train arriving at the
Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue station Of the
stations in the system, are served 24 hours a day. Underground stations in the New York City Subway are typically accessed by staircases going down from street level. Many of these staircases are painted in a common shade of green, with slight or significant variations in design. Other stations have unique entrances reflective of their location or date of construction. Several station entrance stairs, for example, are integrated into adjacent buildings.
Entrances Turnstiles and entrance gates The New York City Subway primarily employs two types of
turnstiles: a waist-high turnstile, and a full-height turnstile known as a
High Entry-Exit Turnstile (HEET). The waist-high turnstiles, the most prominent in the system, were installed beginning in 1993 along with the implementation of MetroCard, though they originally accepted tokens. They are manufactured in Tennessee by
Cubic Corporation. Some of the waist-high turnstiles date to the late 20th century, when tokens were used to pay fares; as such, they still have token-return compartments. The waist-high turnstiles are vulnerable to a practice called "back-cocking", in which people entering the system can partially rotate the turnstile as if they were exiting, then slip through the side of the turnstile without paying. The newer HEETs resemble several older turnstiles of that design informally called "iron maidens", and are prevalent at subway entrances without token booths to discourage fare evasion. or passengers with large items such as strollers and luggage. These gates double as pushbar Emergency Exits, though they are often used for regular exiting in crowded stations. As a precaution against
fare evasion, two-fifths of the system's emergency exit doors had been retrofitted with delayed-opening devices , and security guards were staffed outside emergency exits. The delayed-opening devices, which prevent the door from opening until several seconds after the door is pushed, can be overridden by MTA staff in emergencies. New turnstile designs were introduced in the 2020s. The MTA announced in 2021 that it would install wide-aisle fare gates for disabled passengers at five subway stations by mid-2022; the implementation of these fare gates was delayed by a year. Additionally, in an attempt to reduce fare evasion, the MTA exhibited several designs for half-height and full-height Plexiglas turnstiles in May 2023, which would replace the existing waist-high turnstiles. On December 4, 2023, the first wide aisle fare gates were installed at
Sutphin Boulevard–Archer Avenue–JFK Airport station. Within two months, there was a slight increase in fare-paying riders at the station, although passengers were able to evade fares merely by leaning over the new turnstiles and activating the motion sensors. Following adjustments to the turnstiles, the MTA announced in May 2024 that the new turnstiles would be installed at fifteen stations by the end of that year, but the installation of the turnstiles was delayed. , the MTA planned to install the new turnstiles at 150 stations in four years. The MTA has also tested out other features to prevent fare evasion. These have included low metal fins or "sleeves" on each arm of a turnstile, to dissuade potential fare evaders from squeezing through the gaps between the arms, as well as high spiked panels between separate turnstiles. In December 2025, the MTA announced that these features would be installed in almost every station.
Lamps At most of the system's entrances and exits, there is a lamppost or two bearing a colored spherical or cube-shaped lamp. These lights roughly indicate the station's availability (i.e. how often it is accessible): green means always a full-time, 24/7 entrance and the presence of a 24 hour booth, typically located at the busiest entrance. Red means either a part-time booth or no booth, hence either exit-only or more and more often 24/7 entrance with MetroCard exclusively via HEETs. Older lamps are completely colored green or red. Newer ones, called "half-moons", have only the top half colored, while the bottom half is milky white; this is to provide more light. The half-colored globes have the same meanings as the globes with full colors. This proved too complicated and yellow was dropped in the early 1990s. Red globes now indicate both part-time entrance or exit-only. A joke when the system was introduced was that "green meant go in, red meant don't. And yellow meant to take a cab." (
NYC medallion taxis are yellow). With the introduction of the
MetroCard in 1994, the MTA converted many previous exit-only entrances to full-time entrances via HEETs. Mezzanines allow for passengers to enter from multiple locations at an intersection and proceed to the correct platform without having to cross the street before entering. At busy intersections, they act as a
pedestrian underpass or overpass. In underground subway stations built close to ground level or under narrow streets, a characteristic of early IRT and BMT construction, the fare control area is at platform level with no mezzanine crossovers. Many elevated stations also have platform-level fare control with no common station house between directions of service. Upon entering a station, passengers may use station booths, formerly known as token booths, or vending machines to buy their fare, which is stored in a
MetroCard. Each station has at least one booth open 24/7, typically located at the busiest entrance. After swiping the card at a turnstile, customers enter the fare-controlled area of the station and continue to the platforms. For various reasons, including maintenance costs, decreases in ridership, along with crime and safety issues, many stations have fare control areas, mezzanine areas and entrances that have been closed. Many mezzanines that previously stretched the entire length of a station have been split or partitioned by fencing or permanent walls. These closed areas have been abandoned or converted into space for Transit Operations or the
New York City Police Department. The existing
Grand Central–42nd Street station also has these cooling systems; however, for the most part, subway stations lack air-cooling systems due to their expense, and only a few stations have ceiling fans.
