First subway Planning for a
subway line in New York City dates to 1864. The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by
William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. It called for a subway line from
New York City Hall in
lower Manhattan to the
Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into
the Bronx. A plan was formally adopted in 1897, which called for the subway to run under several streets in lower Manhattan before running under
Fourth Avenue,
42nd Street, and
Broadway. A previous proposal had called for the entire length of the subway to use Broadway, but the "awkward alignment...along Forty-Second Street", as the commission put it, was necessitated by objections to using the southernmost section of Broadway. All lawsuits concerning the route alignment were resolved near the end of 1899. in which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. The Grand Central–42nd Street station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from
City Hall to
145th Street on the
Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. After the first subway line was completed in 1908, the station was served by local and express trains along both the West Side (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to
Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street) and East Side (now the
Lenox Avenue Line). West Side local trains had their southern terminus at City Hall during rush hours and
South Ferry at other times, and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street. East Side local trains ran from City Hall to
Lenox Avenue (145th Street). Express trains had their southern terminus at South Ferry or
Atlantic Avenue and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street, Lenox Avenue (145th Street), or
West Farms (
180th Street). To address overcrowding, in 1909, the
New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway. As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 () was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. At the Grand Central station, the northbound platform was extended west, while the southbound platform was extended west. Small portions of the walls and roof were also reconstructed, and a new signal tower was constructed at the west end of the station.
Early expansion On May 17, 1910, the
New York State Public Service Commission received a letter from the
New York Central Railroad announcing plans to create a concourse to connect the under-construction Grand Central Terminal with new subway lines planned at 42nd Street. The plan called for the construction of a passageway under 42nd Street from the Vanderbilt Avenue end of the existing subway station to an elevator shaft at Lexington Avenue, connecting the planned
Steinway Tunnel and Broadway–Lexington Avenue subway lines with street level. An elevator shaft would have connected the Steinway Tunnel, a platform with the
Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H&M, now
PATH), and the new concourse, and would have led out to street level adjacent to a stairway leading to an extension of the
IRT Third Avenue Line. As part of this proposal, the new station on the Broadway–Lexington Avenue Line would have been located at 42nd Street instead of 43rd Street to provide an adequate connection with Grand Central Terminal. The New York Central also recommended revising the planned location of the station on the Steinway tunnel line. The original plan for what became the Lexington Avenue Line north of 42nd Street was to continue it south through
Irving Place and into what is now the
BMT Broadway Line at
Ninth Street and
Broadway. Contracts awarded on July 21, 1911, included Section 6 between
26th Street and
40th Street; at the time, the IRT had withdrawn from the talks, and the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was to operate on Lexington Avenue. The IRT submitted an offer for what became its portion of the
Dual Contracts on February 27, 1912. The contracts were formalized in early 1913, specifying new lines or expansions to be built by the IRT and the BRT.
Steinway Tunnel The Dual Contracts involved opening the Steinway Tunnel as part of the new
Flushing subway line. The route, traveling under 41st and 42nd Streets in Manhattan, was to go from
Times Square through the tunnel over to Long Island City and from there continue toward
Flushing. The tunnel, with trolley loops on both the Manhattan and Queens sides, had sat unused since 1907, when test runs had been performed in the then-nearly-complete tunnel. The Manhattan trolley loop was near the Grand Central station. The Flushing Line platform was the first Dual Contracts improvement to be completed at Grand Central, opening on June 22, 1915. On August 31, 1916, a passageway connecting the Flushing Line platform with the rest of the subway station was opened with an inspection tour; it was opened to the public in the following days. The new passageway connected the station's eastern mezzanine with the Flushing Line platform via ramp and a pair of elevators. This was part of a ramp that the Public Service Commission had hoped to use to connect the Steinway Tunnel to the 42nd Street Line. It was predicted that the subway extension would lead to the growth of the
Upper East Side and
the Bronx. To reduce the transfer between the eastern end of the original line's station and the new Lexington Avenue Line station, a new shuttle station was to be built to the east. The construction of the narrow island platform station required building two new trackways extending east under 42nd Street. Although the platform was constructed, it was never used. The Lexington Avenue Line was to run diagonally under the former Children's Hospital on the north side of 42nd Street east of Park Avenue. The route would connect the original subway under Park Avenue, on the west, to the new line under Lexington Avenue, on the east, at a point between 43rd and 44th Streets. The Public Service Commission had to acquire an easement from the
