}} The
Essex Street station (announced as
Delancey Street–Essex Street) is an interchange station on the BMT Nassau Street Line, and has three tracks, one
side platform, and one
island platform. The island platform, which consists of two tracks and allows for
cross-platform interchange, is used by trains heading
east toward the
Williamsburg Bridge. The side platform, which consists of one track, is used by trains heading
west from the bridge. The station is served by the at all times, the except at night and the only during rush hours in the peak direction. The next stop to the east is
Marcy Avenue for all service heading towards
Brooklyn and
Queens. The next stop to the west is
Bowery for J and Z trains heading downtown and
Broadway–Lafayette Street for M trains heading uptown. The middle track was formerly the peak-direction express track. Currently, it is used by outbound J and Z trains heading east towards the Williamsburg Bridge except on weekdays during the late evening and on weekends during the day, when it
short turns M trains from
Metropolitan Avenue. After a 2004 reconfiguration, the former northbound local track south of this station was taken out of regular service. It was only used for occasional reroutes from
Chambers Street until 2010. The
Chrystie Street Connection between
Broadway–Lafayette Street and Essex Street was not used for regular revenue service from 1976 to 2010. On June 28, 2010, with the re-routing of M trains to the
IND Sixth Avenue Line and
IND Queens Boulevard Line, the connection again saw regular use for those aforementioned trains only. This station is a
bottleneck for eastbound trains, which can be delayed momentarily at this station because the island platform’s two eastbound tracks merge into one upon leaving the station and before crossing the Williamsburg Bridge.
History Next to the
Brooklyn-bound local track is the closed
Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal, which was built along with the subway station and opened several months earlier. The terminal consisted of eight turning loops with low-level platforms which were used for trolley service from 1908 to 1948 that traveled over the Williamsburg Bridge to different parts of Brooklyn. The underground terminal for the subway adjacent to the trolley terminal opened on September 16, 1908. The station initially contained only two tracks which ended at the west end of the station. It also had an additional southern side platform adjacent to the trolley terminal, with the station organized in a
Spanish solution. The
New York City Board of Estimate approved funds for the project in July 1926, and the extensions were completed in 1927, bringing the length of the platforms to . The remaining portion of the subway line is configured with four tracks; however, the Essex Street station accommodates only three tracks and two platforms. There exists a provision for an additional fourth track to traverse through the trolley terminal area and integrate with the subway infrastructure west of the trolley terminal, contingent upon the future requirement for a four-track subway station. Historically, the elevated train service has been remarkably intensive, paralleled by high patronage of the trolley service, thereby precluding any proposals for expansion. A potential expansion would have entailed the addition of a second side platform to the south of the southernmost track, abutting the trolley terminal. This expansion would necessitate the demolition of the existing island platform to facilitate the construction of the fourth track; alternatively, the fourth track could be constructed adjacent to the southernmost track, resulting in a station layout featuring two side platforms and one island platform, analogous to the IRT platforms at
Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center. After
streetcar service ended in 1948, the former track area on the south side of the bridge was rebuilt into auto lanes with a new ramp from street level closing off the former downhill ramp to the trolley terminal. The trolley terminal itself, however, was left vacant, and small portions were converted to storerooms and an emergency exit to the southern corners of Norfolk Street and Delancey Street. The vacant space was the proposed location of the
LowLine, a planned underground park, but after fundraising proved unsuccessful, the project was indefinitely postponed in February 2020. Prior to 1913, the BMT station was also known as
Delancey Street.
Image gallery File:Essex Street (Nassau).JPG|The island platform File:Essex Street BMT 9200.JPG|Name mosaic File:Essex Street BMT 9192.JPG|Letter mosaic File:Essex Street Abandoned Trolley Terminal vc.jpg|The abandoned trolley terminal viewed from the island platform File:LowLine Existing.png|The abandoned trolley terminal == IND Sixth Avenue Line platforms ==