49th Street

The 49th Street station is a local station on the BMT Broadway Line of the New York City Subway. Located at West 49th Street and Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, it is served by the N train at all times, the R train at all times except late nights, the W train on weekdays, and the Q train during late nights.

Operation of the Broadway Line was assigned to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT; after 1923, the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation or BMT) in the Dual Contracts, adopted on March 4, 1913. Before construction started, the plans for the Broadway Line's stations in midtown were changed several times. Originally, there was going to be an express station at 47th Street, and there would have been local stations at 42nd and 57th Streets. In December 1913, the plans were changed so that both 47th and 57th Streets were express stations, and the local stop at 42nd Street was relocated to 38th Street. Opponents of the plan said it would cause large amounts of confusion, as Times Square was a "natural" transfer point. In February 1914, the PSC ordered the BRT to make the Broadway Line's 42nd Street station an express station; at that time, the station at 49th Street was changed to a local station, and 57th Street became an express station. The change was made at the insistence of Brooklynites who wanted an express station in the Theater District of Manhattan. This station opened on July 10, 1919. Initially, the station was only served by local trains from Brooklyn, whereas express trains terminated at Times Square. The station was operated by the BMT until the city government took over the BMT's operations on June 1, 1940.

In September 1967, city transportation administrator Arthur E. Palmer Jr. announced that the 49th Street station would be renovated and would receive experimental amenities, maps, and signs as part of a pilot project to measure how effective improvements in station environments were on rider attitudes to transit service. Devices to melt snow would be constructed into stairways, entrances would receive brighter lighting, new fixtures would be installed in bathrooms, and token booths would be relocated to allow clerks to have unobstructed views of the entire platform. Furthermore, sound resistant barriers would be installed between local and express tracks to dampen noise. The city government applied for a grant from the United States Department of Transportation, and was awarded $1.023 million on September 30, 1968. The total estimated project cost was $2.5 million. In September 1968, a contract to extend the platforms from 570 feet (170 m) to 615 feet (187 m) to accommodate ten-car trains was awarded. This work had to be completed before work could start on the other station improvements. In the early 1970s, the station underwent a major renovation to designs by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. During this renovation, the original decorations were replaced with bright orange tiles. In addition, the station was repainted, new token booths were installed, the floors were redone in terrazzo, the lighting was replaced, six entrances were renovated, and an additional staircase was added at the southeastern corner of 47th Street and Seventh Avenue. Johnson said the renovations had been intended to give the station a cheerful character, "like a big shopping center". Noise-dampening panels were installed on the ceilings and tracks as part of an experiment. Work on the project began on March 28, 1973; at the time, it was budgeted at $1.7 million. The renovation was finished the same year.

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