New York Central Railroad, the owner of the Children's Hospital site, but the commission was unwilling to pay New York Central's asking price for the easement. Consequently, in April 1913, the plan was modified so that the line made an S-curve under 40th Street. The Public Service Commission voted on the modification in June 1913, and the modified route under 40th Street was adopted that November. The commission voted in favor of the original diagonal route in February 1914, at which point the Grand Union Hotel was condemned via
eminent domain. The condemnation proceedings for the hotel cost $3.5 million (). The commission also acquired an easement from New York Central in February 1915 for $902,500 (). To pay for the station's construction cost, the Public Service Commission approved the construction of a 25-story building on the Grand Union Hotel site. The structure was not erected as proposed; it would later become the
Pershing Square Building, which opened in 1923. In 1912, in coordination with plans for the new station, a new passageway was planned to replace existing entrances at the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and 42nd Street. There were plans to build a new entrance to the northwestern corner of this intersection into the United Cigar Stores Company building. In Fiscal Year 1913, work to connect the Grand Central subway station and Grand Central Terminal was authorized, as was the extension of the eastern mezzanine to connect with a building at the northwestern corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and 42nd Street. Work to build a new mezzanine at the western end of the station, and with new stairways, including an entrance to the building at the southwestern corner of Madison Avenue and 42nd Street was also authorized. In Fiscal Year 1915, the eastern mezzanine was extended to connect with a building at the northeastern corner of 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue. In March 1916, the Public Service Commission authorized the IRT to build a new mezzanine passage at the station to reduce platform crowding for $6,000 (). As part of the project, a passageway would be constructed connecting the existing mezzanine immediately to the west of Vanderbilt Avenue on the north side of 42nd Street over the express tracks with the southbound platform with a new stairway approximately to the west of the existing eastern stairway. The Lexington Avenue Line station opened on July 17, 1918, with service initially running between Grand Central–42nd Street and
167th Street via the line's local tracks. Service on the express tracks began two weeks later, on August 1, when the "H system" was put into place, with through service beginning on the new east and west side trunk lines, and the institution of the
42nd Street Shuttle along the old connection between the sides. The shuttle station was not ready in time, and therefore wooden flooring was temporarily laid over sections of the trackways at Times Square and Grand Central. The shuttle was heavily used, and the crowding conditions were so bad that the shuttle was ordered closed the next day. The shuttle reopened September 28, 1918. Track 2 at the Grand Central station was covered over by a wooden platform. A
New York Times columnist later said that former southbound express track 2 was still usable for the first few hours of the shuttle's operation, but the wooden platform was placed over that track later the same day to allow shuttles to use former northbound express track 3, due to high demand for the shuttles on the former local tracks, numbered 1 and 4. The cost of the extension from Grand Central was $58 million (). The construction and opening of the Lexington Avenue Line north of Grand Central resulted in the construction of expensive apartments along Park Avenue, Madison Avenue, and Lexington Avenue.
Canceled Hudson & Manhattan Railroad platform The H&M's
Uptown Hudson Tubes had opened in 1908, stretching from New Jersey to
33rd Street and Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Not long after the Uptown Hudson Tubes opened, there were proposals to extend the line to Grand Central. The H&M platforms would have been directly below the Broadway–Lexington Avenue Line's platforms, but above the Steinway Tunnel platforms. The concourse for the station would have been located on the north side of 42nd Street between Depew Place and Park Avenue, with stairways connecting to the Steinway Tunnel platform below. Two elevator shafts would have connected the Steinway Tunnel and the H&M platforms. As an alternative, it was proposed to connect the Uptown Tubes to the Steinway Tunnel. A franchise to extend the Uptown Tubes to Grand Central was awarded in June 1909, with the expectation that construction could start within six months and that the new extension would be ready by January 1911. However, by 1914, the H&M had not started construction of the Grand Central extension yet, and it wished to delay the start of construction further. By 1920, the H&M had submitted seventeen applications in which they sought to delay construction of the extensions; in all seventeen instances, the H&M had claimed that it was not an appropriate time to construct the tube. This time, the Rapid Transit Commissioners declined this request for a delay, effectively ending the H&M's right to build an extension to Grand Central.
