14th Street – Union Square (New York City Subway)

14th Street – Union Square is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the BMT Broadway Line, the BMT Canarsie Line and the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. It is located at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 14th Street, underneath Union Square in Manhattan, and is served by the:

• 4, 6, L, N, and Q trains at all times
• 5 and R trains at all times except late nights
• <6> train weekdays in the peak direction

In 2014, 35,677,468 passengers entered this station, making it the fourth-busiest station of the New York City Subway.

The complex is located on the border of several neighborhoods with popular business, residential and nightlife destination spots, including the East Village to the southeast, Greenwich Village to the south and southwest, Chelsea to the northwest, and both the Flatiron District and Gramercy Park to the north and northeast.

There are three originally separate stations here, which were combined sometime after unification of the subways in 1940. They now share a mezzanine, common entrance points, and unified signage. This complex was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Station entrance sign prior to the discontinuation of the W in June 2010

IRT Lexington Avenue Line platforms

14th Street – Union Square, opened on October 27, 1904, is an express station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line that has four tracks and two island platforms. The uptown and downtown platforms are offset from each other and slightly curved. Gap-filling movable platforms on the downtown side are automatically operated via proximity sensors when trains arrive. The station's mezzanines are located over the platforms.

The station has two abandoned local side platforms; the northbound one is visible through windows, bordered with wide, bright red frames. From the north end of the downtown platform's mezzanine, the adjacent side platform can be seen through a hole in the plywood.

1991 accident

Main article: 1991 Union Square derailment

On August 28, 1991, an accident just north of the station killed five riders and injured 215 others in one of the worst wrecks since a crash at Times Square – 42nd Street on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line in 1928 that killed 16 people. The train operator, Robert Ray, was intoxicated and had been overshooting platforms during the entire run from Woodlawn in the Bronx. Just north of this station, his Utica Avenue-bound 4 train was to be shifted to the local track due to repair work on the express one. He was running at 40 mph (65 km/h) at a 10 mph (16 km/h) zone and took the switch so fast that only the first car made it through the crossover. The rest of the train was involved in a derailment that led to a massive pile-up. Cars 1435, 1436, 1437, 1439, and 1440 were essentially scrapped on the site, and the IRT Lexington Line suffered heavy structural damage as a result. Service was disrupted for six days (with trains terminating at 59th Street for the duration) as transit workers toiled around the clock to clean up the wreckage. The entire infrastructure, including signals, switches, track, roadbed, cabling, and 23 support columns needed to be replaced. Ray was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison, but released in April 2002 for good behavior.

The wreck occurred at the entry to a former pocket track. Like 72nd Street on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line, this station was built with extra tracks on the approach to the station. These were between the local and express tracks and approximately 300 feet (91 m) long. The idea was to have a "stacking" track where a train could be held momentarily until the platform cleared for it to enter the station. The tracks here and at 72nd Street were rendered useless when train lengths grew beyond these tracks' capacity. When the damage from the 1991 wreck was repaired, the stacking track was removed.

Image gallery

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  Old IRT "14" eagle cartouche

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  Abandoned side platform behind the wall and the black bars on the right, whose edge is still visible.

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  Depiction of the platform in a mosaic at the entrance to Spring Street station

BMT Broadway Line platforms

14th Street – Union Square, opened on September 5, 1917, is an express station on the BMT Broadway Line that has four tracks and two island platforms.

It is the southernmost station in Manhattan with a cross-platform interchange between all three Broadway services. A mosaic on the platform side walls is a depiction of "the junction of Broadway and … Bowery Road, 1828," as the area was once known. The mezzanine and crossover level has been reconstructed as well. Some former passageways and stairways have been closed off, including one immediately adjacent to the southernmost staircase on the northbound side.

This station was overhauled in the late 1970s. The MTA replaced the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting with the 1970s wall tile band and tablet mosaics, signs and fluorescent lights. They also fixed staircases and platform edges. In 2002, the station was upgraded for ADA-accessibility and its original late 1910s tiling was restored. As part of the upgrade, the MTA repaired the staircases, re-tiled for the walls and floors, upgraded the station's lights and the public address system, installed yellow safety treads along the platform edge, new signs, and new trackbeds in both directions. The station now has an elevator on both platforms as well as connection to the station entrances and passageway to the IRT Lexington Avenue Line.

