42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station
The 42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station is an underground New York City Subway station complex, consisting of stations on the IRT Flushing Line and IND Sixth Avenue Line, formerly without direct connection, now connected by a pedestrian tunnel. Located at 42nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) in Manhattan, it is served by the: A free passageway from the IND platforms to the station, served by the , is open during the day from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m.. History. The Fifth Avenue station opened on March  22, 1926, extending the IRT Flushing Line one stop to the west from the line's previous terminus at Grand Central. This station served as the western terminus of the line until the Times Square station on the line opened on March 14, 1927. The Sixth Avenue Line platforms opened on December 15, 1940 as part of the opening of the IND Sixth Avenue Line from 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center to West Fourth Street. The platforms at Fifth Avenue and all other stations on the Flushing Line with the exception of Queensboro Plaza were extended in 1955–1956 to accommodate 11 -car trains. Free transfers between the two stations were available on Mondays to Fridays from December 18, 1967, until 1968, by providing paper tickets to passengers, who would exit one station and follow the sidewalk in order to enter the other. The tunnel now permits leaving a train in one station and walking underground to one in the other, and takes away the need for transfer tickets. The entire station complex was fully renovated in 1998. In 2010, the station was rated the noisiest place in New York City. A transfer to the 42nd Street Shuttle at Times Square was  built as part of the 2015–2019 MTA Capital Program. A new platform for the shuttle, which would be wide and located between Tracks 1 and 4 (the outer tracks of the shuttle tunnel), replaced the existing curved platforms for tracks 1, 3, and 4. The platform is built along the section of the shuttle that runs under 42nd Street, which is located within a straight tunnel. The whole project will cost $235.41 million. The Times Square shuttle platform was extended east to allow for a second point of entry at Sixth Avenue, with a connection to the IND Sixth  Avenue Line platforms via a secondary mezzanine at the northern end of the platforms. A construction contract was awarded in early 2019, with an estimated completion date of March 2022. In addition, elevators would be installed from the primary mezzanine to the Sixth Avenue and Flushing Line platforms, making the station complex ADA-accessible. The free transfer opened on September 7, 2021, along with the new shuttle platform. Elevators were planned to be installed between the passageway and at least one of the platforms at a later date. Station layout. The Sixth Avenue Line platforms are located one block west  of, and above, the Flushing Line platforms; the platforms are connected by a passageway. There are three elevators to street level: one each located on the northwestern and southwestern corners of Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street, and one on the western side of Sixth Avenue between 39th and 40th Streets. The first elevator serves a small mezzanine at the northern end of the Sixth Avenue Line platforms, while the latter two elevators serve a primary mezzanine above both sets of platforms. However, there are no elevators from either of the mezzanines to either platform level, so the station complex is  not fully ADA-accessible. IND Sixth Avenue Line platforms. 42nd Street–Bryant Park station is an express station, with four tracks and two island platforms. B and D trains stop at the inner express tracks while F and M trains stop at the outer local tracks. Both outer track walls have a scarlet red trim line with a chocolate brown border and small tile captions reading "42" in white on black run below them at regular intervals. Red I-beam columns run along both sides of both platforms at regular intervals with alternating ones having the standard black station name  plate in white lettering. Some of the columns between the express tracks have the original "42" signs in black on white. This station has a full length mezzanine above the platforms and tracks. It originally extended south from 42nd Street to the 34th Street–Herald Square station, with additional entrances at 38th Street. The passageway was long, dim, and lightly traveled, and it was finally closed in 1991 after a series of rapes took place there. It is now used for storage. The mezzanine has a florist, orange I-beam columns, lit-up ads, and space rentals along the walls . One stair ascends from the north end of either platform to a passageway, which in turn connects to the 42nd Street Shuttle station at Times Square–42nd Street. This passageway is only open between 6 a.m. and midnight, when the shuttle is operational. The passageway is not connected to the station's primary mezzanine and is not ADA-accessible. South of this station, there are three sets of crossovers, allowing trains to switch between all four tracks. Those switches are not currently used in revenue service. The crossovers were reconfigured to reduce the duplication of track switches of the downtown and  uptown tracks, most notably, the switch from the express to local tracks. Exits. On either end of the mezzanine is a fare control area. The full-time side is at the north end. This is where the passageway to the IRT Flushing Line is located. Two staircases from each platform go up to a turnstile bank, where outside there is a token booth, one staircase going up to the southwest corner of 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue, and a passageway through some abandoned ticket counters under 1095 Avenue of the Americas that lead to a staircase that goes up to  the building's pedestrian plaza. On the south end of the mezzanine, two staircases from each platform go up to an unstaffed bank of regular and HEET turnstiles. Outside fare control, there are three staircases going up to the northwestern, northeastern, and southeastern corners of 40th Street and Sixth Avenue with the northwestern one being built inside a building. There is another exit at the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue and 39th Street. This station has another fare control area at its extreme north end. A staircase from each platform goes up to a mezzanine, where a bank of regular  and HEET turnstiles provide access to/from the station. Outside fare control, there is a Customer Assistance Booth and a staircase built inside 1100 Avenue of the Americas (HBO headquarters) that goes up to the northeast corner of 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue. Two modern, glass-enclosed staircases, and one elevator go up to the northwest corner of this intersection outside of the Bank of America Tower. Another elevator, located within a building, leads from the mezzanine to the southwest corner of the intersection via a staircase and wheelchair ramp. One more elevator, at the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue  and 39th Street entrance, was created for the 40th Street mezzanine. The station has three elevator entrances but, because there are no elevators from the mezzanine to the platforms, the platforms themselves are not ADA-accessible. IRT Flushing Line platform. Fifth Avenue station (signed as Fifth Avenue–Bryant Park) on the IRT Flushing Line has a local station configuration with two tracks serving the 7 train at all times and the <7> train on weekdays in the peak direction. This station has two tracks and one island platform. The platform walls have a mosaic golden trimline with "5  tablets at regular intervals along it. The 2002 artwork here is called Under Bryant Park" by Samm Kunce. It is located in the transfer passageway and consists of glass mosaic and etched granite depicting roots of trees with various literary quotes. The Fifth Avenue station is the first within the subway system to receive a vending machine that dispenses make up and other retail products. It is part of a pilot program to increase retail activity within the MTA system, and it capitalizes on a new trend in vending machine development. Exits. The station has a full length mezzanine directly  above the platform and tracks. The full-time fare control is at the east end. A single stair on the southwest corner of 5th Avenue and 42nd Street in front of the New York Public Library Main Building goes down to an area that has a full-time token booth and turnstile bank that leads to several staircases down to the platform. Towards the west end, the mezzanine splits in two, with one portion becoming a down hill ramp where there is another staircases up from the platform before leading to the passageway to the IND Sixth Avenue Line. The  portion of the mezzanine that curves up leads to some HEET turnstiles and a small fare control area. The two adjacent street stairs here have elaborate ironwork and go up to the south side of 42nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues on the northern edge of Bryant Park. External links. nycsubway.org: Others: Google Maps Street View: