21st Street–Queensbridge station

Coordinates: 40°45′15″N 73°56′33″W / 40.75417°N 73.94250°W / 40.75417; -73.94250
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Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the station actually at 21st Street & Jackson Avenue, see
21st Street (IND Crosstown Line)
.

 21 Street–Queensbridge
 
Q103
StructureUnderground
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2
Other information
OpenedOctober 29, 1989; 34 years ago (1989-10-29)[2]
AccessibleThis station is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ADA-accessible
Opposite-
direction
transfer		Yes
Traffic
20231,579,379[3] Decrease 29.2%
Rank200 out of 423[3]
Services
Preceding station New York City Subway New York City Subway Following station
<F> two rush hour trains, peak direction
toward Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue
 36th Street
F late nights
Queens Blvd local
<F> two rush hour trains, peak direction​
toward Jamaica–179th Street
Location
21st Street–Queensbridge station is located in New York City Subway
21st Street–Queensbridge station
21st Street–Queensbridge station is located in New York City
21st Street–Queensbridge station
21st Street–Queensbridge station is located in New York
21st Street–Queensbridge station
Track layout

Legend
to
Roosevelt Ave (express)
or 36th Street (local)
Stub tracks
to Roosevelt Island
Street map

Map

Station service legend
Symbol Description
Stops all times Stops all times
Stops all times except late nights Stops all times except late nights
Stops rush hours in the peak direction only (limited service) Stops rush hours in the peak direction only (limited service)
Stops late nights only Stops late nights only

The 21st Street–Queensbridge station is a

<F>
train during rush hours in the reverse peak direction.

The station contains two tracks and two side platforms, connected by an overhead mezzanine. It opened in October 1989 with the opening of the 63rd Street Line. From its opening until 2001, this was the terminal of the line, although it was not originally intended as a terminal station. The 63rd Street Line was originally part of a plan for a Queens Bypass Line running along the Long Island Rail Road Main Line. However, due to a lack of funds, the line terminated here, with layup tracks going up to 29th Street. As a result, the tunnel became known as the "tunnel to nowhere."

In December 2001, the 63rd Street Tunnel Connection opened, allowing trains from the IND Queens Boulevard Line to use the line. This station then became a through station, serving express F trains since then.

History

View of the overpass and station architecture

The current

Queens Plaza station of the Queens Boulevard line. There would have been a pedestrian transfer passageway between the two stations.[10][11][12][13][14]

The station was placed at 21st Street, serving the Queensbridge Houses to the west, and commercial and industrial buildings to the east. The station was added to the plans following lobbying from the local community.[14][15][16] During construction, a large amount of disturbance was created along 41st Avenue, which runs through the heart of Queensbridge.[14]

The project faced extensive delays. As early as 1976, the Program for Action had been reduced to seven stations on the Archer Avenue and 63rd Street lines and was not projected to be complete for another decade.[17] By October 1980, officials considered stopping construction on the 63rd Street line.[18][19] Usage estimates for the 21st Street–Queensbridge station were calculated in 1984 at 220 passengers per hour unless a connection was made to the rest of the system.[20] The MTA voted in 1984 to connect the tunnel to the local tracks of the IND Queens Boulevard Line at a cost of $222 million. The section of the line up to Long Island City was projected to open by the end of 1985,[21] but flooding in the tunnel caused the opening to be delayed indefinitely.[22] The MTA's contractors concluded in February 1987 that the tunnel was structurally sound,[23] and the federal government's contractors affirmed this finding in June 1987.[24]

This station opened on October 29, 1989,

terminal prior to the connection with the IND Queens Boulevard Line.[2][26] The Q train served the station on rush hours and weekday middays, the B train stopped there on evenings and weekends, and the F terminated here during late nights; all services used the Sixth Avenue Line.[2] For the first couple of months after the station opened, the JFK Express to Kennedy Airport also served the station until it was discontinued on April 15, 1990.[27] The tunnel had gained notoriety as the "tunnel to nowhere" both during its planning and after its opening, with 21st Street being the line's only stop in Queens.[2][7] The connection to the Queens Boulevard Line began construction in 1994 and was completed and opened in 2001, almost thirty years after construction of the 63rd Street Tunnel began. Since then, the F train has been rerouted to serve this station at all times.[28]: 5 [29]: 2 [30][31][32]

The MTA completed a refurbishment of the station in May 2023. The project included repairing the platforms and stairways, adding lighting, fixing the canopy above the main entrance, and renovating employee rooms.

