34th Street–Herald Square station

34 Street–Herald Square  ​​​​​​​
New York City Subway station complex
The station entrance as seen in 2019
Station statistics
Address	Intersection of West 34th Street, Broadway & Sixth Avenue New York, NY 10001
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Herald Square, Midtown Manhattan
Coordinates	40°44′58″N 73°59′17″W / 40.749338°N 73.987985°W / 40.749338; -73.987985Coordinates: 40°44′58″N 73°59′17″W / 40.749338°N 73.987985°W / 40.749338; -73.987985
Division	B (BMT/IND)[1]
Line	IND Sixth Avenue Line    BMT Broadway Line
Services	B  (Weekday rush hours, middays and early evenings) ​   D  (all times) ​   F  (all times) <F>  (two rush hour trains, peak direction) ​   M  (Weekday rush hours, middays and early evenings)​    N  (all times) ​   Q  (all times) ​   R  (all except late nights) ​   W  (weekdays only)
Transit	NYCT Bus: M4, M5, M7, M34 SBS, M34A SBS, M55, Q32 MTA Bus: BxM2, QM1, QM2, QM3, QM4, QM5, QM6, QM10, QM11, QM12, QM15, QM16, QM17, QM18, QM20, QM24 PATH: JSQ–33, HOB–33, JSQ–33 (via HOB) (at 33rd Street) Amtrak, LIRR, NJT Rail (at Penn Station)
Structure	Underground
Levels	2
Other information
Opened	July 1, 1948; 73 years ago (1948-07-01)[2]
Station code	607[3]
Accessible	ADA-accessible
Traffic
2019	39,385,436[5]  0.7%
Rank	3 out of 424[5]
Location Show map of New York City SubwayShow map of New York CityShow map of New YorkShow all
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times Stops weekdays only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only (limited service)

The 34th Street–Herald Square station is an underground station complex on the BMT Broadway Line and the IND Sixth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, and is the third-busiest station in the system with 39,672,507 passengers entering the station in 2017.^[4] It is located at Herald Square in Midtown Manhattan where 34th Street, Broadway and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) intersect, and is served by the:

• D, F, N, and Q trains at all times
• R train at all times except late nights
• B, M, and W trains on weekdays
• <F> train during rush hours in the peak direction

Station layout[]

G	Street level	Exit/entrance
B1	Mezzanine	Fare control, station agents, MetroCard machines, transfer to PATH trains at 33rd Street MTA elevator at Herald Center building on west side of Broadway south of 34th Street; PATH elevator on west side of Sixth Avenue north of 32nd Street
B2	Northbound local	← toward 71st Avenue (Times Square–42nd Street) ← toward Ditmars Boulevard weekdays (Times Square–42nd Street) ← toward Ditmars Boulevard late nights/weekends (Times Square–42nd Street) ← toward 96th Street late nights (Times Square–42nd Street)
	Island platform
	Northbound express	← toward Ditmars Boulevard weekdays (Times Square–42nd Street) ← toward 96th Street (Times Square–42nd Street)
	Southbound express	← toward Coney Island via Sea Beach weekdays (14th Street–Union Square) → ← toward Coney Island via Brighton (14th Street–Union Square) →
	Island platform
	Southbound local	← toward 95th Street (28th Street) → ← toward Whitehall Street weekdays (28th Street) → ← toward Coney Island via Sea Beach late nights/weekends (28th Street) → ← toward Coney Island via Brighton late nights (28th Street) →
B3	Northbound local	← toward 179th Street (42nd Street–Bryant Park) ← weekdays toward 71st Avenue (42nd Street–Bryant Park)
	Island platform
	Northbound express	← weekdays toward Bedford Park Boulevard or 145th Street (42nd Street–Bryant Park) ← toward 205th Street (42nd Street–Bryant Park)
	Southbound express	→ weekdays toward Brighton Beach (West 4th Street–Washington Square) → → toward Coney Island via West End (West 4th Street–Washington Square) →
	Island platform
	Southbound local	→ toward Coney Island via Culver (23rd Street) → → weekdays toward Metropolitan Avenue (23rd Street) →

This station complex has a long mezzanine above the platforms. Three staircases and two elevators lead to each of the two Broadway line platforms. Three pairs of escalators lead to the Sixth Avenue line platforms (two to the northbound one and one to the southbound one). There is a non-ADA-compliant ramp that leads to an intermediate level. This level has two sets of staircases leading to each of the Sixth Avenue platforms. The elevators to this level are at the north end of the mezzanine.

