50th Street (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)

50th Street
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Downtown platform
Station statistics
Address	West 50th Street & Broadway New York, NY 10019
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Midtown Manhattan
Coordinates	40°45′40″N 73°59′02″W / 40.761°N 73.984°W / 40.761; -73.984Coordinates: 40°45′40″N 73°59′02″W / 40.761°N 73.984°W / 40.761; -73.984
Division	A (IRT)
Line	IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
Services	1  (all times)       2  (late nights)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: M7, M20, M50, M104 MTA Bus: BxM2
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	October 27, 1904 (1904-10-27)[1]
Station code	316[2]
Wireless service	[3]
Traffic
Passengers (2016)	8,157,242[4]  1.3%
Rank	46 out of 422
Station succession
Next north	59th Street–Columbus Circle: 1  2
Next south	Times Square–42nd Street: 1  2  Times Square (shuttle): no passenger service
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times Stops late nights only
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York Show map of the US

50th Street is a local station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 50th Street and Broadway at the northwest corner of the Theater District, it is served by the 1 train at all times, and by the 2 train during late nights.

Station layout

Track layout
to 59 St to 42 St

G	Street Level	Exit/Entrance
P Platform level	Side platform, doors will open on the right
	Northbound local	← toward Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street (59th Street – Columbus Circle) ← toward 241st Street late nights (59th Street – Columbus Circle)
	Northbound express	← do not stop here
	Southbound express	→ do not stop here →
	Southbound local	→ toward South Ferry (Times Square–42nd Street) → → toward Brooklyn College late nights (Times Square–42nd Street) →
	Side platform, doors will open on the right

Original Faience plaque (left); Liliana Porter's mosaic (right)

Passengers leaving southbound exit

This station has four tracks with two side platforms. It was the first west-side station constructed as part of Contract I, the original New York City Subway construction contract, which opened on October 27, 1904.^[5] Original tile plaques at this station were removed during remodeling, but one of them has been preserved at the New York Transit Museum.

The station contains the artwork Liliana Porter's Alice, The Way Out, a series of mosaics installed in 1994 depicting characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. ^[6]

In 1981, the MTA listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.^[7]

On September 7, 1987, Alex Cumba fell onto the tracks of the 50th Street station.^[8] Bystanders Edwin Ortiz, Jeff Kuhn, and Melvin Shadd jumped onto the tracks and attempted to lift Cumba back onto the platform, which was difficult due to Cumba's weight. The three were able to remove Cumba seconds before the train arrived. A recreation of the story aired on Rescue 911 on September 17, 1991.^[9][10]

Exits

Each platform has same-level fare control at the center and there are no crossovers or crossunders to allow free transfer between directions. Each fare control area has a token booth, turnstile bank, and newsstand. The northbound has four staircases to the streets: two to the northeast corner of 50th Street and Broadway, one to the southeast corner, and one inside a building on the south side of 50th Street midblock between Broadway and 7th Avenue. The southbound platform has an exit to an underground shopping arcade on the south side of 50th Street west of Broadway, and another to the southern sunken courtyard of Paramount Plaza on the northwest corner of 50th Street and Broadway.^[11]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 50th Street (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line).

• nycsubway.org – IRT West Side Line: 50th Street
• nycsubway.org – Alice: The Way Out Artwork by Liliana Porter (1994)
• Station Reporter – 1 Train
• Forgotten NY – Original 28 - NYC's First 28 Subway Stations
• MTA's Arts For Transit – 50th Street (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)
• 50th Street entrance (Downtown) from Google Maps Street View
• 50th Street entrance (Uptown and The Bronx) from Google Maps Street View
• 50th Street and Broadway entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Platforms from Google Maps Street View

New York City Subway stations, by service
	Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street 238th Street 231st Street Marble Hill–225th Street 215th Street 207th Street Dyckman Street 191st Street 181st Street 168th Street 157th Street 145th Street 137th Street–City College 125th Street 116th Street–Columbia University Cathedral Parkway–110th Street 103rd Street 96th Street 86th Street 79th Street 72nd Street 66th Street–Lincoln Center 59th Street–Columbus Circle 50th Street Times Square–42nd Street 34th Street–Penn Station 28th Street 23rd Street 18th Street 14th Street Christopher Street–Sheridan Square Houston Street Canal Street Franklin Street Chambers Street Cortlandt Street Rector Street South Ferry
See also Lists by borough (The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens) Accessible Closed Terminals Transfer Commons category Note: Temporary reroutes on the 2, 5, and M trains are not reflected here. Stations with asterisks are served by that service during off-peak hours only. See linked articles for more information.