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The current New York City Transit Authority rail system map; the Staten Island Railway is a separate entity from the New York City Subway

The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system that serves four of the five boroughs of New York City in the U.S. state of New York: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens.^[1] Its operator is the New York City Transit Authority, which is itself controlled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York. 5.225 million passengers use the system daily, making it the busiest rapid transit system in the United States and the fourth busiest in the world.^[2][3][4]

The present New York City Subway system is composed of three formerly separate systems that merged in 1940: the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), and the Independent Subway System (IND). The privately-held IRT, founded in 1902, constructed and operated the first underground railway line in New York City.^[5] The opening of this line on October 27, 1904 is commonly cited as the opening of the modern New York City Subway, although some elevated lines of the IRT and BMT that were initially incorporated into the New York City Subway system but then demolished predate this. The BMT, founded in 1923 and also privately-held, was formed from the bankruptcy of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. The IND was created by the City of New York in 1921 to be a municipally owned competitor of the two private companies. Unification in June 1940 by the New York City Board of Transportation brought the three systems under one operator. The New York City Transit Authority, created in 1953 to be a public benefit corporation that acquired the rapid transit and surface line (buses and streetcars) infrastructure of the Board of Transportation, remains the operator of the New York City Subway today.

The official count of stations in 468; however, this tabulation classifies some transfer stations as two or more stations, which are called "station complexes" within the nomenclature of the New York City Subway. If station complexes are counted as one station each, the number of stations is 423.^[3][6] 31 such station complexes exist.^[6][7] The reason for the higher count generally lies in the history of the New York City Subway: IRT, BMT and IND stations are usually counted separately, particularly if their lines are not parallel and adjacent to or on another level to each other. Regardless of how stations are counted, the New York City Subway has the largest number of rapid transit stations in the world.^[3] Included in the station counts is one station that is temporarily closed: Cortlandt Street on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line. The station closed when it was demolished during September 11, 2001 attacks. There are numerous other New York City Subway stations that are closed, many of which stem from the demolition of elevated lines once operated by the IRT and the BMT that were made largely but not completely redundant to underground lines subsequently constructed.

The newest subway station in the New York City Subway network is South Ferry on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line (1 train), opened on March 16, 2009 as a replacement to the South Ferry loops station. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is currently building four new New York City Subway stations. An extension of the IRT Flushing Line (7 <7> trains), named the 7 Subway Extension, would erect a station at 34th Street and 11th Avenue as part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project.^[8] The other three stations are being built as part of the Second Avenue Subway, a long-deferred project intended to relieve congestion on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (4 5 6 <6> trains), the busiest rapid transit corridor in the United States. The stations will be located on Second Avenue at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets.

Stations that share identical street names are disambiguated by the line name and/or the cross street each is associated with. For example, "125th Street station" can refer to four separate stations: 125th Street on the IND Eighth Avenue Line (A C E trains), the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line (1 train), the IRT Lenox Avenue Line (2 3 trains), and the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (4 5 6 <6> trains).^[9] This situation occurs numerous times.

Station configurations

Bliss Street Station on the Flushing Line.

Many stations have mezzanines. These allow for passengers to enter from multiple entrances and proceed to the correct platform without having to cross the street before entering. They also allow for crossover between uptown and downtown trains on side platforms or a pair of island platforms, which is very useful when local tracks are closed for construction.

Due to the large number of transit lines, one platform or set of platforms often serves more than one service (unlike other rapid transit systems, including the Paris Metro but like some lines on the London Underground). A passenger needs to look at the signs hung at the platform entrance steps and over each track to see which trains stop there and when, and at the arriving train to see which train it is.

There are a number of platform configurations possible:

• On a 2-track line, a station may have one center platform used for trains in both directions, or 2 side platforms, one for a train in each direction.
• For a 3-track or 4-track line, local stops will have side platforms and the middle one or two tracks will not stop at the station.
• For most 3- or 4-track express stops, there will be two island platforms, one for the local and express in one direction, and another for the local and express in the other direction.
• In a 3-track configuration, the center track can be used toward the center of the city in the morning and away from the center in the evening, though not every 3-track line has that express service.

In a few cases, a 4-track station has an island platform for the center express tracks and two side platforms for the outside local tracks. This occurs only at three stations near major railway stations where the next station along the line is also an express station with the more common platform configuration. The purpose of splitting the platforms is to prevent through riders from adding to the station's crowding by transferring from local to express or from express to local. This occurs at Atlantic Avenue on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line (2 3 4 5 trains) with adjacent express station Nevins Street, where the connection is to the Atlantic Terminal of the Long Island Rail Road; and 34th Street-Penn Station on both the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line (1 2 3 trains) and IND Eighth Avenue Line (A C E trains), with adjacent express stations at Times Square – 42nd Street and 42nd Street – Port Authority Bus Terminal, where the connection is to Pennsylvania Station, one of the two major New York City railway stations. This does not occur with the connection to New York's other major station, Grand Central Terminal, at Grand Central on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (4 5 6 <6> trains), which has no adjacent express station. Almost everywhere expresses run, they run on the inner one (of 3) or two (of 4) tracks, and locals run on the outer two tracks. There is one notable 6-track local station, DeKalb Avenue, where trains to or from the Manhattan Bridge either stop at the outer tracks of one of the island platforms, or pass through and bypass the station on the middle tracks ("express tracks"). Trains to or from the Montague Street Tunnel stop across the platform from the respective outer track.

