Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street (63rd Street Lines)

Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Queens-bound lower platform in 2013, during reconstruction for connection to the Second Avenue Subway.
Station statistics
Address	Lexington Avenue & East 63rd Street New York, NY 10065
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Upper East Side
Coordinates	40°45′53″N 73°57′59″W / 40.764649°N 73.966398°W / 40.764649; -73.966398Coordinates: 40°45′53″N 73°57′59″W / 40.764649°N 73.966398°W / 40.764649; -73.966398
Division	B (BMT/IND)
Line	IND/BMT 63rd Street Lines
Services	F  (all times)
System transfers	With MetroCard only: 4  5  6  <6> at 59th Street (IRT Lexington Avenue Line) N  Q  R  at Lexington Avenue / 59th Street (BMT Broadway Line) (Transfer stations are not accessible)
Connection	New York City Bus: M101, M102, M103 MTA Bus: BxM1
Structure	Underground
Levels	2
Platforms	2 island platforms (1 on each level, half of each in passenger service) cross-platform interchange (future)
Tracks	4 (2 on each level; 1 in service on each level)
Other information
Opened	October 29, 1989 (1989-10-29)[1]
Accessible
Traffic
Passengers (2014)	4,479,963[2]  0.4%
Rank	109 out of 421
Station succession
Next north	Roosevelt Island (63rd): F  72nd Street (2nd Ave): under construction
Next south	57th Street (6th Avenue): F  57th Street – Seventh Avenue (Broadway): no regular service
Next north	Roosevelt Island (63rd): F  72nd Street (2nd Ave): under construction
Next south	47th–50th Streets – Rockefeller Center (6th Avenue): F  Times Square – 42nd Street (Broadway): no regular service
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops in station at all times Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only Stops late nights and weekdays only Stops late nights and weekends only Stops weekends and weekend late nights Stops weekdays and weekday late nights Stops weekdays only Stops weekends only Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction Stops all times except weekdays in the peak direction Stops daily except rush hours in the peak direction Stops rush hours only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only Station is closed (Details about time periods)

Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street is a two-level station shared by the IND and BMT 63rd Street Lines of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street, it is served by the F train at all times. Downtown and Brooklyn-bound trains use the upper level, and Queens-bound trains use the lower level. The original wall tiles installed in this station were red-orange; currently, there are beige-white wall tiles, which replaced the orange wall tiles because of the construction for the Second Avenue Subway. There are a total of ten escalators, six staircases and two elevators. Two additional staircases between the platform levels are at the eastern end of platforms, past the elevator.

The station's upper level is 140 feet (43 m) deep, making the station among the system's deepest. This depth is because it has to go under the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and other existing infrastructure.^[3]

Station layout

G	Street Level	Exit/Entrance, MetroCard connection to 4 5 6 <6> N Q R trains at Lexington Avenue / 59th Street
B1	Mezzanine	Fare control, station agent, MetroCard vending machines (Elevator on north side of 63rd Street west of Lexington Avenue)
B2	-	Escalator/stairway landing
B3	-	Escalator/stairway landing, transfer between platforms
B4	Southbound	← No regular service (present) ← (under construction) toward Coney Island – Stillwell Avenue (57th Street – Seventh Avenue)
	Island platform, not in service
	Island platform, doors will open on the right
	Southbound	← toward Coney Island – Stillwell Avenue (57th Street)
B5	Northbound	→ No regular service (present) → (under construction) toward 96th Street (72nd Street) →
	Island platform, not in service
	Island platform, doors will open on the left
	Northbound	→ toward Jamaica – 179th Street (Roosevelt Island) →

From the street, there are two short escalators and a stair from the northwest corner, a staircase from the southwest corner, and a short elevator hidden around the corner from the escalators. From the fare control, there are two long escalators and a stair to an intermediate level, and then two shorter escalators and a pair of stairs to a lower mezzanine. Here, the bank splits and there are two separate tubes of two escalators and a stair each to each platform. The platform elevator has its own two turnstiles, and makes three stops (mezzanine, upper platform, lower platform).

IND side

The IND side of the station is the only side of the station in use as of 2015. Built to look like a typical one-track, one-side platform station on each level, a look behind the station walls would reveal the "side" platforms to be island platforms, also revealing an unused track on each level. This track will be used for the connection between the BMT 63rd Street Line and the under construction Second Avenue Subway. When the station was built, it was decided to build a wall to separate the two tracks, as the IND (southern) tracks have always been used, while the BMT (northern) tracks have never seen regular service, only to be used for non-rush hour train storage. As part of the ongoing Second Avenue Subway construction, the walls have been removed as of 2012, preparing the north side of each platform for future cross-platform interchange. The station is also being expanded.^[4] There are blue walls separating most of the IND and BMT sides as of January 2015.^[5]

East of this station on the IND side are turnouts for a connection to Phase 3 of the Second Avenue Subway, clearly visible from a moving train,^[6] which would allow future service from Queens towards Midtown and Downtown Manhattan. Also to the east, the eastbound track of the IND line rises to the upper level of the tunnel, as both IND tracks are located on the upper level of 63rd Street Tunnel for the trip under the East River. The two tracks on the lower level of that tunnel are being connected to the Long Island Rail Road via the East Side Access project. The ESA project will bring trains from the LIRR Main line to Grand Central Terminal, but is currently unused.

