The 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station is an express station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, it is served by the A and E trains at all times, and by the C train at all times except late nights. Passageways connect this station to the nearby station at Times Square–42nd Street, providing a free transfer, and to the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
The 42nd Street station was built as an express station for the Independent Subway System (IND)'s Eighth Avenue Line. The station opened on September 9, 1932, as part of the initial section of the Eighth Avenue Line. The connection to the Port Authority Bus Terminal opened in 1950, and a platform on a lower level operated intermittently between 1952 and 1981. A free transfer to the Times Square station opened in 1988.
The station has two offset island platforms and four tracks, as well as a mezzanine leading from 40th to 42nd Streets. There was originally a lower level with one track and one side platform that served southbound trains from the Queens Boulevard Line. The station is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, but the passageway to the Times Square–42nd Street complex is not accessible. The Times Square/Port Authority stations comprise the busiest station complex in the system, serving 65,020,294 passengers in 2019.
History
Planning and construction
As early as March 1918, soon after the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT)'s Broadway Line opened to Times Square–42nd Street, plans were being considered for an extension of that line beyond the stubs at 57th Street–Seventh Avenue to the Upper West Side and Washington Heights via Central Park West (Eighth Avenue). On August 3, 1923, the New York City Board of Estimate approved the Washington Heights Line, an extension of the Broadway Line to Washington Heights. The line was to have four tracks from Central Park West at 64th Street under Central Park West, Eighth Avenue, Saint Nicholas Avenue, and private property to 173rd Street, and two tracks under Fort Washington Avenue to 193rd Street. South of 64th Street, one two-track line would connect to the Broadway Line stubs at 57th Street, and another would continue under Eighth Avenue to 30th Street at Penn Station, with provisions to continue downtown.
Mayor John Hylan instead wanted to build an independent subway system, operated by the city. The New York City Board of Transportation (NYCBOT) gave preliminary approval to several lines in Manhattan, including one on Eighth Avenue, on December 9, 1924. The main portion of the already-approved Washington Heights Line—the mostly-four track line north of 64th Street—was included, but was to continue north from 193rd Street to 207th Street. South of 64th Street, the plan called for four tracks in Eighth Avenue, Greenwich Avenue, the planned extension of Sixth Avenue, and Church Street. Two tracks would turn east under Fulton Street or Wall Street and under the East River to Downtown Brooklyn. The BOT announced a list of stations on the new line in February 1928, with an express station at 40th Street.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held at St. Nicholas Avenue and 123rd Street on March 14, 1925. Most of the Eighth Avenue Line was dug using a cheap cut-and-cover method, where the street above was excavated. Still, the construction of the line was difficult, as it had to go under or over several subway lines. 42nd Street, the longest station along the line at , was expected to be a major express station with large platforms, so the platforms were staggered away from each other in order to avoid going under property lines. The station's construction required over of structural steel and nearly of concrete. Neighboring buildings, such as the Times Square Hotel and the Franklin Savings Bank at 42nd Street, had to be underpinned because the station extended all the way to the property line on either side. Several workers died in cave-ins during construction. The stations on the line were built with long platforms, but they had provisions to lengthen them to to accommodate eleven-car trains.