City Hall (BMT Broadway Line)

Not to be confused with City Hall (IRT Lexington Avenue Line).

City Hall
New York City Subway rapid transit station
The renovated platform; the wall on the right is for maintenance closets
Station statistics
Address	Murray Street & Broadway New York, NY 10007
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Civic Center, Tribeca
Coordinates
Division	B (BMT)
Line	BMT Broadway Line
Services	N  (late nights)       R  (all except late nights)
Transit connections	New York City Bus: M5, M9, M22, M103, X27, X28
Structure	Underground
Levels	2 (lower level not for passenger service)
Platforms	2 island platforms (1 on upper level, 1 on lower level)
Tracks	5 (2 on upper level, 3 on lower level)
Other information
Opened	January 5, 1918 (1918-01-05)
Traffic
Passengers (2014)	1,151,646  26.2%
Rank	344 out of 421
Station succession
Next north	Canal Street: N  R
Next south	Cortlandt Street: N  R
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only

City Hall is a local station on the BMT Broadway Line of the New York City Subway in Tribeca and Civic Center, Manhattan. It is served by the R train at all times except late nights, when the N train takes over service.

Station layout

G	Street Level	Exit / Entrance
B1 Upper platform	Northbound	← toward Forest Hills – 71st Avenue (Canal Street) ← toward Ditmars Boulevard late nights (Canal Street)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left
	Fare control, station agent, exits/entrances, stairways to lower level
	Island platform, doors will open on the left
	Southbound	→ toward Bay Ridge – 95th Street (Cortlandt Street) → → toward Coney Island – Stillwell Avenue late nights (Cortlandt Street) →
B2	Mezzanine	Storage area
B3 Lower platform	Track B3	→ No regular service (revenue service layups)
	Island platform, not in service
	Track BM	→ No regular service (revenue service layups)
	Uncompleted island platform, not in service
	Track B4	→ No regular service (used for work trains)

Murray Street stair

Upper level

The northbound track is located under City Hall Park, while the southbound track is under the east side of Broadway. The fare control area, which is located in the center of the very wide island platform and fenced off from the rest of the platform area, has exits on either end leading to Warren Street and Murray Street. Passengers enter from the sidewalk adjacent to City Hall Park directly onto the wide island platform on the upper level.

There is also an active tower at the north end, with a window that lets any waiting passengers observe Transit Authority goings-on. The platform tapers off toward the southern end, where the northbound and southbound portions join. The station's configuration, and the wide-open staircases to the sky above, is responsible for another distinguishing feature: the number of birds that fly into and around the station.

This station was overhauled in the late 1970s, changing the station's structure and overall appearance. It replaced the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting with more modern wall tiles, signs and fluorescent lights, as well as fixing staircases and platform edges.

Southern end of platform

Before the new City Hall master tower was built, there was a provision at the north end of the upper level for a diamond crossover (which dates back to construction of this station, when the upper level platform was to be a terminal) which is now occupied by a relay room. Strangely, at the south end of the station, the uptown track curves away from the wall; this may date from the original construction when the upper level was converted from a terminal, with presumably a straight line, to a through station with a single two-track tunnel.

Lower level

Staircase to the lower level

The City Hall station is a bi-level station, with an unused lower level reachable from a single staircase from about the center of the platform. It was initially intended that the local trains were to terminate on the upper level, while the express trains using the lower level would continue on through lower Manhattan and then through the Montague Street Tunnel. However, plans were changed before construction ended. As a result, the lower level of the station which was to have served the express trains is unused (except for non-rush hour storage of trains), as are the center express tracks at Canal Street on its upper level. Another effect of this change is that the southern end of the upper level station slopes downward. This is a result of platform lengthening and rerouting the upper level down to continue into lower Manhattan. The lower level floor continues south of the station until it disappears under the increasingly low ceiling under the ramps carrying the upper level downgrade. The lower level was never used for passenger service or even finished with tiles and signage. Only the western platform was fully completed; the shorter eastern platform was never finished.

The middle track in the lower level station was to be used for short turns from either direction depending on the service pattern, with a layout much like that at Whitehall Street – South Ferry station further south.

The lower level is only long enough to platform 480-foot-long (150 m) 8-car trains, with cars of 60 feet (18 m) lengths, like the platforms in the BMT Eastern Division. All three tracks are usable, but in the normal practice the "southbound" and the middle tracks are only used for storage. The "southbound" island platform on the lower level is the only one with a stairway to the upper level. The easternmost track on the lower level has no third rail. The third rail was removed; however, it is unknown when it was removed.

Image gallery

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Further reading

• Lee Stokey. Subway Ceramics : A History and Iconography. 1994. ISBN 978-0-9635486-1-0

External links

• nycsubway.org—BMT Broadway Subway: City Hall
• Station Reporter — N Train
• Station Reporter — R Train
• Abandoned Stations — City Hall (BMT) lower level
• Broadway and Murray Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Broadway and Warren Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Platform from Google Maps Street View