Exits[]

At the north end of this mezzanine is the 35th Street exit, which contains a bank of turnstiles, token booth, and street stairs. Three staircases lead to all corners of Sixth Avenue and 35th Street except the southwest one. There is also a short passageway to either western corner of Broadway and 35th Street.^[6]

In addition to this exit, the mezzanine has connections with the two entrances at Broadway/Sixth Avenue and 34th Street. The entrance on the west side is staffed full-time and has two staircases to 34th Street. The northwest staircase has an entrance to an underground Burger King. There is a long passageway containing a single street elevator that leads to PATH at 33rd Street. The entrance on the east side of 34th Street is staffed part-time and when the token booth is closed, only two HEET turnstiles provide access to the mezzanine. This entrance has a passageway that connects to the 35th Street exit and has two pairs of exit-only turnstiles from the mezzanine.^[6]

There is another mezzanine at the south end of the Sixth Avenue level that has two staircases leading to each platform. It is directly underneath the PATH station mezzanine (two levels from street level) and has a passageway leading to the entrance at Broadway and 32nd Street. Outside of fare control, there is an entrance leading directly to the two basement levels of J. C. Penney in the Manhattan Mall. There are also escalators that lead to the front entrance of the mall. The entrance at Broadway and 32nd Street is unstaffed, has two street stairs, and one stair to each of the two Broadway platforms on the very south end. There are street stairs to either northern corner of Broadway and 32nd Street, as well as to the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and 32nd Street^[6]

Passageways[]

Passageways in the station for transfers between the IND and BMT platforms

There are closed passageways (but not free transfers) to the adjacent 42nd Street–Bryant Park station to the north and to 34th Street–Penn Station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line.

There was once an out-of-system passageway to Pennsylvania Station one block west. During the 1970s and 1980s, the New York City Subway had high rates of crime, as did the rest of the city; the passageway similarly experienced high crime rates. The passageway, with only two exits–one at each end–was located under 33nd Street and was called the "Gimbels passageway" because it was next to the basements of the Gimbels department store and the Hotel Pennsylvania. This passageway was closed in 1986 after an epidemic of sexual assaults,^[7] and passengers now must walk at street level to connect to the commuter railroads and Amtrak.^[8] A real estate developer, Vornado Realty Trust, proposed in 2010 to reopen the passageway in exchange for variances to build office towers replacing existing structures in the area.^[9][10]

Restored tile sign displays direction to former BMT and IND platforms.

The pathway to Bryant Park was outside of fare control, but was intended to relieve passenger flow at the 42nd and 34th Street stations.^[11] In the 1980s, the passageway became a gathering spot for homeless people and drug users. On March 20, 1991, a woman was raped behind a pile of debris in the subway passageway during rush hour, which had entrances at 38th Street. Other commuters passed nearby but were unaware of what was happening. That passageway was closed the day after; it was used by 400 daily riders^[12] and recorded 30 felonies since January 1, 1990. In response, on March 28, 1991, the NYCTA ordered the closing of the 15 most dangerous passageways in the system within a week, which the Transit Police and citizen advocacy groups had called for since the previous year. A woman was raped in the passageway in July 1990 with no response, but after another rape took place in August, the passageway's closure was called for by the local community board in September when a woman was raped in this passageway. Bureaucratic delays had prevented their closure, with their presentation to the MTA Board not scheduled until April 1991, after a public hearing on systemwide service reduction was to be held. The agency feared that closing the passageway without public comment would have caused an outcry for advocates for the homeless.^[13] The NYCTA's director of public information said that the agency had erred in waiting for formal approval. The locations were chosen based on crime volume, lighting, traffic and physical layout. These entrances were closed under the declaration of a public safety emergency, and were blocked off with plywood and fencing until public hearings were held and official permission was obtained.^[14]

Renovations[]

On November 28, 1969, the turnstiles and exit gates at the northern end of the station were relocated, making four more staircases from the Broadway Line platforms available for transfers to the Sixth Avenue platforms. Previously, transfers could only be made from two staircases.^[15]

This complex was overhauled in the late 1970s. The Transit Authority fixed the station's structure and renovated its appearance. The overhaul replaced the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting to the 1970s modern look wall tile band and tablet mosaics, signs and fluorescent lights. It also fixed staircases and platform edges. In the early 1990s, the station received another major repair, which included an upgrade for ADA-accessibility and modernized wall tiling. The MTA repaired the staircases, re-tiling for the walls, installed new tiling on the floors, upgraded the station's lights and the public address system, installing ADA safety threads along the platform edge, new signs, and new track-beds in both directions.

BMT Broadway Line platforms[]

34 Street–Herald Square  ​​​
New York City Subway station (rapid transit)
Southbound BMT platform
Station statistics
Division	B (BMT)[16]
Line	BMT Broadway Line
Services	N  (all times) ​   Q  (all times) ​   R  (all except late nights) ​   W  (weekdays only)
Platforms	2 island platforms cross-platform interchange
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	January 5, 1918; 104 years ago (1918-01-05)[17]
Station code	012[3]
Accessible	ADA-accessible
Opposite- direction transfer	Yes
Station succession
Next north	Times Square–42nd Street: N  ​Q  ​R  ​W
Next south	28th Street (local): N  ​Q  ​R  ​W  14th Street–Union Square (express): N  ​Q
Track layout Legend to Times Sq–42 St to 28 St to 14 St
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times Stops late nights only Stops late nights and weekends Stops weekdays only

Girl using the REACH New York, An Urban Musical Instrument rack

The 34th Street–Herald Square station on the BMT Broadway Line is an express station that has four tracks and two island platforms. This level opened several years after the opening of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson station; the Sixth Avenue line platforms were built later.

