34th Street–Herald Square station

Dual Contracts The New York Public Service Commission adopted plans for what was known as the Broadway–Lexington Avenue route (later the Broadway Line) on December 31, 1907. A proposed Tri-borough system was adopted in early 1908, incorporating the Broadway Line. Operation of the line was assigned to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT; after 1923, the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation or BMT) in the Dual Contracts, adopted on March 4, 1913. The Public Service Commission approved plans for the segment between 26th and 38th Streets, including the 28th Street and 34th Street stations, in April 1914. The contract for that section went to the second-lowest bidder, the United States Realty and Construction Company, as the lowest bidder was too inexperienced. U.S. Realty began constructing the tunnel between 26th and 38th Streets in August 1914. A. W. King was hired to install finishes in the 34th Street station in July 1917. The Broadway Line opened between 14th Street–Union Square and Canal Street in 1917; it originally only served local trains. On January 5, 1918, the Broadway Line was extended north to Times Square–42nd Street and south to Rector Street, and express service started on the line. Before the 34th Street station had officially opened, ''Women's Wear Daily'' reported that the stop would be "one of the most important subway stations in the world", as it would lead directly to three busy crosstown streets (32nd, 33rd, and 34th Streets). IND expansion New York City mayor John Francis Hylan's original plans for the Independent Subway System (IND), proposed in 1922, included building over of new lines and taking over nearly of existing lines. The lines were designed to compete with the existing underground, surface, and elevated lines operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). The IND Sixth Avenue Line was designed to replace the elevated IRT Sixth Avenue Line. In 1924, the IND submitted its list of proposed subway routes to the New York City Board of Transportation (NYCBOT), which approved the program. One of the routes was a segment of tunnel from Fourth Street to 53rd Street. Part of this stretch was already occupied by the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H&M)'s Uptown Hudson Tubes. As a result, negotiations between the city and the H&M continued for several years. The IND and H&M finally came to an agreement in 1930. The city had decided to build the IND Sixth Avenue Line's local tracks around the pre-existing H&M tubes, and add express tracks for the IND underneath the H&M tubes at a later date. In April 1935, engineers started planning in earnest for the Midtown portion of the Sixth Avenue Line. The city government issued corporate stock to pay for the $53 million cost of the project, since the line was not eligible for federal Public Works Administration funds. The first contract, for the section between 40th and 47th Streets, was awarded to Rosoff-Brader Construction in October 1935. Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia broke ground for the Sixth Avenue subway at Bryant Park on March 23, 1936. The Carleton Company was hired in September 1936 to construct the section from 27th to 33rd Streets, and Rosoff-Brader was hired that October to build the segment from 33rd to 40th Streets. The line was built as a four-track tunnel north of 33rd Street, but there were only two tracks south of that street. The work largely involved cut-and-cover excavations, although portions of the subway had to be tunneled through solid rock. The builders also had to avoid disrupting the Sixth Avenue elevated or the various utility lines on the avenue. The line had to be built below the H&M and BMT tunnels, but it also had to pass above the East River Tubes at 32nd and 33rd Streets. Excavation work was conducted 24 hours a day, with most of the blasting work being conducted at night. Workers had to use small charges of dynamite to avoid damaging nearby buildings or the parallel Catskill Aqueduct. The section north of 33rd Street had mostly been excavated by November 1937. and a rebuilt terminal opened on September 24, 1939. The IRT's Sixth Avenue elevated closed in December 1938, just before the Sixth Avenue subway was completed. Otis Elevator received a contract to install 16 escalators at the station. The IND's 34th Street–Herald Square station opened on December 15, 1940, as part of the opening of the IND Sixth Avenue Line from 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center to West Fourth Street. The opening of the Sixth Avenue Line relieved train traffic on the Eighth Avenue Line, which was used by all services except for the G Brooklyn–Queens Crosstown service. The line was initially served by the rush-hour BB, the D, and the F; the BB and D terminated at 34th Street. 1950s to 1990s . On April 19, 1961, ground was broken for a $22 million project to build two express tracks between the West Fourth Street and 34th Street–Herald Square stations. The express tracks were part of an $80 million subway improvement program that began with the reconstruction of the DeKalb Avenue station in Brooklyn. The project was part of the Chrystie Street Connection, which would allow 45 additional trains per hour, carrying a combined 90,000 passengers, to enter Manhattan during rush hours. On November 26, 1967, the first part of the Chrystie Street Connection opened and Sixth Avenue Line express tracks opened from 34th Street–Herald Square to West Fourth Street. With the opening of the connection to the Manhattan Bridge, BB service was renamed B and it was extended via the new express tracks and the connection to the BMT West End Line in Brooklyn. D service was routed via the connection and onto the BMT Brighton Line instead of via the Culver Line. It only ran express during rush hours. F service was extended from Broadway–Lafayette Street during rush hours, and from 34th Street during other times to Coney Island via the Culver Line. On November 28, 1969, the turnstiles and exit gates at the northern end of the station were relocated, making four more staircases from the Broadway Line platforms available for transfers to the Sixth Avenue platforms. Previously, transfers could only be made from two staircases. This complex was overhauled in the late 1970s. The Transit Authority fixed the station's structure and renovated its appearance. The overhaul replaced the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting to the 1970s modern look wall tile band and tablet mosaics, signs and fluorescent lights. It also fixed staircases and platform edges. On February 9, 1983, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that it had awarded a $6.1 million contract to replace 16 escalators at the station to two companies. In the early 1990s, the station received another major repair, which included an upgrade for ADA-accessibility and modernized wall tiling. The MTA repaired the staircases, re-tiling for the walls, installed new tiling on the floors, upgraded the station's lights and the public address system, installing ADA safety treads along the platform edge, new signs, and new track-beds in both directions. William Nicholas Bodouva & Associates, the renovation architects, also intended to streamline various passageways and ramps that had been added piecemeal over the years. The $66.4 million project was completed in 1996. and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2007. The station's token booths were shuttered in May 2005, after fare tokens were replaced with MetroCards; station agents were deployed elsewhere in the station to answer passengers' queries. This was part of a pilot program that was tested at seven other stations. To save energy, the MTA installed variable-speed escalators at 34th Street–Herald Square and three other subway stations in August 2008, although not all of the escalators initially functioned as intended. A Korean restaurant, Nōksu, opened on the station's mezzanine level in late 2023. In November 2024, the United States Department of Transportation provided a $72 million grant to cover two-thirds of the design and engineering phase of the renovation of New York Penn Station. Among other things, the project will include a direct connection from the 34th Street–Herald Square station to Penn Station. ==Station layout==