20th century modifications 1920s to 1940s In August 1925, Eastern Offices Inc. signed an agreement to lease land from the New York Central for 21 years to construct the
Graybar Building. As part of the agreement, passageways were to be constructed to connect the building with Grand Central Terminal and the subway station. The connection to the subway station would run underneath the sidewalk adjacent to the Hotel Commodore. The new entrance was expected to reduce crowding at the existing northern entrances to the station through the Hotel Commodore at 42nd Street and 43rd Street. In 1928, to alleviate overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue Line, a consulting engineer for the New York State Transit Commission proposed the construction of "reservoir" stations at 33rd/34th and 42nd Streets. The proposal entailed constructing a northbound-only tunnel under Lexington Avenue from 30th to 42nd Street, with stations at 34th and 42nd Streets, then converting the IRT tunnel under Park Avenue and the existing 33rd and 42nd Street stations to southbound-only use. The northbound and southbound stations at 33rd/34th and 42nd Streets would both have had two express tracks and one local track; the express tracks in either direction would have merged with each other north of 42nd Street and south of 30th Street. In response to McKee's complaint, the Transit Commission's chairman said the only ways to reduce overcrowding at the Grand Central–42nd Street station were to construct the "reservoir" stations or build a second subway line on Manhattan's east side. Although the "reservoir" plan was technically feasible, the projected cost of $35 to $40 million (the equivalent of $ to $ in 2024) was deemed too high. In November 1929, the W. P. Chrysler Building Corporation reached an agreement with the Transit Commission to build an entrance from the subway station to the
Chrysler Building between 42nd Street and 43rd Street. The IRT sued to block construction of the new entrance because it would cause crowding, but the
New York City Board of Transportation pushed to allow the corridor anyway. Chrysler eventually built and paid for the building's subway entrance. Work on the new entrance started in March 1930, and it opened along with the Chrysler Building two months later. By then, the station had direct connections to 14 nearby buildings. the Transit Commission authorized the IRT to install silencers on all of its turnstiles three months later. The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. On February 12, 1946, work began to double the width of the passageway connecting the shuttle platforms and the main mezzanine over the Lexington Avenue Line platforms. As part of the work the wooden passenger walkway, which had an average width of was replaced by a wide passageway with concrete flooring. This walkway had been "temporary" when it was put into place in August 1918. The new -long passageway covered most of the trackways used by downtown trains of the Original Subway prior to 1918. The iron railings along the planked walkway were removed. The project cost $45,800 () and was intended to ease congestion. As part of the project, the upper passageway was moved to within fare control to allow passengers to go between the subway mezzanine and the entrance to Grand Central Terminal at the shuttle without paying a fare. This was accomplished by moving the turnstiles at the eastern end of the passageway. In March, members of the Metallic Lathers Union Local 46 sought to halt construction on the project, which was over 80 percent complete, as the union objected to having the work done by city employees who made less than union workers. The rebuilt passageway opened on March 18, 1946. As part of a pilot program, the
New York City Board of Transportation installed three-dimensional advertisements at the Grand Central station in late 1948.
1950s to 1960s On March 2, 1950, a new type of stainless steel portable newsstand was installed at the Flushing Line platform at Grand Central. The newsstand was owned by the Union News Company. On February 15, 1954, a new ramp and stairway passageway between the Lexington Avenue Line and Flushing Line platforms opened. In April 1954, the Bowery Savings Bank completed the installation of a two-speed, reversible escalator from the ground floor of the building from the south side of 42nd Street between Pershing Square and Lexington Avenue to the station mezzanine. The construction of the escalator, which required digging into solid rock, cost about $135,000 (). The bank also installed teller windows into the mezzanine that would be open during rush hours, and installed slot machines in the wall where riders could exchange a quarter for a subway token and ten cents in change. Also in 1954, the
New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) installed
fluorescent directional signs at the Grand Central–42nd Street station, the first station in the system to receive these illuminated signs. On August 9, 1954, two new -wide escalators connecting the Flushing Line platform and the main mezzanine were placed into service. The NYCTA installed them for $1,235,000 (). The high escalators covered a distance of at a speed of per minute during rush hours, and at a speed of during other times, and could accommodate 20,000 people per hour. Both escalators traveled upwards in the morning rush hour on weekdays, and downward during the evening rush hour. During middays and weekends, the two escalators handled two-way traffic. The escalators were lit with fluorescent lighting, which would later be installed throughout the Grand Central station complex. The Flushing Line platforms at Grand Central, and all other stations on the Flushing Line with the exception of
Queensboro Plaza, were extended in 1955–1956 to accommodate 11-car trains. The
New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) submitted its $587 million () 1955 to 1959 Capital Program to the