Each platform has three staircases and one elevator to the main mezzanine on the north half and another staircase at the extreme south end to 32nd Street. North of the station are diamond crossovers in both directions that are used by N trains on weekdays when they operate express in Manhattan.

Because Queens-bound N trains switch from the express to the local track north of this station, trains are often held here until another train arrives on the opposite track. Depending on the schedule, they may not leave in the same order in which they arrived. This causes confusion among riders as they run back and forth on the northbound platform trying to catch the train that will leave first. This is also true at other stations where two services that run to the same destination stop at the same platform but do not stop on the same side of the platform, such as Franklin Avenue (southbound 2 and 5 trains), Canal Street (A, C and E trains), 59th Street–Columbus Circle (southbound B and D trains), Queens Plaza (E, M and R trains) and Essex Street (outbound J/Z and M trains). The New York Times calls this The Subway Shuffle.^[18]

In 1996, artist Christopher Janney installed "REACH New York, An Urban Musical Instrument." The piece consists of green racks with sensors hanging along the platforms. Waving one's hands in front of the sensors creates a corresponding sound from the rack.

IND Sixth Avenue Line platforms[]

34 Street–Herald Square  ​​​
New York City Subway station (rapid transit)
Northbound IND Platform
Station statistics
Division	B (IND)[19]
Line	IND Sixth Avenue Line
Services	B  (Weekday rush hours, middays and early evenings) ​   D  (all times) ​   F  (all times) <F>  (two rush hour trains, peak direction) ​   M  (Weekday rush hours, middays and early evenings)
Platforms	2 island platforms cross-platform interchange
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	December 15, 1940; 81 years ago (1940-12-15)
Station code	227[3]
Accessible	ADA-accessible
Opposite- direction transfer	Yes
Station succession
Next north	42nd Street–Bryant Park: B  ​D  ​F  <F> ​M
Next south	23rd Street: F  <F> ​M  West Fourth Street–Washington Square (express): B  ​D
Track layout Legend to 42 St to 23 St to W 4 St
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times Stops all times except late nights Stops weekdays only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only (limited service)

Elevator from northbound platform

Yab-Yum sculpture

The 34th Street–Herald Square station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line is an express station that has four tracks and two island platforms. The mezzanine elevators are at the north end of the station while the staircases to the Manhattan Mall entrance are at the south end. The platforms have numerous stairs and escalators leading to the main mezzanine. Stairs on both platforms lead to a non-accessible ramp leading to the mezzanine.

The platforms are not equal in length, as the northbound one is longer than the southbound one. North of this station are numerous crossovers and switches that allow trains from uptown to terminate here on the express tracks during construction and closures. The crossovers were reconfigured in 2018 to reduce the duplication of track switches of the downtown and uptown tracks, most notably, the switch from the express to local tracks.

During construction on the IND portion of this station, contractors had to counter problems in their path. For one, the BMT and PATH platforms existed decades before this portion of the station was completed. Constructors had to dig deeper in order to pass the original platforms without interference, as well as avoiding wires and pipes.

Prior to the opening of the Chrystie Street Connection in November 1967, the express tracks only extended to bumper blocks about 140 feet (43 m) south of this station, though the tunnels extended for another 260 feet (79 m) beyond that.

Above the northbound local tracks is Yab-Yum, a series of red propeller-like sculptures, designed to spin in the wind of the approaching trains below.

Bombing plot[]

On August 28, 2004, Shahawar Matin Siraj and James Elshafay were arrested for planning to bomb the Herald Square station during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Elshafay cooperated with prosecutors and received a plea deal; Siraj was convicted of conspiracy on four counts, the most serious of which was plotting to bomb a public transportation system, in 2006 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2007.^[20]

Notable places nearby[]

• Empire State Building, one block east of the 34th Street entrances
• Manhattan Mall, in which the 32nd Street entrance is located
• Herald Square, directly in between the 34th Street entrances
• Macy's Herald Square, near the northwestern entrance at 34th Street
• Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, both one block west of the 32nd Street entrance

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 34th Street – Herald Square (New York City Subway).

• nycsubway.org – BMT Broadway Subway: 34th Street/Herald Square
• nycsubway.org – IND 6th Avenue: 34th Street/Herald Square
• nycsubway.org – Yab-Yum Artwork by David Provan (1992)
• nycsubway.org – Radiant Site Artwork by Michele Oka Doner (1991)
• nycsubway.org – Halo Artwork by Nicholas Pearson (1991)
• nycsubway.org – REACH New York, An Urban Musical Instrument Artwork by Christopher Janney (1996)
• Station Reporter – Herald Square Complex
• MTA's Arts For Transit – 34th Street–Herald Square
• Broadway & 35th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Sixth Avenue & 35th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Broadway/Sixth Avenue & 34th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Manhattan Mall entrance (west side of Sixth Avenue) from Google Maps Street View
• Broadway & 32nd Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• BMT platforms from Google Maps Street View
• IND platforms from Google Maps Street View