Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Pelham Bay Park (IRT Pelham Line)

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Division
  
A (IRT)

Structure
  
Elevated

Borough
  
The Bronx

Tracks
  
2

Line
  
IRT Pelham Line

Opened
  
20 December 1920

Locale
  
Pelham Bay

Pelham Bay Park (IRT Pelham Line)

Services
  
6  (all times except weekdays until 8:45 p.m., peak direction) <6> (weekdays until 8:45 p.m., peak direction)

Transit connections
  
NYCT Bus: Bx5, Bx12, Bx12 SBS, Bx24, Bx29 MTA Bus: Bx23, BxM8, Q50 Bee-Line Bus: 45

Platforms
  
1 island platform (in service) 2 side platforms (unused)

Address
  
Bronx, NY 10461, United States

Similar
  
Parkchester–East 177th Street, Hunts Point Avenue, Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall/Cha, Buhre Avenue, City Hall

Pelham Bay Park is the northern terminal station of the IRT Pelham Line of the New York City Subway. Located by Pelham Bay Park, at the intersection of the Bruckner Expressway and Westchester Avenue in the Bronx, it is served by the 6 train at all times, except weekdays in the peak direction, when the <6> serves it.

Contents

Station layout

This is an elevated station which has two tracks, one island platform and two disused side platforms. The tracks end at bumper blocks at the north end of the platforms. The station was formerly set up as a Spanish solution with alighting passengers using the side platforms and boarding passengers using the island platform. Now all passengers use the island platform.

During 2005, rooms were located on the side platforms for temporary crew use while the crew quarters at the north end of the station was rebuilt. At the south end is a staff-only crossover bridge between the center and west side platform. It also used to connect to the east side platform but that portion has been removed. There is also a tower and crew facilities at the south end. There are old style signs which are covered over on the main platform.

Pelham Bay Park is the only New York City Subway terminal that does not use numerical track labels, but rather track labels based on the compass points of the world (i.e. North track, South track). Punch boxes exist, however, at the south end of the island platform where the corresponding track numbers (Track 1 and 2) are used,

In 1981, the MTA listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.

Exits

Fare control is in the mezzanine below the platforms. There are two staircases, an escalator, and an elevator that lead to Westchester Avenue. There is also a pedestrian bridge from the station entrance that crosses the Bruckner Expressway and leads to Pelham Bay Park. The elevators were renovated from June 2015 to April 2016.

Unbuilt line expansion

In 1968, the Program for Action was proposed, and as part of the project, the Pelham Line would have been extended to a modern terminal nearby in the Co-op City housing complex, with the conversion of the line to IND standards, making this station no longer a terminus. Due to the 1975–76 fiscal crisis that affected the city, most of the remaining projects did not have funding, so they were declined. Expected to be completed by the mid-1970s and early 1980s, lines for the Program for Action had to be reduced or canceled altogether due to the 1970s fiscal crisis.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three superstition

In the novel The Taking of Pelham One Two Three by Morton Freedgood and its film adaptations (the 1974 original and the 1998 and 2009 remakes), the train that gets hijacked leaves the Pelham Bay Park station at 1:23 p.m. (hence the title). Realizing that it would become too much of a reminder to the public, after the 1974 film's release, the New York City Transit Authority, for many years, banned any schedule of a train leaving this station either at 1:23 in the afternoon or in the morning. Eventually this policy was rescinded, but due to the superstitions involved, dispatchers have continued to avoid scheduling a Manhattan-bound train to leave at 1:23.

Nearby points of interest

  • Pelham Bay Park
  • Bartow-Pell Mansion
  • City Island
  • Co-op City
  • Bay Plaza
  • Orchard Beach
  • References

    Pelham Bay Park (IRT Pelham Line) Wikipedia