New York City Board of Estimate on January 12, 1954. The third priority was an overall program to rehabilitate and modernize the Lexington Avenue Line for $52.7 million (). The most expensive element of the plan was the construction of a lower level station with multiple platforms and storage tracks, which was expected to cost $20 million (). The new tracks would be used by southbound trains in the morning rush hour and northbound trains in the evening rush hour. The lower level would be designed to allow trains to reverse direction around after rush hour and allow trains to be placed into service. This was intended to increase capacity in the station, reduce the impact of delays to service, and help relieve passenger congestion at the station, which was expected to increase with the demolition of the Third Avenue Elevated, increased ridership on the Flushing Line, and additional office construction near the station. On November 28, 1955, in an attempt to reduce congestion between the Flushing Line platform and the mezzanine, the NYCTA made the three elevators at the western end of the Flushing Line platform to the mezzanine up-only between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. The NYCTA announced plans in 1956 to add fluorescent lights to the Flushing Line and shuttle platforms at the Grand Central station. In late 1959, contracts were awarded to extend the platforms at Bowling Green, Wall Street, Fulton Street, Canal Street, Spring Street, Bleecker Street, Astor Place, Grand Central, 86th Street and 125th Street to to accommodate ten-car trains. In August 1960, the Board of Estimate approved a $1,361,400 () contract to extend platforms at 138th Street-Grand Concourse, 149th Street-Grand Concourse, 125th Street, 86th Street, and Grand Central. The platforms at all these stations other than the lower-level platforms at 149th Street were long. On March 17, 1964, construction began on a $1 million () project to replace three elevators serving the Flushing Line platform with two sets of -wide escalators, on two levels leading to the station mezzanine. The project was estimated to be completed in 22 months, and work began on March 17, with the removal of one of the elevators from service. Following the completion of the first set of escalators in fourteen months, the other two elevators would go out of service. This project was completed on April 3, 1966, with the completion of an escalator that traveled and had a capacity of 18,600 people an hour. The shuttle station suffered a severe fire on April 21, 1964, which destroyed the automated train being tested in the 42nd Street Shuttle at the time. The fire began under a shuttle train on track 3, and it became larger, feeding on the wooden platform. The basements of nearby buildings were damaged. while Track 3 returned to service on June 1, 1964. The reinstallation of Track 3 was delayed because of the need to replace 60 beams that were damaged in the fire. From September 19, 1966, to April 1967, service on the shuttle was limited in order to allow for the reconstruction of parts of the line. The entire project cost $419,000 (), and included the construction of a new mezzanine at Grand Central. As part of the project, the tiles damaged by the smoke from the fire were replaced with tiles in the city's colors of blue, white and orange, with black tiles interspersed. In addition, fluorescent lighting, which was 12 times brighter than the old lighting, was installed. Track 2 between the shuttle station and Times Square–42nd Street was removed in 1975. On August 9, 1979, it was announced that New York City would receive $32 million () from the
Urban Mass Transit Administration's Urban Initiatives Projects grant program to renovation the Grand Central, Herald Square, and
42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal subway stations. On October 26, 1981, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) held a public hearing over the agency's planned use of eminent domain to acquire of the basement of the Grand Hyatt to construct a passageway to connect the station's northern and main mezzanines as part of the station renovation. In addition, as part of the project, a steep stairway to the Commodore passageway was to be reconstructed, and some stairways were to be relocated to reduce congestion. The construction of the passageway was intended to allow all stairways from the Lexington Avenue platforms to be used to access the 42nd Street Shuttle and Flushing Line platforms, and to improve passenger circulation. Elevators were installed to connect the main mezzanine and the two Lexington Avenue Line platforms, as was required to receive Federal funding. In 1985, work began on a $23 million () renovation of the Lexington Avenue Line station. As part of the project, new ceilings, floors, lighting, architectural graphics, entrances, and two escalators were installed. In a report published in 1991, the
New York City Department of City Planning recommended closing the Graybar subway passage because of its low usage and its proximity to other connections. After a woman was raped in another subway passageway, the Graybar subway passage and 14 others were closed by emergency order of the
New York City Transit Authority on March 29, 1991, with a public hearing being held afterward. From January 1, 1990, to its closure, there had been 365 felonies committed in the Graybar subway passage, making it the most dangerous of the 15 passageways ordered closed. The passageway had been located behind a token booth, making it hard to patrol; at the time of its closure, the hallway was described as being "deceptively long and treacherous". Under a 1990s plan for the
Second Avenue Subway, a spur to Grand Central Terminal was considered, which would have turned off Second Avenue at 44th Street as a way to divert riders from the , which run express on the Lexington Avenue Line. Service on this spur could not be as frequent as that on Lexington Avenue as there would not be enough capacity on Second Avenue, and as a result this plan was dropped.
