Flushing – Main Street (IRT Flushing Line)

Flushing – Main Street
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Center track
Station statistics
Address	Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue Queens, NY 11354
Borough	Queens
Locale	Flushing
Coordinates
Division	A (IRT)
Line	IRT Flushing Line
Services	7  (all times) <7> (rush hours until 9:30 p.m., peak direction)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: Q12, Q13, Q15, Q15A, Q16, Q17, Q20A, Q20B, Q26, Q27, Q44 SBS, Q48, Q58 MTA Bus: Q19, Q25, Q34, Q50, Q65, Q66 NICE Bus: n20, n20L, n21 LIRR: Port Washington Branch (at Flushing Main Street)
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	3
Other information
Opened	January 21, 1928 (1928-01-21)
Accessible
Traffic
Passengers (2014)	19,085,948  0.1%
Rank	12 out of 421
Station succession
Next north	(Terminal): 7  <7>
Next south	Mets – Willets Point: 7  <7>
Next north	none: 7  <7>
Next south	Junction Boulevard: 7  <7>
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times Stops rush hours in the peak direction only
Main Street Subway Station (Dual System IRT)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
MPS	New York City Subway System MPS
NRHP Reference #	04001147
Added to NRHP	October 14, 2004

Flushing – Main Street (often called Main Street or Main Street – Flushing) is the northern terminal station on the IRT Flushing Line of the New York City Subway, located at Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue in the Downtown section of Flushing, Queens. It is served by the 7 at all times and the <7> train rush hours in the peak direction.

The Flushing – Main Street station was originally built as part of the Dual Contracts between the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). It opened on January 21, 1928, completing the segment of the Flushing Line in Queens. Although plans existed for the line to be extended east of the station, such an extension was never built. The station was renovated in the 1990s.

The 2014 passenger count for this station was 19,085,948 – making it the 12th busiest station system-wide and the busiest station outside of Manhattan.

History

One of the escalators in the eastern entrance

The station was constructed under the Dual Contracts as part of an extension of the Flushing Line past 103rd Street – Corona Plaza. At the time of the line's planning in the 1910s, Downtown Flushing was a quiet Dutch-colonial-style village; what is now Roosevelt Avenue in the area was known as Amity Street, a major commercial thoroughfare in the neighborhood. It was decided to build the station underground due to local opposition to the disturbances, loss of property value, and the required widening of Amity Street that an elevated line would bring. Thus, it is one of only seven underground stations on the Flushing Line, one of three on the line in Queens, and the only one east of Queensboro Plaza. Construction of the station and the double-deck bridge over the Flushing Creek began on April 21, 1923, with the station built via cut-and-cover methods. The bridge was completed in 1927, and the station opened on January 21, 1928, over a decade after the line began operation.

Following the station's opening, Downtown Flushing evolved into a major commercial and transit center. Due to the high level of passenger use, an eastern entrance was added after World War II. The station underwent a major renovation project between 1999 and 2000, which had been in planning stages since the 1970s. This made the station ADA-compliant. The project added new entrances and a large entrance hall near Lippmann Plaza at the far east end of the station, beyond the bumper blocks at the end of the tracks. Prior to 1999, the tracks went past where the current bumper blocks are, to a dead-end.

Flushing – Main Street Station has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004.

Proposed extension of the line

Under several expansion plans of the New York City Subway, including the Dual Contracts and the IND Second System, the Flushing Line would have been extended past Main Street, along and/or parallel to the right-of-way of the nearby Port Washington Branch of the Long Island Rail Road towards Bell Boulevard in Bayside. A spur line would have branched off north along 149th Street towards College Point.

Station layout

G	Street level	Entrances/Exits to Main Street
M	Concourse	Lobby, MetroCard vending machines, station agent
P Platforms	Track 1	← toward 34th Street – Hudson Yards (Mets – Willets Point)	Lippmann Plaza entrance Lobby, MetroCard vending machines, escalator to Roosevelt Avenue (Elevator on Roosevelt Avenue east of Main Street)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left, right
	Track M	← off-peak hours ( peak hours) toward 34th Street – Hudson Yards (Mets – Willets Point)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left, right
	Track 2	← off-peak hours ( peak hours) toward 34th Street – Hudson Yards (Mets – Willets Point)

The station has three tracks and two relatively narrow island platforms, due to Roosevelt Avenue's narrow width of approximately 50 feet (15 m). Mosaic on the wall tiles read "MAIN STREET"; small tiles along the platforms read "M".

There are nine entrances at street level, leading to two separate fare control areas. The original street exit is in the middle of the platforms with a separate fare control mezzanine above the tracks, and the 24-hour station agent's booth. Staircases lead up to all four corners of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue. The new fare control area at Lippmann Plaza has an extremely high ceiling, approximately 40 feet (12 m) below the street level. The mezzanine is at platform level, and provides an ADA-compliant elevator, three unidirectional escalators, and a stairway to street level at Lippmann Plaza. New artwork titled Happy World was installed over the row of turnstiles in 1998. The plaza, also known as Lippmann Arcade, is a pedestrian walkway that leads to a municipal parking lot and several bus stops on 39th Avenue.

