SUBWAY SIGNS TO NOWHERE

by Kevin Walsh

 

nycentr

This sign, one of two located on the mezzanine of the IRT East 149th Street Station where the 2,4 and 5 lines meet, points the way to the New York Central Lines, today’s Metro-North. However, there is no Metro-North station at the Grand Concourse and East 149th Street; the closest station is the Melrose station, 12 blocks to the north.

The New York Central intended to build a station near the East 149th Street subway station, but the station was never built. The IRT did, however, install mosaic signs pointing the way to the proposed station while it was still on the planning boards. The station was never built, and the signs point the way to a ghost station that never was.

rockway

Once upon a time, the subways were aggressively expanding to all corners of the city. This sign is a relic of a proposed expansion that never was.

In the 1940s, the IND was completed out to Jamaica, Queens. Left on the drawing board, however, was a plan to extend the IND to the Rockaways. The Rockaway trains would have deviated from the line along Queens Blvd. just east of the 63rd Drive station and would run along the old LIRR cut in Rego Park, Woodhaven and Ozone Park. Today’s A line uses the tracks south of Liberty Avenue.

LIRR service along this route ended in the early 60s. Residents of the abovementioned neighborhoods are presently resisting an idea to activate the tracks as a way of connecting Midtown Manhattan to JFK Airport.

There was never a subway route from Queens Boulevard south to the Rockaways, but this sign on the mezzanine of the 65th Street station indicates that there was a plan for it.

RIP as of 2000

Photo: David Dyte

The IND “K” train has run in various incarnations over the years. In the 1980s, it took over the old AA route when double-letter route names were eliminated.

Later that decade, the K itself was supplanted when it became a part of the present “C” line.

This sign at 8th Avenue and 15th Street, however, still advertises the K train.

2003: The “K” has finally been replaced by an “L”, which DOES stop here.

 

RIP as of 2001


ktrain3

photo: Ofer Gur

Has the mysterious K vanished completely? It’s hiding in plain sight in the concourse at the 42nd Street stop on the 8th Avenue line. As of April 2003, it was still there.

And the thing is, you have been able to transfer to the Q here only since 2001, so they changed that sign but not this one!

8/8/98