Broadway Junction station

The Broadway Junction station complex is shared by the elevated BMT Canarsie and BMT Jamaica Lines and the underground IND Fulton Street Line. Throughout the history of the area, this has been a key junction point between various different rail lines. What is now Broadway Junction sits atop the historical Jamaica Pass, the junction of the modern Broadway, Fulton Street, and Jamaica Avenue. The Pass is where these roads passed through the valleys of the area, which are part of the terminal moraine created by the Wisconsin glaciation. BMT complex The first rail service in the area was the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) at East New York station. The line opened as the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad in 1836, under lease to the LIRR, but did not include a station at East New York until early 1843. The Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad (the predecessor to the BMT Canarsie Line) began service in the area in 1865. The name Manhattan Junction or Manhattan Beach Junction was applied to the station on what is now the Jamaica Line when it opened in 1885; the area had been known as Manhattan Beach Crossing since before then, This connection, equipped with a third rail to supply electric power, was opened on August 9, 1900, and new service patterns were implemented: during times other than rush hours, Lexington Avenue and Fulton Street trains were through-routed, and travel beyond Manhattan Junction required a transfer. This "East New York Loop" was unpopular, and was soon stopped; the next service to use the tracks was the BMT Canarsie Line to Broadway Ferry (later the 15 train), joined to the Fulton Street Line at Pitkin and Snediker Avenues in 1906. The name was changed from Manhattan Junction to Broadway Junction in 1913. The Dual Contracts were signed on March 19, 1913, between the City and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT). As part of the agreement, the BRT, which owned the elevated lines in Brooklyn, agreed to construct bidirectional express tracks on the Fulton and Broadway Elevateds. The Broadway express track was placed into service on December 23, 1916. The current Broadway Elevated station at Eastern Parkway opened on August 5, 1919, replacing the old Manhattan Junction station. The full BMT 14th Street-Canarsie Line was completed on July 14, 1928, with the opening of the segment connecting Broadway Junction with Montrose Avenue. The Fulton Street Elevated was now redundant, and BMT service on the line closed entirely on April 26, 1956, with the eastern portion to Lefferts Boulevard connected to the IND. The New York City Board of Transportation announced plans in November 1949 to spend $325,000 extending platforms at several IND stations, including Broadway–East New York, to accommodate 11-car, trains. The lengthened trains began running during rush hour on September 8, 1953, with eleven-car trains operating on weekdays. The project cost $400,000 and increased the total carrying capacity of rush-hour trains by 4,000 passengers. The operation of eleven-car trains ended in 1958 because of operational difficulties. The signal blocks, especially in Manhattan, were too short to accommodate the longer trains, and the motormen had a very small margin of error to properly align the train with the platform. It was found that operating ten-car trains allowed for two additional trains per hour to be scheduled. Complex renovation and later years The entire complex was renovated from 1999 to 2001. The design bid for the project was awarded in May 1996. As part of the project, an abandoned mezzanine and adjacent staircases were removed, a new station booth was built and the public address system was improved. In 2001, as part of the work a piece of artwork made by Al Loving titled Brooklyn, New Morning was installed in the station. This piece of art consists of 75 unique glass panels arranged in a series throughout the complex and a mosaic mural wall that is . This installation was part of MTA Arts & Design's program to install artwork in stations that undergo rehabilitations. Other necessary improvements were also completed as part of the project. For a long time, the stations within the complex went by three different names: the original Eastern Parkway on the BMT Jamaica Line, Broadway Junction on the BMT Canarsie Line, and Broadway–East New York (IND Fulton Street Line). Conformity between the station names was established in 2003. As part of a project initiated in 2017 in which 200 blocks of land in East New York were rezoned for housing and improvements to area parks and schools were planned, the New York City Economic Development Corporation initiated a study to foster economic growth around Broadway Junction as a transit hub with residential and commercial uses. As part of the project, a light rail station at Atlantic Avenue has been proposed next to the existing subway station. Mayor Eric Adams announced in May 2023 that the MTA would spend $400 million on improvements at the Broadway Junction station, including seven elevators, a new entrance on Van Sinderen Avenue directly to the Canarsie Line platforms, and replacement of all of the complex's escalators. In addition, the city government would spend $95 million to build pedestrian plazas around the station. AtkinsRéalis was hired in June 2024 to design the station's renovation, including accessibility improvements. Work on the project began in 2025, despite concerns from local residents that the project would result in gentrification. The MTA also announced in 2025 that a customer service center would open at the station. By 2026, a direct connection between the Fulton Street and Canarsie lines' platforms was planned to be complete that year, and the elevators were being installed. ==Station layout==

The station complex is composed of three stations: the two elevated stations on the BMT Jamaica and Canarsie Lines, as well as the underground station on the IND Fulton Street Line. The IND station is accessible from the station's ground-level station house, at the east end of the station complex, using staircases down to platform level. The BMT lines are reachable from that same station house via escalators from street level to the upper mezzanine, which is located over the elevated BMT Jamaica Line platforms and at the BMT Canarsie Line's platform level. The two escalators, which were replaced in 2000, are long and steep. A footbridge leads from the upper mezzanine to the BMT Canarsie Line's northbound platform. Despite having been renovated in the late 1990s, the Broadway Junction complex does not conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and there are no elevators in the station because the different parts of the complex are too far from each other. Because Broadway Junction is a major transfer station, the community identified this lack of access as a major issue. Calls for elevators were renewed in 2017, after the announcement of the L train shutdown in 2019–2020, which temporarily restricts Canarsie Line service to Manhattan during off-peak hours. In January 2018, the MTA announced that the IND Fulton Street Line platforms would receive elevators, and that elevators were also being studied for the BMT Jamaica Line platforms. However, the BMT Canarsie Line platforms were initially not expected to receive these improvements. Exit The fare control area is in the station house, with a token booth and turnstile banks. The structure was built along with the IND station. The station house leads to Van Sinderen Avenue between Fulton Street to the south, and Truxton Street and Broadway to the north. This is the only entrance to the entire complex. The station house is adjacent to Callahan-Kelly Playground, and is recessed a short distance west from Van Sinderen Avenue. == BMT Canarsie Line platforms ==