21st century Renovations As part of the construction of
One Vanderbilt at the corner of
Vanderbilt Avenue and
42nd Street, developer
SL Green Realty made several upgrades to the station. The improvements entailed multiple new entrances and exits, including two staircases to the southeast corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street, as well as an underground entrance directly from One Vanderbilt to the 42nd Street Shuttle platforms. Three new staircases from the mezzanine to the southbound Lexington Avenue Line platform, and one new staircase to the northbound platform, were added. The project also involved reconfiguration of columns supporting the nearby
Grand Hyatt New York hotel at the southeast corner of the station, destruction of 40% of the Hyatt's basement to expand the subway mezzanine, and the thinning of columns on platforms and mezzanines to increase space. A new elevator was added within the existing Hyatt entrance, and the existing staircase was replaced. This would directly result in additional capacity for the station, since 4,000 to 6,000 more subway passengers per hour would be able to use it. The MTA mandated the station improvements in exchange for allowing the tower's construction. this marked the largest private investment to date to the New York City Subway system. As part of the 2015–2019 MTA Capital Program, the 42nd Street Shuttle became ADA accessible, the center track was removed, and the trains became six cars long. Although the Grand Central shuttle platforms were served by elevators, the shuttle as a whole was inaccessible because the platforms at
Times Square were not accessible. The whole project will cost $235.41 million (), while the cost of this part of the project is $30 million (). At Grand Central, the center track, track 3, was removed and the two existing platforms were connected, providing one wide island platform with an area of . This became the largest platform in the subway system. The existing platforms were extended further west to accommodate six-car trains, using existing employee facility rooms. New consolidated employee facility rooms were constructed at the location of the switch connecting tracks 1 and 3. The P-4 staircase at the western end of the station leading to
Madison Avenue from the existing northern platform was removed and the P-3 staircase leading there from the existing southern platform was considerably widened. By December 2016, the project was delayed, with construction set to start in December 2019 and be completed by September 2022. A construction contract was awarded on March 7, 2019, with an estimated completion date of March 2022. The new platforms were opened on September 7, 2021. A new mezzanine below the existing mezzanine, known as the Short Loop connection, has been proposed to provide a direct connection from the subway station to the Grand Central Terminal's lower-level Metro-North platforms, and to the concourse of the
Long Island Rail Road's
Grand Central Madison station, the latter of which was built as part of the
East Side Access project. This will replace the current escalators from the existing mezzanine directly to the Flushing Line platforms, and is estimated to cost $75–150 million (equivalent to $ to $ in ). The connection to the LIRR station opened on January 25, 2023. Further circulation improvements are planned as part of a replacement of the Hyatt with a skyscraper at 175 Park Avenue, to be called Project Commodore, which is expected to be built from 2022 to 2030. As part of the project, the subway turnstiles in the basement of the Hyatt would be moved to the ground floor of Project Commodore. The 42nd Street Passage from the street to Grand Central's
Main Concourse, within the Hyatt's ground level, would be expanded by . The escalators at the Third Avenue entrance to the Flushing Line platform were replaced during much of 2023. In February 2024, workers began constructing a transfer passageway between the Flushing and Lexington Avenue lines. This passageway opened in February 2025 as part of a $75 million upgrade. That April, an artwork by the artist collective
Hilma's Ghost was installed at the Flushing Line platform's Third Avenue entrance. The MTA announced in 2025 that a customer service center would open at the station. The station-wide renovation was completed that October at a cost of $700 million; the work had included new or replaced turnstiles, elevators, escalators, and staircases, along with enlarged mezzanine areas.
Future subway connection As part of the
construction of the Second Avenue Subway, a transfer might be included between here and the 42nd Street station on that line. This would provide a transfer to the
T train if Phase 3 of the Second Avenue Subway is built. The transfer was evaluated as part of the Second Avenue Subway's
environmental impact statement published in 2004. The transfer passageway would run under 42nd Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, connecting to the IRT Flushing Line platform. Up to four properties might need to be required for the necessary ancillaries and emergency exits to be built. The passageway would run under the northern side of 42nd Street, and the exit at the eastern end would be on the northwestern corner of that street and Second Avenue.
Failed terrorist plot Najibullah Zazi and alleged co-conspirators were arrested in September 2009 as part of an
al-Qaeda Islamist plan to engage in suicide bombings on trains in the New York City Subway system, including near the Grand Central station and the
Times Square–42nd Street station during rush hour that month. Zazi pled guilty. ==Station layout==