this report, it prompted an early renovation that continued until 1985. Among the things that were done to the station during that time included a painted orange platform edge in addition to the yellow platform edge that was originally on each platform. New, corrugated signposts were installed and spaced evenly on the platform; these bore the station name in white lettering against a black metal sign (the font used for the signs was Standard; it was used for the agency at the time the renovation happened).
The fencing around the entrances to the platforms from the mezzanine were painted black while the rest of the platforms, including a few mushroom shaped incandescent lampposts that were installed during the renovation and the fences around each of the four entrances, were painted red; most of the lampposts bore the 180th Street name. The original hand rails, as well as the original iron maidens were also painted yellow. Two fences that were at the south end of each platform retained their paint color; the one on the Woodlawn bound platform would later be replaced with a second Communication Room.
As early as September 8, 1996, the 180th Street name began to be retired on the uncovered parts of each platform by replacing the mushroom shaped incandescent lampposts with unpainted sodium vapor lampposts. By 1999, all of the lights in those areas were sodium vapor lampposts, but the footprints for the original location of the original lampposts still remain.
This station was renovated a second time from June 17 to October 16, 2006 as part of a $55 million dollar project to renovate five stations (183rd Street, Kingsbridge Road, Bedford Park Boulevard and Mosholu Parkway being the other four) on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line, bringing them to a State of Good Repair (SoGR). During this time, the mezzanine area and staircases received a facelift, while both platform canopies and the structural beams that hold each canopy were replaced and yellow tactile edge warning strips were installed. Also, the token booth in the mezzanine was reduced in size and relocated from directly facing the main turnstiles from the unpaid side of fare control to facing the Manhattan bound stairs from behind the Woodlawn bound stairs, also from the unpaid side of fare control. To make space for artwork to be installed on platform level, the original fences were replaced with walls and windows similar to the ones found at East 177 Street.
The 2006 artwork here is called How to Get to the Moon by Laura Battle, which speaks about the relationship between the sun and moon as well as day and night.