In 2005, an artwork called City Glow by Chiho Aoshima was installed here.

Image gallery

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  Mosaic

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  Depiction of the junction of Broadway and Bowery Road in 1828

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  New tile name tablets on the mezzanine with names of 9/11 victims

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  Elevator to southbound platform from mezzanine

BMT Canarsie Line platform

Union Square on the BMT Canarsie Line, opened on September 21, 1924, has two tracks and one island platform with numerous stairways and exits leading from it. There is one mezzanine attached to this station with entrances on the south side of 14th Street between Broadway and University Place. Other entrances in the complex serve the other services that stop here. The original mosaic band of sky blue, sea green, lime green and yellow ochre stands clearly visible above new green-bordered tile panels. The station has been renovated and is now ADA-accessible with a single elevator going up from the platform to the mezzanine.

Station layout

G	Street Level	Exit/ Entrance
B1	Mezzanine	Fare control, station agent (Elevator at NE corner of 14th Street and Park Avenue S (Union Square E))
B2	Side platform, not in service
	Northbound local	← toward Pelham Bay Park ( toward Parkchester rush hours and middays) (23rd Street) ← toward Woodlawn late nights (23rd Street) (No service: 18th Street)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left, right
	Northbound express	← toward Woodlawn except nights (Grand Central – 42nd Street) ← toward Dyre Avenue weekdays (Nereid Avenue rush hours) (Grand Central – 42nd Street)
	Southbound express	→ toward Crown Heights – Utica Avenue except nights (Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall) → → toward Flatbush Avenue – Brooklyn College weekdays, Bowling Green weekends (Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall) →
	Island platform, doors will open on the left, right
	Southbound local	→ toward Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall (Astor Place) → → toward New Lots Avenue late nights (Astor Place) →
	Side platform, not in service
B2	Southbound local	← toward Coney Island – Stillwell Avenue via Sea Beach ( toward Coney Island – Stillwell Avenue via Brighton late nights) (Eighth Street – New York University) ← toward Bay Ridge – 95th Street (Eighth Street – New York University)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left, right
	Southbound express	← toward Coney Island – Stillwell Avenue via Brighton (Canal Street)
	Northbound express	→ toward Astoria – Ditmars Boulevard weekdays except late nights, 57th Street weekends except late nights (34th Street – Herald Square) →
	Island platform, doors will open on the left, right
	Northbound local	→ toward Astoria – Ditmars Boulevard (23rd Street) → → toward Forest Hills – 71st Avenue except nights (23rd Street) → → toward 57th Street late nights (23rd Street) →
B3	Northbound	← toward Eighth Avenue (Sixth Avenue)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left
	Southbound	→ toward Canarsie – Rockaway Parkway (Third Avenue) →

Further reading

• Lee Stokey. Subway Ceramics : A History and Iconography. 1994. ISBN 978-0-9635486-1-0

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

nycsubway.org:

• nycsubway.org—IRT East Side Line: 14th Street/Union Square
• nycsubway.org—BMT Broadway Subway: 14th Street/Union Square
• nycsubway.org—BMT Canarsie Line: Union Square
• nycsubway.org — Framing Union Square Artwork by Mary Miss (1998)
• nycsubway.org — Paradise Artwork by Chiho Aoshima (2005)
• nycsubway.org — City Glow Artwork by Chiho Aoshima (2005)

Google Maps Street View:

• 14th Street and Broadway entrance to Canarsie Line from Google Maps Street View
• 14th Street and Fourth Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
• entrance by Union Square East from Google Maps Street View
• Union Square East and 15th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• entrance in Union Square Park from Google Maps Street View
• Union Square West and 16th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Broadway Line platforms from Google Maps Street View
• Canarsie Line platform from Google Maps Street View
• Mezzanine from Google Maps Street View

Other websites:

• Station Reporter — 14th Street – Union Square Complex
• Forgotten NY — Original 28 - NYC's First 28 Subway Stations
• MTA's Arts For Transit — 14th Street – Union Square
• Abandoned Stations - Abandoned Stations - 14th Street side platforms