34th Street–Penn Station is an express
station on the
IND Eighth Avenue Line of the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
, located at the intersection of
34th Street 34th Street most commonly refers to 34th Street (Manhattan)
34th Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs the width of Manhattan Island from the West Side Highway on the West Side to FDR Drive on t ...
and
Eighth Avenue in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
. It is served by the and trains at all times, and by the train at all times except late nights. The station is adjacent to
Pennsylvania Station, the busiest railroad station in the United States as well as a major transfer point to
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
,
NJ Transit, and the
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road , or LIRR, is a Rail transport, railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County on Long Islan ...
.
History
Construction and opening
New York City mayor
John Francis Hylan's original plans for the
Independent Subway System
The Independent Subway System (IND; formerly the ISS) was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway. It was first constructed as the IND Eighth Avenue Line, Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan in 1932. ...
(IND), proposed in 1922, included building over of new lines and taking over nearly 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
The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) was an urban transit holding company, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940. Today, together with the IND subway sy ...
(BMT). On December 9, 1924, the
New York City Board of Transportation
The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York (NYCBOT or BOT) was a city transit commission and operator in New York City, consisting of three members appointed by the Mayor of New York City, m ...
(BOT) gave preliminary approval to the construction of a subway line along Eighth Avenue, running from 207th Street. The BOT announced a list of stations on the new line in February 1928, with an express station at 33rd Street.
Most of the Eighth Avenue Line was dug using a cheap
cut-and-cover
A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two Portal (architecture), portals common at each end, though ther ...
method, including 34th Street–Penn Station.
During the station's construction, workers found remnants of an old stream that had originated at
Herald Square and flowed through the area.
The stream was diverted into a sewer, and concrete waterproofing was installed below the 34th Street station's mezzanine.
In addition, the subway line had to pass above the tracks of Penn Station.
The finishes at the four stations between
14th and
42nd Street were 21 percent completed by May 1930.
By that August, the BOT reported that the Eighth Avenue Line was nearly completed and that the four stations from 14th to 42nd Street were 99.8 percent completed.
The entire line was completed by September 1931, except for the installation of turnstiles.
A preview event for the new subway was hosted on September 8, 1932, two days before the official opening.
The Eighth Avenue Line station opened on September 10, 1932, as part of the city-operated IND's initial segment, the Eighth Avenue Line between
Chambers Street and
207th Street.
The construction of the Eighth Avenue Line caused real-estate values along Eighth Avenue to increase by as much as 400 percent.
Later years
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.
Under the 2015–2019
MTA Capital Plan, the station, along with thirty-two other New York City Subway stations, underwent a complete overhaul as part of the
Enhanced Station Initiative
Since the late 20th century, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has started several projects to maintain and improve the New York City Subway. Some of these projects, such as Automation of the New York City Subway, subway line automation, ...
. Updates included cellular service, Wi-Fi, charging stations, improved signage, and improved station lighting. Unlike other stations that were renovated under the initiative, 34th Street–Penn Station was not completely closed during construction. In January 2018, the NYCT and Bus Committee recommended that Judlau Contracting receive the $125 million contract for the renovations of
57th and
23rd Streets on the
IND Sixth Avenue Line;
28th Street on the
IRT Lexington Avenue Line
The IRT Lexington Avenue Line (also known as the IRT East Side Line and the IRT Lexington–Fourth Avenue Line) is one of the lines of the A Division (New York City Subway), A Division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Lower Manhatt ...
, and 34th Street–Penn Station on the
IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and IND Eighth Avenue Line. However, the MTA Board temporarily deferred the vote for these packages after city representatives refused to vote to award the contracts. The contract was put back for a vote in February, where it was ultimately approved. These improvements were substantially completed by May 2019.
Station layout
There are four tracks, two
side platform
A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...
s, and one
island platform
An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...
.
Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center on the
IRT Eastern Parkway Line
The IRT Eastern Parkway Line is one of the lines of the A Division (New York City Subway), A Division of the New York City Subway. Built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), it stretches from Downtown Brooklyn south along Flatbush ...
and
34th Street–Penn Station on the
IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line are the only other stations in the system with this configuration.
There is no free transfer between this station and the station of the same name on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, despite the fact that both connect to Penn Station. The nearest transfer location is at
42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal
4 (four) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is tetraphobia, considered unlucky i ...
with a free transfer to
Times Square–42nd Street.
South of the station, an additional track begins at a
bumper block between the two express tracks with a connection to both at both ends (about 25th Street on the south end and 33rd Street on the north end). This allows for various extra movements of trains including storage or removal of a train with mechanical problems to be sent back in the other direction. It could also be used if 34th Street functioned as a terminal station.
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.
The tile colors were designed to facilitate navigation for travelers going away from
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
; 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
4 (four) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is tetraphobia, considered unlucky i ...
, is an express station, the adjacent stations to the north and south both used different tile colors.
The stations on the Eighth Avenue Line were built with long platforms, but there were provisions to lengthen them to to accommodate eleven-car trains. Below the red band are small tile captions reading "34" in stretched
Arial
Arial is a sans-serif typeface in the Sans-serif#Neo-grotesque, neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 3.1, as well as in other Microsoft programs, Apple's macOS, and ma ...
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.
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.
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.
At 35th Street is a part-time booth entrance. Each local platform has its own fare control. On the local platforms, there are
High Entry-Exit Turnstiles for these exits at platform level. There is a narrow underpass connecting the platforms inside fare control. The northbound platform has two street stairs to the northeast corner of 35th Street and Eighth Avenue, and one to the southeast corner. The southbound platform has two street stairs to the northwest corner of 35th Street and Eighth Avenue, and one to the southwest corner.
At 34th Street is a part-time booth entrance. Each local platform has its own fare control. There is an underpass connecting the platforms inside fare control, and it leads to the LIRR West Side Concourse outside of fare control. There is also a passageway providing out-of-system access to the
station of the same name on the
IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. The northbound platform has one street stair to each eastern corner of 34th Street and Eighth Avenue. The southbound platform has one street stair to each western corner of 34th Street and Eighth Avenue. There is a single elevator to the northbound platform at the southeastern corner of the intersection, connecting to that platform's fare control. Inside fare control, three elevators from each platform go down to the underpass.
There was a tunnel linking to the
New Yorker Hotel at the northwest corner of the intersection, which opened in 1930
and was closed by the 1960s;
it later became a storage area.
At 33rd Street is the full-time entrance, with token booths on both sides; the full-time booth is on the northbound platform. All three platforms have their own fare control. The underpass connecting the platforms is outside fare control. The northbound local platform's fare control leads to a street stair to the northeast corner of 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue, as well as a direct passageway to the basement of Penn Station/Madison Square Garden. The southbound local platform's fare control leads to a street stair to the northwest corner of 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue, as well as a double-wide granite staircase at the southwest corner (in a plaza outside the
James A. Farley Post Office Building).
A passageway connects the Eighth Avenue Line station with the
Moynihan Train Hall, which opened in 2021.
Gallery
File:34penn entrance.jpg, Entrance outside Moynihan Train Hall
File:34 Street IND art vc.jpg, Detail of "The Garden of Circus Delights" mosaic beneath the platforms
References
External links
*
*nycsubway.org �
Garden of Circus Delights Artwork by Eric Fischl (2001)*MTA's Arts For Transit �
{{DEFAULTSORT:34th Street - Penn Station (Ind Eighth Avenue Line)
IND Eighth Avenue Line stations
Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)
New York City Subway stations in Manhattan
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1932
Midtown Manhattan
1932 establishments in New York City
34th Street (Manhattan)