At the west end of the station platforms are the offices and dispatch tower for the IRT Flushing Line. This is where the train crews report, trains are dispatched, and the line is controlled from. West of the station, the line rises from the tunnel via a portal at College Point Boulevard, and onto the elevated bridge across Flushing Creek.

Bus service

In addition to connecting with the nearby Long Island Rail Road station of the same name, the station serves as one of the two busiest local bus-subway interchanges in Queens (along with Jamaica Center) and the largest in North America, with over 20 bus routes running through or terminating in the area as of 2015.

Route	Operator	Stop location	North/West Terminal	South/East Terminal	via	notes
Local Bus Routes
Q12	NYCT	Roosevelt Avenue (near Lippmann Plaza)	Little Neck		Sanford Avenue, Northern Boulevard
Q13		39th Avenue (near Lippmann Plaza)	Fort Totten		Northern Boulevard, Bell Boulevard
Q15 Q15A		Roosevelt Avenue (near Lippmann Plaza)	Beechhurst		41st Avenue, 150th Street
Q16		39th Avenue (near Lippmann Plaza)	Fort Totten		Bayside Avenue
Q17 Q17 LTD		Main Street	Jamaica – Merrick Boulevard		Kissena Boulevard, Horace Harding Expressway, 188th Street, Hillside Avenue	Northern terminal shifted from Main Street and 39th Avenue to 39th Avenue and 138th Street in August 2014.
Q19	MTA Bus		Astoria		30th Avenue, 58th Street, Woodside Avenue, 65th Place, 69th Street
Q20A Q20B	NYCT		College Point	Jamaica – Merrick Boulevard	Archer Avenue, Main Street, 20th Avenue (Q20A), 14th Avenue (Q20B)
Q25 Q25 LTD	MTA Bus		College Point	Jamaica – LIRR Station	Parsons Boulevard, Kissena Boulevard, 127th Street
Q26	NYCT	Roosevelt Avenue (near Lippmann Plaza)	Auburndale		Parsons Boulevard, 46th Avenue, Hollis Court Boulevard	Rush-hours only
Q27 Q27 LTD		Main Street	Queens Village or Cambria Heights		Kissena Boulevard, 46th Avenue, 48th Avenue, Springfield Boulevard	Northern terminal shifted from Main Street and 39th Avenue to 39th Avenue and 138th Street in August 2014.
Q28		39th Avenue (near Lippmann Plaza)	Bay Terrace Shopping Center		Northern Boulevard, Crocheron Avenue, 32nd Avenue, Corporal Kennedy Street
Q34	MTA Bus	Main Street	Whitestone	Jamaica – LIRR Station	Parsons Boulevard, Kissena Boulevard, Union Street
Q44 SBS	NYCT		Bronx Zoo – West Farms Square	Jamaica – Merrick Boulevard	Archer Avenue, Main Street, Union Street, Parsons Boulevard, Cross Bronx Expressway	Converted into Q44 Select Bus Service on November 29, 2015.
Q48		Roosevelt Avenue (west of Main Street)	LaGuardia Airport		Roosevelt Avenue, 108th Street, Ditmars Boulevard
Q50 LTD	MTA Bus	Main Street	Co-op City, Bronx		Whitestone Expressway, Hutchinson River Parkway, Bruckner Boulevard, Co-op City Boulevard	Limited Stop Service
Q58 Q58 LTD	NYCT	41st Road	Ridgewood Terminal		Fresh Pond Road, Grand Avenue, Corona Avenue, College Point Boulevard
Q65 Q65 LTD	MTA Bus	Main Street	College Point	Jamaica – LIRR Station	164th Street, 45th Avenue, College Point Boulevard
Q66			Long Island City – Queens Plaza		21st Street, 35th Avenue, Northern Boulevard
N20 N20L	NICE Bus	Roosevelt Avenue (near Lippmann Plaza)	Hicksville LIRR Station		Broadway (Hicksville), Northern Boulevard
N21			Glen Cove, Nassau County		Glen Avenue, Bryant Avenue, Northern Boulevard

Points of interest

Queens Library in Flushing

See also: Points of interest on Main Street

The station is located in Downtown Flushing, also known as Flushing Chinatown, one of New York City's largest Asian enclaves.

Nearby points of interest include:

• Flushing Town Hall, at Northern Boulevard and Linden Place.
• St George's Church, on Main Street near Roosevelt Avenue.
• Flushing Main Post Office, on Main Street between Sanford and Maple Avenues.
• Queens Library Flushing, at Main Street and Kissena Boulevard, the successor to the original Queens Library branch.
• Lippmann Plaza, between 39th Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue east of Main Street. Named after longtime Flushing businessman Paul Lippmann.

Gallery

• 

  Eastern entrance, refurbished in 1999

• 

  Eastern entrance ticket hall

• 

  Waiting area

• 

  A Q65 bus at Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue

Further reading

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

External links

• nycsubway.org—IRT Flushing Line: Main Street/Flushing
• nycsubway.org — Happy World Artwork by Ik-Joong Kang (1998)
• Station Reporter — 7 Train
• The Subway Nut — Main Street-Flushing Pictures
• MTA's Arts For Transit — Flushing – Main Street (IRT Flushing Line)
• Main Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Eastern entrance on Roosevelt Avenue from Google Maps Street View