Artwork Many stations are decorated with intricate ceramic tile work, some of it dating back to 1904 when the subway first opened. The
subway tile artwork tradition continues in a
Percent for Art program. The
MTA Arts & Design program oversees art in the subway system. Permanent installations, such as sculpture, mosaics, and murals; photographs displayed in lightboxes encourage people to use mass transit. In addition, commissioned art displayed in stations and "art cards", some displaying poetry, are in many of the trains themselves in unused advertisement fixture slots. Some of the art is by internationally known artists such as
Elizabeth Murray's
Blooming, displayed at
Lexington Avenue/59th Street station.
Accessibility Since the majority of the system was built before 1990, the year the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect, many New York City Subway stations were not designed to be handicapped-accessible. Since then, elevators have been built in newly constructed stations to comply with the ADA. Most grade-level stations required little modification to meet ADA standards. The MTA identified "key stations", high-traffic and/or geographically important stations, which must conform to the ADA when they are extensively renovated. , out of total stations in the system, are accessible; many of them have
AutoGate access. Five stations on the
Staten Island Railway are accessible. There are 16 more non-ADA-accessible stations with
cross-platform interchanges, as well as other same-platform transfers, available, though the MTA notes that the gaps between train cars and platforms at these stations may nonetheless exceed the maximums established by the ADA.
Entertainment . While a permit is not required for
performances in the subway, certain codes of conduct are required. Any musician/entertainer may perform in subway mezzanines and platforms. On platforms, there may be no amplifications as this is part of MTA policies: Performers must not be within of a token booth or from an MTA office/tower, blocking access to an escalator, stairwell, or elevator, interfering with transit services or passenger movement; or in an area where construction is occurring. In addition, performance is prohibited during public service announcements and may be no louder than 85 dBA at away or 70 dBa at from a token booth. Performances are prohibited in subway cars. Since 1987, MTA has sponsored the "
Music Under New York" (MUNY) program in which street musicians enter a competitive contest to be assigned to the preferred high traffic locations. Each year, applications are reviewed and approximately 70 eligible performers are selected and contacted to participate in live auditions held for one day. At present, more than 100 soloists and groups participate in MUNY providing over 150 weekly performances at 25 locations throughout the transit system, for example
Natalia Paruz, a
musical saw player, plays at
Union Square.
Restrooms Restrooms are rare in the subway system. In 2010, there were 133 open restrooms in 81 of the system's 468 stations. Most station restrooms previously open to the public have been closed and converted to storage spaces or employee use. There are a few major stations that have operating restrooms, including on the concourses of
42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal,
Chambers Street,
57th Street–Seventh Avenue,
Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue, and
Lexington Avenue/59th Street. The majority of restrooms in the New York City Subway are found in express and transfer stations, at ADA-accessible stations, and at terminals, though not all of the aforementioned types of stations have restrooms. Newer subway stations have restrooms, including
34th Street–Hudson Yards on the
IRT Flushing Line and three
Second Avenue Subway stations. In the 2010s, the MTA planned to "overhaul" and reopen previously-closed restrooms. All of the system's restrooms were closed in 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. These restrooms remained closed in 2022, despite a drastic increase in the number of "soiled train" incidents, where human waste was found on trains. The MTA reopened restrooms at eight stations in January 2023. At the time, there were restrooms in 69 of the system's 472 stations, and there were 163 total restrooms across the system. , there were 58 open bathrooms throughout the system.
Retail Some platforms have newspaper stands that sell various items including newspapers and food. The MTA has installed retail spaces within paid areas in selected stations, including the station concourses of the
Times Square–
Port Authority complex, the
59th Street–Columbus Circle station, and the
47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station. In the 1980s, the MTA operated around 350 retail spaces in the subway system. , there are 111 newsstands in the system, including 20 that are vacant. This includes three empty stands on the
Second Avenue Subway that opened that year. Many of the system's stores closed during the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. By 2024, only a little over one-quarter of storefronts (54 of 195 storefronts) still had tenants. Over the years, all incandescent bulbs in stations have been replaced with
fluorescent lights. In 2024, the MTA announced that, as a safety measure, it would install 150,000
LED lights across the subway system by 2026. To discourage people from jumping onto the tracks, there are blue lights at several subway stations.
Connections Rapid transit and rail connections are available at designated stations to
Amtrak,
Long Island Rail Road,
AirTrain JFK,
Metro-North Railroad,
New Jersey Transit and
PATH. Connections to the
Staten Island Ferry and privately operated ferries such as
NYC Ferry,
NY Waterway and
New York Water Taxi, as well as intercity and commuter bus lines at the
Port Authority Bus Terminal and
George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal, are also available. Free
MetroCard-only transfers to buses are available to
MTA New York City Transit buses (including the bus rapid transit
Select Bus Service),
MTA Bus Company,
NICE buses (Nassau County) and
Bee-Line buses (Westchester County).
Station management In 2018, New York City Transit president
Andy Byford implemented a "group station manager" program, where 24 people would be hired to oversee up to twenty-five stations. This replaced a previous system where station managers could be responsible for up to 100 stations. Group station managers were generally responsible for coordinating repairs and operations, as well as providing customer service in each of the stations under their purview. These group station managers repaired over 62,000 issues by early 2020. == Station platforms and configurations ==