61st Street–Woodside station

History

Early history

The 1913 Dual Contracts called for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT; later Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, or BMT) to build new lines in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Queens did not receive many new IRT and BRT lines compared to Brooklyn and the Bronx, since the city's Public Service Commission (PSC) wanted to alleviate subway crowding in the other two boroughs first before building in Queens, which was relatively undeveloped. The IRT Flushing Line was to be one of two Dual Contracts lines in the borough, along with the Astoria Line; it would connect Flushing and Long Island City, two of Queens's oldest settlements, to Manhattan via the Steinway Tunnel. When the majority of the line was built in the early 1910s, most of the route went through undeveloped land, and Roosevelt Avenue had not been constructed. Community leaders advocated for more Dual Contracts lines to be built in Queens to allow development there.

61st Street–Woodside opened on April 21, 1917 as Woodside, as part of an extension of the IRT Flushing Line to Alburtis Avenue (now 103rd Street–Corona Plaza). The Long Island Rail Road station predates the station, as it originally opened in 1869.

On February 29, 1928, five petitions signed with 600 names were sent to the New York State Transit Commission (NYSTC), requesting that an escalator be constructed at the station to the southeastern corner of 61st Street and Roosevelt Avenue. On July 25, the NYSTC ordered the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) to install a double-width escalator from the mezzanine to that corner, similar to one at the Third Avenue entrance at Grand Central station on the same line. The new escalator was placed into service on December 27, 1930.

Later years

The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. The IRT routes were given numbered designations in 1948 with the introduction of "R-type" rolling stock, which contained rollsigns with numbered designations for each service. The route from Times Square to Flushing became known as the 7. On October 17, 1949, the joint BMT/IRT operation of the Flushing Line ended, and the line became the responsibility of the IRT. After the end of BMT/IRT dual service, the New York City Board of Transportation announced that the Flushing Line platforms would be lengthened to 11 IRT car lengths; the platforms were only able to fit nine 51-foot-long IRT cars beforehand. The platforms at the station were extended in 1955–1956 to accommodate 11-car trains. However, nine-car trains continued to run on the 7 route until 1962, when they were extended to ten cars. With the opening of the 1964 New York World's Fair, trains were lengthened to eleven cars.

In 1981, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system. Although the adjacent LIRR station was renovated in the 1990s, the subway station remained in poor shape. By the late 2010s, the 61st Street station was in poor condition; one newspaper reported that the station had issues with falling debris, rust, and peeling paint. The escalator leading up from 61st Street to the mezzanine, which had been installed around 2000, was one of the least reliable escalators in any subway station in Queens.

As part of the 2015–2019 Capital Program, the MTA announced plans to renovate the 52nd, 61st, 69th, 82nd, 103rd and 111th Streets stations, a project that had been delayed for several years. Conditions at these stations were reported to be among the worst of all stations in the subway system. Work on the 61st Street station would include ADA upgrades; track, staircase, and platform replacement; and structural and waterproofing improvements. Trains would continue serving Woodside in both directions throughout construction, with each track taken out of service in turn, though this meant express service on the Flushing line would be curtailed such that all trains would make all stops between Queensboro Plaza and 74th Street–Broadway. Construction began in June 2023, with work on the express track slated to be completed in January 2024. However, additional structural repairs caused completion of this work to be delayed until June 2025; the express track then reopened and work began on the Manhattan-bound platform and local track, shifting all station operations to the Flushing-bound platform. The work also included replacing 650 ft of track. , escalator replacement and renovation of the Manhattan-bound platform are slated to be completed in early 2026. A detailed timeline for reinstatement of express service west of 74th Street has not yet been announced.

Station layout

This station has two island platforms and three tracks. The two outer tracks are used for the full-time local service while the bidirectional center track typically is used for rush hour peak-direction express service, but the Manhattan-bound local track is temporarily closed and all Manhattan-bound trains run on the center track. There is a mezzanine located at the center, underneath the platforms, with an ADA-accessible elevator to each platform, as well as another to each Long Island Rail Road platform. The elevator from the mezzanine to the street stops at the LIRR's eastbound Main Line platform.

The station is about 48 feet above street level, and is located above a natural depression in ground level along Roosevelt Avenue.

Artwork includes John Cavanagh's Commuting/Community (1986), located near the stairway down to LIRR Track 4, and Dimitri Gerakaris's Woodside Continuum (1999), which forms part of the steel-grating fare-control separation.

Exits

Entrance and exit are provided by long stairs down to street level on the northern curb of Roosevelt Avenue at 61st Street, as well as to other nearby locations via the LIRR platforms. An ADA-compliant elevator provides access to street level at the northeast corner of 61st Street and Roosevelt Avenue, while a long escalator at the southeast corner provides entrance only. The Woodside station of the Long Island Rail Road is located directly beneath the Flushing Line station; any of the three LIRR platforms can be accessed directly from the mezzanine.

References

References

1. {{Cite Routes Not Taken
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19. Kaufman, Maya. (June 6, 2019). "Commuters Take Woodside's Infamous 7-Train Escalator To Task".
20. Murray, Christian. (November 19, 2019). "MTA To Overhaul Six Stations on the 7 Line, Currently in Design Phase".
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28. {{NYCS const. trackref. trackbook3