The Broadway Junction station on the BMT Canarsie Line, served by the train at all times, has two tracks, one island platform and one side platform. Manhattan-bound trains use the island platform for northbound service while Canarsie-bound trains use the side platform for southbound service, similar to the configuration of the Bowling Green station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. However, unlike Bowling Green, the southbound trains can use the island platform if necessary. The station is between Bushwick Avenue–Aberdeen Street to the north and Atlantic Avenue to the south. The old-style platform lights were removed and replaced with light fixtures that curve upward and split into two lights, widely seen elsewhere in the system. In March 2018, in preparation for the L train shutdown, the MTA announced that it would be installing two extra staircases to the BMT Canarsie Line platforms; at the time, there was only one passageway to each platform. == BMT Jamaica Line platforms ==

}} The Broadway Junction station is an express station on the BMT Jamaica Line that has three tracks and two island platforms. The ironwork for the old Fulton Elevated trackways can be seen under this portion of the complex from the platforms. Three staircases from each platform lead to the upper mezzanine of the complex. File:R42 4811.JPG|A train of R42 cars in Z service at the station File:Broadway Junction; Jamaica to Fulton Stairs-2.JPG|The bridge between the Jamaica platforms and Fulton Street subway File:Bway Junction td 06 - BMT Jamaica.jpg|A closed staircase to the former station house at Eastern Parkway == IND Fulton Street Line platforms ==

}} The Broadway Junction station on the IND Fulton Street Line, formerly called the Broadway–East New York station, The land for the station was acquired by the city in 1938, and in order to construct the station and other utilities, the land had to be cleared of buildings. The station was nearly complete when the United States' entrance into World War II in 1941 halted construction due to material shortages. Work resumed following the war to install the necessary signals, tracks and complete the escalators to the BMT platforms. The station opened on December 30, 1946, while the escalator was completed on July 1, 1948, after supply delays. The station's tile band is unique in that it incorporates two types of tile–gloss and matte–in contrasting shades of cobalt blue (gloss border) and blueberry (matte center). When the station was renamed in 2003, and replaced by tiles reading "JUNCTION", in a very closely matching IND font. There is an active control tower just past the head end of the Queens-bound platform. East of the station, the tunnel widens on both sides to accommodate an additional trackway diverging from the local tracks. These bellmouths, one of which has an emergency exit, were built for a proposed extension along the BMT Jamaica Line, or for a proposed Jamaica Avenue Subway. They were not a provision for the IND Second System, as were similar structures on other IND lines, but rather date from an earlier plan for the IND Fulton Street Line, which would have connected the IND tracks west of the station to two lines to the east of the station: the BMT Jamaica Line tracks, and the BMT Fulton Street Line tracks to Lefferts Boulevard, which were eventually connected to the IND Fulton Street Line anyway, albeit past Grant Avenue. File:Bway Junction td 30 - IND Fulton.jpg|The southbound platform File:C-Trains Stop Here; B'Way JCT IND Fulton.jpg|C train stop sign in front of a staircase to the station house == BMT Fulton Street Line platforms ==

Manhattan Junction was the original name for the Fulton Street Elevated platforms. It was located above Fulton and Sackman Streets, and was the second station to be built in the area of Broadway Junction. The station was built by the Kings County Elevated Railway on July 4, 1889. Manhattan Junction station had an island platform and two tracks, with a spur leading to the East New York Yard, as well as a side platform on the north side of the station that turned north along the East New York Loop, and ended on the south side of the BMT Jamaica Line platforms. The Dual Contracts work reconfigured the Broadway Junction station (then called Manhattan Junction), including removal of the Fulton Street Line platforms. In 1938, the Independent Subway System began constructing their own Fulton Street Subway and added an underground subway station named Broadway–East New York station. Stations west of this point were being made obsolete as many were being replaced by the subway stations. The subway station opened in December 1946, and all stations east of Rockaway Avenue closed. The ironwork for the old Fulton Elevated trackways can still be found over Fulton Street between Van Sinderen Avenue and Williams Place, and can be seen under this portion of the complex from the Canarsie Line platforms. The severed connection between the station and the East New York Yard can also be seen below the Canarsie Line and above the north side of Fulton Street. ==Ridership==

In 2016, the station had 3,085,401 boardings, making it the 166th most used station in the 422-station system. This amounted to an average of 9,189 passengers per weekday. In 2017, The New York Times wrote that 100,000 daily passengers used the station per day, meaning that the vast majority of passengers used the station to make transfers to other routes. By 2019, annual ridership had declined to 2,759,349 boardings, making Broadway Junction the 177th most-used station in the -station system. This amounted to an average of 7,813 passengers per weekday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, ridership dropped drastically in 2020, with only 1,292,868 passengers entering the station that year. == References ==