BMT side

Unused tracks on BMT side

East of this station on the BMT side, the planned track connections to the Second Avenue Subway curve slightly north. After the tracks end, the roadbed goes on for a few hundred feet before merging into the tunnels of Phase 1 of the IND Second Avenue Line, which is under construction as of 2015.^[3][7]

As part of Second Avenue Subway renovations, artist Jean Shin would install artwork in the station that would decorate the station walls with a ceramic and glass photographic installation that will include archival photos from the New York Transit Museum.^[8]

Entrances and exits

There are currently 3 entrances and exits, with 4 under construction.^[9]

Exit location	Exit Type	Number of exits	Status
Within building, NW corner of Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street	Escalator and Staircase	1	Open
Next to 135 E 63rd Street NW corner of Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street	Elevator	1	Open
SW corner of Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street	Staircase	1	Open
Entrance 1 Within building at SE corner of Third Avenue and 63rd Street	Escalators	1	Under construction
Entrance 2 NW corner of Third Avenue and 63rd Street	Elevator	1	Under construction
Entrance 3 NE corner of Third Avenue and 63rd Street	Staircase	1	Under construction
Entrance 4 SW corner of Third Avenue and 63rd Street	Staircase	1	Under construction

Ancillary buildings

As with the three Second Avenue Subway stations under construction, this station will have two ancillary buildings:

• Ancillary 1: 124 East 63rd Street^[9]
• Ancillary 2: North side of 63rd Street between Third and Lexington Avenues^[9]

History

The station was built using a combination of cut-and-cover construction and tunneling machines.^[10][11]

IND side

The renovated Queens-bound platform in February 2015

Construction on the 63rd Street Line, including the Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street station, began on November 25, 1969.^[12] Although the station was completed in 1983, when it was named the Construction Achievement Project of the Year by the Metropolitan Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, it did not open for passenger service until 1989 when the 63rd Street Tunnel was partially completed.^[1][3][13]

When the IND side was finished in 1983, the BMT side was not planned to be put into service for many years.^[3] The BMT side was abandoned and walled off with a "temporary" orange brick wall, and a false ceiling was placed on the upper level's IND side. Finishing touches for the station were only applied to the IND side of the station.^[3]

When the 63rd Street Connector to the IND Queens Boulevard Line opened in 2001,^[12] a free MetroCard out-of-system transfer to the Lexington Avenue / 59th Street station was added. This was to provide a transfer to the IRT Lexington Avenue Line for F train customers as such a connection had been provided at the Lexington Avenue – 53rd Street station along the previous routing of the F train.^[14]

BMT side

Work on BMT side

Both sides of the station were part of the MTA's 1968 Program for Action.^[15] About US$1,230,000,000^[16] was spent to create three tunnels and a half-dozen holes as part of construction on the Second Avenue and 63rd Street Lines. Construction would cease on the Second Avenue Subway in 1975 due to the city's severe fiscal crisis,^[17][18] so the BMT side was closed off to the public.^[3]

In 2007, the Second Avenue Subway resumed construction.^[19] The station is to be renovated and expanded significantly as a result of that construction.^[9] It is believed that the BMT side would be put into service as early as December 2016.^[20][21][22]

On September 22, 2011, a Second Avenue Subway tunnel-boring machine completed its run to the Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street station's bellmouth.^[23][24] Controlled blasting for the section of tunnel between Third Avenue/63rd Street and Second Avenue/65th Street was completed in March 2012.^[25]

The orange false walls in the station were removed in May 2013.^[26] Mesh fences within the blue walls on both levels allow passengers to see the BMT tracks from the IND side. Some of the blue wall temporarily came down in December 2014, revealing that the BMT side has large white and grey panels on the track side that have been, as of February 2015, applied to the walls on the IND side as well. This differs vastly from the small beige tiles that were on the IND side of the tracks from 1989 to 2013.^[5]

Renovation of the station was estimated to be finished by Summer 2015, but the completion date has been pushed back to September 2015. ^{[27] [28] [29]}

Gallery

• 

  Upper platform in 2010, prior to reconstruction for a connection to the Second Avenue Subway.

• 

  Orange tiles of the station dating to the late 1980s, removed in 2013

• 

  Elevator at upper platform

• 

  1980s-era outdoor station entrance at Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street

• 

  1980s-era in-building station entrance at Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street

• 

  Trackside tiles on the lower level in March 2015

• 

  New Third Avenue and 63rd Street entrance in April 2015

References

External links

Media related to Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street (New York City Subway) at Wikimedia Commons

• nycsubway.org—IND 6th Ave./63rd St. Line: Lexington Avenue–63rd Street
• Station Reporter — F Train
• Lexington Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
• 63rd Street elevator from Google Maps Street View
• "Behind the Blue Wall" - A look at Second Avenue subway construction at Lex-63rd St Station - Oct 2012