Complete lists of stations

The complete list of stations is split by borough. The second column displays the number of stations as counted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The third column shows the number of stations when "station complexes" are considered to be one station each.

Borough	Number of stations (1)	Number of stations (2)	Station complexes	Services
BronxThe Bronx	070	068	02	1 2 4 5 6 B D
BrooklynBrooklyn	170	158	09	2 3 4 5 A B C D F G J L M N Q R S Z (Franklin Avenue)
ManhattanManhattan	147	118	18	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 A B C D E F J L M N Q R S V W Z (42nd Street)
QueensQueens	081	079	02	7 A E F G J M N R S V W Z (Rockaway Park)
All	468	423	31	0

Station complexes

Name of station complex	Daytime Services	Borough
14th Street / Sixth – Seventh Avenues		Manhattan
14th Street – Eighth Avenue		Manhattan
14th Street – Union Square		Manhattan
23rd Street – Ely Avenue / Court Square		Queens
34th Street – Herald Square		Manhattan
42nd Street – Bryant Park		Manhattan
59th Street – Columbus Circle		Manhattan
149th Street – Grand Concourse		the Bronx
161st Street – Yankee Stadium		the Bronx
168th Street – Washington Heights		Manhattan
Atlantic Avenue – Pacific Street		Brooklyn
Bleecker Street / Broadway – Lafayette Street		Manhattan
Broadway Junction		Brooklyn
Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall / Chambers Street		Manhattan
Canal Street		Manhattan
Chambers Street – World Trade Center / Park Place		Manhattan
Court Street – Borough Hall		Brooklyn
Delancey Street – Essex Street		Manhattan
Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street		Brooklyn
Franklin Avenue – Botanic Garden		Brooklyn
Franklin Avenue – Fulton Street		Brooklyn
Fulton Street/Broadway – Nassau Street (Fulton Street Transit Center)		Manhattan
Grand Central – 42nd Street		Manhattan
Lexington Avenue / 51st – 53rd Streets		Manhattan
Lexington Avenue/59th Street		Manhattan
Metropolitan Avenue / Lorimer Street		Brooklyn
Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenues		Brooklyn
New Utrecht Avenue/62nd Street		Brooklyn
Roosevelt Avenue/74th Street		Queens
South Ferry – Whitehall Street		Manhattan
Times Square – 42nd Street		Manhattan
Two complexes – Under Construction
23rd Street – Ely Avenue / Court Square	( )	Queens
Jay Street – Borough Hall / Lawrence Street		Brooklyn

Stations with the same name

At six stations, "23rd Street" is the name of the most stations that share the same name, not including name variants. This 23rd Street station is on the IND Sixth Avenue Line in Manhattan.

The name "Broadway" is used in three boroughs, the most of any borough. Broadway also has a high number of variant names, 10 total. This Broadway station is on the BMT Astoria Line in Queens.

There are many stations that share the same name. These stations are disambiguated by the line each of them is on. The following list shows these occurrences presented Alphabetically by Borough, then west to east, then north to south; stations of the same name that form a subway complex are grouped in parentheses (); demolished and permanently closed stations are stricken through:

• The B stops at two stations named Seventh Avenue: Seventh Avenue (BMT Brighton Line) in Brooklyn and Seventh Avenue (IND Sixth Avenue Line) in Manhattan.
• The E stops at two stations named 23rd Street: 23rd Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line) in Manhattan and 23rd Street – Ely Avenue (IND Queens Boulevard Line) in Queens.
• The M stops at two stations named Myrtle Avenue: Myrtle Avenue – Broadway (BMT Jamaica Line) and Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenues (BMT Myrtle Avenue Line), both in Brooklyn.
• The R stops at two stations named 36th Street: 36th Street (BMT Fourth Avenue Line) in Brooklyn and 36th Street (IND Queens Boulevard Line) in Queens.
• The V stops at two stations named 23rd Street: 23rd Street (IND Sixth Avenue Line) in Manhattan and 23rd Street – Ely Avenue (IND Queens Boulevard Line) in Queens.

Top stations by ridership

This table shows the top ten New York City Subway stations by ridership, according to 2008 average weekday boarding data.^[10]

See also

New York City portal

• List of New York City Subway terminals
• List of New York City Subway transfer stations
• List of closed New York City Subway stations
• Staten Island Railway

References

New York City Subway Services  1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  ·  6  ·  7  ·  A  ·  B  ·  C  ·  D  ·  E  ·  F  ·  G  ·  J  ·  L  ·  M  ·  N  ·  Q  ·  R  ·  V  ·  W  ·  Z  Shuttles  S  42nd Street ·  S  Franklin Avenue ·  S  Rockaway Park Unused or defunct 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · AA · BB · CC · EE (8 Avenue) · EE (Broadway) · GG · H · HH (Court Street) · HH (Rockaway Park) · JJ · K (Broadway) · K (8 Avenue) · KK · LL · MJ · NX · P · QB · QJ · QT · RJ · RR · T · TT · U · X · Y · JFK Express BMT 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 Shuttles (S/SS) 63rd Street · Bowling Green · Culver · Grand Street · Other Capital projects 7 Subway Extension · Fulton Street Transit Center · Second Avenue Subway Divisions A Division (IRT) · B Division (BMT · IND) Stations Boroughs The Bronx · Brooklyn · Manhattan · Queens Types Closed · Terminals · Transfer stations Other lists Inter-division connections · Lines · Services · Yards Miscellaneous Staten Island Railway · Chaining · History · Fares · MetroCard · Nomenclature · Rolling stock · Proposed expansion (1929–1940) · Train of Many Colors