Forest Hills–71st Avenue station

The Forest Hills–71st Avenue station (previously known as 71st–Continental Avenues station) is an express station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway, located on Queens Boulevard at 71st (Continental) Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens. It is served by the and trains at all times, the <F> train during rush hours in the peak direction, the train at all times except late nights, and the train on weekdays except late nights. It serves as the terminus for the latter two services.
==History==
The Queens Boulevard Line was one of the first lines built by the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND), and stretches between the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan and 179th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.New York Times, New Subway Routes in Hylan Program to Cost $186,046,000, March 21, 1925, page 1 The Queens Boulevard Line was in part financed by a Public Works Administration (PWA) loan and grant of $25 million. One of the proposed stations would have been located at 71st Avenue. During the late 1920s, in anticipation of the arrival of the subway, land was bought by developers and was built up. Zoning laws were changed to allow fifteen-story apartment buildings to be built, and made the neighborhood of Forest Hills a more desirable place to live, especially as it was an express stop. Queens Borough President George Harvey predicted that the introduction of the subway to Forest Hills would turn Queens Boulevard into the "Park Avenue of Queens."
On December 31, 1936, the IND Queens Boulevard Line was extended by eight stops, and , from its previous terminus at Roosevelt Avenue to Union Turnpike, and the 71st Avenue station opened as part of this extension.
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The station was proposed as a transfer station between the never-built Queens Super-Express Bypass as part of the 1968 Program for Action, which would have significantly expanded railway and subway service in the five boroughs. Under a 1984 plan, the new express station would have been one of three stops on the 63rd Street Line extension east of 21st Street–Queensbridge, the other two stops being at Northern Boulevard and Woodside. The bypass station would have had a mezzanine, two platform levels (an upper platform for Jamaica- and Southeast Queens-bound trains; a lower platform for Manhattan-bound trains), a new elevator entrance, and an expanded mezzanine, with escalators and stairs connecting the new platform levels to the existing platforms. The new station would have been built on the south side of Queens Boulevard, south of the existing station.
In 2014, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority built a new signal tower for the Manhattan-bound platform. The agency also upgraded the station to compliance with the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act; the upgrade included passenger elevators to serve the street level, mezzanine and platforms. This project was completed by March 2014 after a three-month delay. However, a ribbon-cutting for the new elevators was not held until May 15, 2014.
==Station layout==
G 	Street level 	Exit/entrance
M 	Mezzanine 	Fare control, station agent
PPlatform level	Southbound local 	← toward weekdays ()← toward ()← toward late nights ()
PPlatform level	 	
PPlatform level	Southbound express	← toward ()← toward ()
PPlatform level	Northbound express	toward ( weekdays, evenings/weekends) → toward () →
PPlatform level	 	
PPlatform level	Northbound local 	termination track → toward late nights () →
left|thumb|Stairs along the Ridgewood Savings Bank's Forest Hills Branch, a New York City designated landmark
The station has four tracks and two island platforms. It is the northern terminal for the local M and R trains, which stop on the outer tracks. To the east, the line widens to six tracks, with two tracks starting between the local and express tracks in each direction, then ramping down to a lower level, where they widen to four tracks and run under the 75th Avenue station to Jamaica Yard. F trains stop on the express track at all times, but switch to the local track to the east and continue on to Jamaica–179th Street. E trains stop on the express tracks at all times except late nights, when they make local stops along the Queens Boulevard Line. To the east, they continue on the express tracks (except evenings and weekends when they switch to the local track like the F) to Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer, with limited rush-hour express service to 179th Street. This station has four punch boxes two at the eastern end and western end.
Both outer track walls have a light Fern green tile band with a black border and small "71st AVE" tile captions below them in white lettering on a black background. The station's I-beam columns are painted Emerald green with signs reading "71 - Forest Hills", while older signs on the black columns between the express tracks read "CONTINENTAL AVENUE - Forest Hills" in black lettering on a white background.
A signal tower and dispatchers' office is at the extreme western end of the southbound platform.
===Exits===
There are two fare control areas on the full width mezzanine above the platforms and tracks. The western section of the mezzanine is bounded on the west by the exit to the western side of 70th Road and the northern side of Queens Boulevard. There used to be a part-time booth at this location. On the east end, the fare control area is sided by a passageway out of fare control connecting the exits between 70th Road and 71st Avenue. There used to be a part-time booth at the northern section of the passageway. An elevator is located at the southern exit between 70th Road and 71st Avenue and makes the station ADA-accessible. The second fare control area is in between the aforementioned fare free passageway and the passageways connecting to the exits at 71st Avenue. At the eastern end of the mezzanine there is a staircase leading to Queens Boulevard between 71st Avenue and 71st Road on the northern side, and a staircase leading to the intersection of 71st Avenue and Queens Boulevard on the south side. There are seven staircases to each platform.
==Signage==
On the current MTA map and published timetables, the station name is "Forest Hills–71st Avenue." In the past, "Continental Avenue" (the alternative name of 71st Avenue used in nearby Forest Hills Gardens) has been included in the name and is used on the rollsigns of older rolling stock such as the R32. , the platform signage reads 71–Continental Av–Forest Hills.
==Points of interest==
Nearby points of interest include:
*Austin Street, a major business thoroughfare in Forest Hills, located south of the station.
*Forest Hills LIRR station, located in Station Square in Forest Hills Gardens at Burns Street.
*Ridgewood Savings Bank, Forest Hills Branch, designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission since 2000.
*West Side Tennis Club, containing Forest Hills Stadium, which hosted the US Open tennis tournament until 1977.
==References==
==External links==
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* The Subway Nut — 71st Street–Continental Av–Forest Hills Pictures
* 71st Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
* Entrance between 71st Avenue and 70th Road from Google Maps Street View
* 70th Road entrance from Google Maps Street View
* Platforms from Google Maps Street View
Category:IND Queens Boulevard Line stations
Category:New York City Subway stations in Queens, New York
Category:New York City Subway terminals
Category:New York City Subway stations located underground
Category:Railway stations in the United States opened in 1936
Category:Forest Hills, Queens
Category:1936 establishments in New York City