Lexington Avenue-63rd Street and 21st Street–Queensbridge at all times except late nights, stopping at Roosevelt Island.[35][36]

Station layout

Ground Street level Exit/entrance
Basement 1 Mezzanine Fare control, station agent, MetroCard machines
Disabled access Elevator at northwest corner of 21st Street and 41st Avenue
Basement 2
Platform level 		Side platform Disabled access
Southbound ← "F" train"F" express train toward Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue (Roosevelt Island)
Northbound → "F" train"F" express train toward Jamaica–179th Street (36th Street late nights, Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue other times) →
Side platform Disabled access
Basement 3
East Side Access 		Track 1 ←      City Terminal Zone
Track 2 ←      City Terminal Zone →
Escalator entrance
Elevator entrance

The 21st Street–Queensbridge station has two tracks and two

Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue during the day and 36th Street at night.[39] The next station to the south is Roosevelt Island.[40]

This underground station's only

mezzanine is at the east end of station adjacent to the Manhattan-bound platform. Access to both platforms is via an overpass above the tracks, with staircases, escalators and elevators to platform level. At this point, the station has a high ceiling.[38] The platform walls as well as the floor are made of brick, and towards the top of the platform walls is a line of larger brown sheets, on these are the station signs at regular intervals that say "21 Street–Queensbridge." Above this is a thin black strip of metal and above this are yellow squares that take the platform walls up to the station ceiling that is made of concrete.[41] There are no columns between the two tracks or on the platforms, except near the mezzanine and overpass.[13][38]

As with other stations constructed as part of the Program for Action, the 21st Street–Queensbridge station contained technologically advanced features such as air-cooling, noise insulation,

CCTV monitors, public announcement systems, electronic platform signage, and escalator and elevator entrances.[42]

Exits

Outside of

fare control, the mezzanine leads to two street stairs at the northeast corner of 21st Street and 41st Avenue. An elevator and escalators are at the northwest corner of the same intersection.[16][38]

Track layout

Until the connection to the Queens Boulevard Line opened, this station shared the characteristic of a two side platformed terminal station with

diamond crossover switch to the west which was used to turn trains.[46]

Stub tracks east of the station

East of the station, before the line connects to the

Forest Hills–71st Avenue planned in 1968. At a proposed station at Northern Boulevard, for which the 29th Street tail tracks might have also been built, a transfer concourse to the Queens Plaza station would have allowed transfers between local, express, and bypass trains.[10][11][12][13][43][51][48]

The current bellmouth, built along with the Queens Boulevard connection, is two levels deep with two additional stub-end subway tracks named T1A and T2A.[50] It is viable for future construction of the bypass or the Northern Boulevard transfer station. The original bellmouth stopped at 29th Street.[44][50] The lower level of the bellmouth was excavated in 2003 for the LIRR East Side Access project, which also extended the subway stub tracks farther east towards Sunnyside Yard;[50][52][53][54] the lower-level tracks opened in 2023.[55] Just above the connection sits the 29th Street Ventilation Complex, built with the connector, in the site of a former parking lot.[44][47][48][50] West of the station, a second ventilation complex lies in Queensbridge Park between Vernon Boulevard and the East River.[50]

Ridership

In 2019, the station had 3,516,992 boardings, making it the 144th most used station in the 423-station system. This amounted to an average of 11,184 passengers per weekday.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Glossary". Second Avenue Subway Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) (PDF). Vol. 1. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. March 4, 2003. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d Lorch, Donatella (October 29, 1989). "The 'Subway to Nowhere' Now Goes Somewhere". The New York Times. p. 37. Archived from the original on August 17, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d "Annual Subway Ridership (2018–2023)". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2024.
  4. ISBN 978-0-82325-369-2
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  8. ^ a b Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority (November 7, 1967). Metropolitan transportation, a program for action. Report to Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of New York (Report). New York. Retrieved October 1, 2015 – via Internet Archive.
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  13. ^ a b c Burks, Edward C. (August 7, 1976). "New York Improving Subway, But Still Trails Foreign Cities" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  14. ^ a b c Lichtenstein, Grace (May 9, 1978). "Planned 40-Mile Queens Subway, Cut to 15, is Costly and Behind Time" (PDF). The New York Times. p. 68. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  15. ^ Daley, Suzanne (November 1, 1984). "63d St. Subway Tunnel: More Setbacks for a Troubled Project". The New York Times. p. B1. Archived from the original on October 10, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
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  20. Urban Mass Transit Administration
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  21. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived
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External links

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