This station complex has a long mezzanine above the platforms. Three staircases and two elevators lead to each of the two Broadway line platforms. Three pairs of escalators lead to the Sixth Avenue line platforms (two to the northbound one and one to the southbound one). There is a non-ADA-compliant ramp that leads to an intermediate level. This level has two sets of staircases leading to each of the Sixth Avenue platforms. The elevators to this level are at the north end of the mezzanine. Two works of art are installed on the mezzanine as part of the MTA Arts & Design program. The tiles were manufactured at Pewabic Pottery in Michigan and installed along a stretch of passageway; The MTA selected these artworks, along with David Provan's Yab-Yum sculpture above the IND platform, as part of the Herald Square Subway Complex Art Competition in 1988. When the station was built, there were entrances at each of four corners of Broadway, Sixth Avenue, and 34th Street. Two stairs each led to the sidewalk outside Macy's Herald Square on the northwest corner; the Marbridge Building on the northeast corner; the Hotel McAlpin on the southeast corner; and Saks on the southwest corner. The Gimbels passageway opened on May 29, 1920, after one and a half years of construction. The south wall of the passageway originally contained 25 storefront windows, four entrances to the Gimbels store, and two entrances to the hotel. The north wall included 74 spaces for advertisements. and passengers now must walk at street level to connect to the commuter railroads and Amtrak. A real estate developer, Vornado Realty Trust, proposed in 2010 to reopen the passageway as part of the development of the 15 Penn Plaza office tower. Passageway to Bryant Park The IND station's mezzanine originally extended north from 34th Street to the 42nd Street station. Proposed by the Board of Transportation in 1936, the passageway was outside of fare control but was intended to relieve passenger flow at the 42nd and 34th Street stations. At both ends of the passageway, pedestrians could descend to turnstiles at platform level. The passageway itself measured wide and was very plain in design, with white-tiled walls. and recorded 30 felonies since January 1, 1990. In response, on March 28, 1991, the NYCTA ordered the closing of the 15 most dangerous passageways in the system within a week, which the Transit Police and citizen advocacy groups had called for since the previous year. A woman was raped in the passageway in July 1990 with no response, but after another rape took place in August, the passageway's closure was called for by the local community board in September. Bureaucratic delays had prevented their closure, with their presentation to the MTA Board not scheduled until April 1991, after a public hearing on systemwide service reduction was to be held. The agency feared that closing the passageway without public comment would have caused an outcry for advocates for the homeless. == BMT Broadway Line platforms ==

}} The 34th Street–Herald Square station on the BMT Broadway Line is an express station that has four tracks and two island platforms. This level opened several years after the opening of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson station; the Sixth Avenue line platforms were built later. The station was operated by the BMT until the city government took over the BMT's operations on June 1, 1940. Each platform has three staircases and one elevator to the main mezzanine on the north half and another staircase at the extreme south end to 32nd Street. The and stop here at all times, the stops here except at night, and the stops here only on weekdays during the day. The R and W always run on the local tracks. The N runs on the express tracks only on weekdays during the day and on the local tracks at all other times. The Q runs on the express tracks during the day and on the local tracks during the night. In 1996, artist Christopher Janney installed "REACH New York, An Urban Musical Instrument". The piece consists of green racks with sensors, which hang along both platforms. Waving one's hands in front of the sensors creates a corresponding sound from the rack. == IND Sixth Avenue Line platforms ==

}} The 34th Street–Herald Square station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line is an express station that has four tracks and two island platforms. while the and stop here only on weekdays during the day. The B and D run on the express tracks and the F and M run on the local tracks. The next stop to the north is 42nd Street–Bryant Park for all service, while the next stop to the south is 23rd Street for local trains and West Fourth Street–Washington Square for express trains. The mezzanine elevators are at the north end of the station while the staircases to the Manhattan Mall entrance are at the south end. The platforms have numerous stairs and escalators leading to the main mezzanine. Stairs on both platforms lead to a non-accessible ramp leading to the mezzanine. The platforms are not equal in length, as the northbound one is longer than the southbound one. North of this station are numerous crossovers and switches that allow trains from uptown to terminate here on the express tracks during construction and closures. The crossovers were reconfigured in 2018 to reduce the duplication of track switches of the downtown and uptown tracks, most notably, the switch from the express to local tracks. Above the northbound local tracks is Yab-Yum, a sculpture created by David Provan in 1992. It consists of fourteen paddles, By 2012, the propellers were no longer capable of spinning. ==Notable places nearby==

• Empire State Building, one block east of the 34th Street entrances • Manhattan Mall, in which the 32nd Street entrance is located • Herald Square, directly in between the 34th Street entrances • Macy's Herald Square, near the northwestern entrance at 34th Street • Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, both one block west of the 32nd Street entrance == References ==