
DOES the Fulton Transit Center at Broadway and Fulton Street offer entrance to the greatest number of subway lines in the city? The BMT, IND and IRT are all represented, including the Broadway BMT, 7th Avenue IRT, Lexington Avenue IRT, 8th Avenue IND and Nassau Street BMT, with 12 different lettered trains, though the Z is a rush hour skip stop version of the J, while the W is a mini-N train that connects Whitehall Street with Ditmars Boulevard. Trains accessed here go all the way to Van Cortlandt Park, the Rockaway peninsula, and the northern end of the Bronx near Mount Vernon. Only the 6th Avenue and Queens Boulevard IND and, of course, the crosstown G, L and 7 don’t join the conclave.
This stanchion is also unique as it isn’t the more ornate IND station indicator station, but a cylindrical version only used here at the FTC. Every line that converges here is listed on the pole. The complex opened in 2014 in order to simplify the connections between five separate trunk lines, but simple geography dictated that the free transfers couldn’t really be simplified all that much and considerable stairway and corridor walking still has to be done to transfer between trunks. The green indicator at the apex means the entrance is always open.
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5/27/25
5 comments
No Tmes Square is the most number of subways lines that connect, and that was even before the connection to the 6 Ave lines (B, D, F, M) at Bryant Park, only the only lines that don’t serve tgat complex are the only lines that don’t serve the West Side tge Lexington Ave 4,5, 6 which is entirely on the Side, the NasauvSt J and Z which only serves the Lower East Side and Downtown when in Manhattan, and the Crosstown G which doesn’t serve Manhattan at all
I forgot about the 14St-Canarsie L doesn’t serve the Times Sq complex either
Does the Fulton Transit Center at Broadway and Fulton Street offer entrance to the greatest number of subway lines in the city? The answer was yes before September 2023, but since then Times Square wins the award. The 1 2 3 7 and S IRT routes, N Q R W BMT routes, plus the A C E 8th Ave. IND and the B D F M 6th Ave. IND routes are also part of one massive single fare control. That’s because the rebuilt S 42nd St. Shuttle platforms now connect at their eastern end with the IND 42nd St. Bryant Park Station. Thus, a total of 16 individual subway routes are available at Times Square, representing all three legacy subway operators. That is appropriate, because Times Square was part of the original 1904 subway and is the unofficial ground zero of the subway system.
The fact that the E, R and W are shown is slightly misleading. The WTC and Cortlandt St stations is are separate stations a block away on Church St. There is no free transfer between the trains at Fulton St and the E, R, W. There is a free transfer between the WTC and Cortlandt St stations.
I don’t see why it needed a stationhouse when it was mostly for having retail, and it still feels like a labyrinth when going through it.