34th Street–Penn Station (IND Eighth Avenue Line)

34 Street–Penn Station   Penn Station)
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 side platforms (local) 1 island platform (express)
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	September 10, 1932; 91 years ago (1932-09-10)[2]
Accessible	ADA-accessible
Opposite- direction transfer	Yes
Traffic
2023	16,974,543[3]  18.5%
Rank	6 out of 423[3]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal A  ​C  ​E  services split Express 14th Street A  ​C  toward Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue or Ozone Park–Lefferts Boulevard Local 23rd Street A  ​C  ​E  via Canal Street
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York
Track layout Legend to 42nd St–PABT upper level Former trackway from 42nd St–PABT lower level to 23rd Street to 14th Street
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times Stops late nights only

34th Street–Penn Station is an express

New York City mayor John Francis Hylan's original plans for the Independent Subway System (IND), proposed in 1922, included building over 100 miles (160 km) of new lines and taking over nearly 100 miles (160 km) of existing lines. The lines were designed to compete with the existing underground, surface, and elevated lines operated by the IRT and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT).^[5][6] On December 9, 1924, the New York City Board of Transportation (BOT) gave preliminary approval to the construction of a subway line along Eighth Avenue, running from 207th Street.^[7] The BOT announced a list of stations on the new line in February 1928, with an express station at 33rd Street.^[8]

Most of the Eighth Avenue Line was dug using a cheap

The station's token booths were shuttered in May 2005, after fare tokens were replaced with MetroCards; station agents were deployed elsewhere in the station to answer passengers' queries. This was part of a pilot program that was tested at seven other stations.^[21]

Under the 2015–2019

Station layout

G	Street level	Entrances/exits Elevators at: South side of 34th Street west of Seventh Avenue at LIRR entrance Southeast corner of 34th Street and Eighth Avenue
B1 Platform level
	Side platform
	Northbound local	← toward 168th Street (42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal) ← toward Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer (42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal) ← toward Inwood–207th Street late nights (42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal)
	Northbound express	← toward Inwood–207th Street (42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal)
	Island platform
	Southbound express	→ toward Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue, Ozone Park–Lefferts Boulevard or Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street (14th Street) →
	Southbound local	→ toward Euclid Avenue (23rd Street) → → toward World Trade Center (23rd Street) → → toward Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue late nights (23rd Street) →
	Side platform
B2	Mezzanine	Connector between platforms, connection to Penn Station

There are four tracks, two

Times Square–42nd Street

.

South of the station, an additional track begins at a

The walls of the station contain red-tile bands bordered in black; since 34th Street is an express station, it has a wider tile band than local stations. The tile colors are intended to help riders identify their station more easily, part of a color-coded tile system for the entire Independent Subway System.^[30] The tile colors were designed to facilitate navigation for travelers going away from Lower Manhattan; on the Eighth Avenue Line, the tiles change color at the next express station to the north. Because the next station to the north, 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal, is an express station, the adjacent stations to the north and south both used different tile colors.^[31][32]

The stations on the Eighth Avenue Line were built with 600 feet (180 m) long platforms, but there were provisions to lengthen them to 660 feet (200 m) to accommodate eleven-car trains.^[33]: 70 Below the red band are small tile captions reading "34" in stretched Arial font, though these are not original to the station. Originally the station had no trim line and the tile captions were in the standard IND caption font. The original mosaic name tablets however are still visible, being surrounded by new black tiles; The mosaics read "34TH STREET PENN. STATION" broken onto two lines on a claret background and same claret border. Red I-beam columns run along all the platforms at regular intervals, alternating ones having the standard black station name plate with white lettering.

Like other subway stations, 34th Street–Penn Station includes black-and-white "sighting boards" for conductors to point and call, thereby indicating to the motorman that the train has stopped at the right position. On the downtown express platform, there is a blue-and-white sighting board for the R110B, a now-retired prototype New Technology Train whose conductor's cab was not aligned with any other fleet's conductors' cabs. This board is still extant and is one of a few publicly visible remnants of the R110B's operation.^{[citation needed]}

Exits

34th Street–Penn Station spans three streets (33rd, 34th, and 35th Streets) with a set of entrances/exits at all of these streets. For the purposes of this article, entrance and exit are interchangeable.^[34] When the station opened, it contained 17 entrances and exits, more than almost any other station on the Eighth Avenue Line except for Chambers Street/Hudson Terminal.^[16]

At 35th Street is a part-time booth entrance. Each local platform has its own fare control. On the local platforms, there are

• 
  Entrance outside Moynihan Train Hall
• 
  Detail of "The Garden of Circus Delights" mosaic beneath the platforms

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 34th Street – Penn Station (IND Eighth Avenue Line).

• nycsubway.org – IND 8th Avenue: 34th Street/Penn Station
• nycsubway.org — Garden of Circus Delights Artwork by Eric Fischl (2001)
• MTA's Arts For Transit — 34th Street–Penn Station (IND Eighth Avenue Line)