Roosevelt Island was once home to a penitentiary and some asylums, as well as being home to numerous hospitals. It was originally called Blackwell's Island, but in 1921 it became known as Welfare Island because of the numerous hospitals on the island. The island became neglected once the hospitals started closing and their buildings were left abandoned to decay. During the 1960s, some groups started proposing uses for the island.
Construction On February 16, 1965, the
New York City Transit Authority announced plans to construct a subway station on the island along the planned 63rd Street Line, as part of the island's proposed
transit-oriented development (TOD). TOD tries to increase the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. With this announcements, more suggestions for what to do with the island were made. It was soon decided to build the station with the rest of the line. The current
63rd Street Line was the final version of proposals for a northern
midtown tunnel from the
IND Queens Boulevard Line to the
Second and
Sixth Avenue lines, which date back to the
IND Second System of the 1920s and 1930s. where the 63rd Street subway line was to be built in the upper portion of the bi-level
63rd Street Tunnel. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Roosevelt Island was redeveloped to accommodate low- to mid-income
housing projects. However, there was no direct transit connection to Manhattan. The subway was delayed and still under construction; trolley tracks that formerly served Roosevelt Island via the
Queensboro Bridge were unusable; and the only way on and off the island was via the
Roosevelt Island Bridge to Queens. An aerial tram route, the
Roosevelt Island Tramway, was opened in May 1976 as a "temporary" connection to Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation was formed in 1984 to develop the island, but was not successful until October 1989 when the subway station opened along with the rest of the 63rd Street Line. After that, a high-rise luxury apartment building with some subsidized housing opened. By October 1980, officials considered stopping construction on the 63rd Street line. The MTA voted in 1984 to connect the Queens end of the tunnel to the local tracks of the IND Queens Boulevard Line at a cost of $222 million. The section of the line up to Long Island City was projected to open by the end of 1985, but flooding in the tunnel caused the opening to be delayed indefinitely. The MTA's contractors concluded in February 1987 that the tunnel was structurally sound, and the federal government's contractors affirmed this finding in June 1987.
Opening The station opened on October 29, 1989, along with the entire IND 63rd Street Line. The opening of the subway resulted in a steep decline in Roosevelt Island Tramway ridership. The train served the station on weekdays and the train stopped there on weekends and late nights; both services used the Sixth Avenue Line. The tunnel had gained notoriety as the "tunnel to nowhere" both during its planning and after its opening; the line's northern terminus at
21st Street–Queensbridge, one stop after Roosevelt Island, was not connected to any other subway station or line in
Queens. The connection to the Queens Boulevard Line began construction in 1994 and was completed and opened in 2001, almost thirty years after construction of the
63rd Street Tunnel began. Since then, the F train has been rerouted to serve this station at all times. At an April 14, 2008, news conference, Governor
David Paterson announced that the MTA would power a substantial portion of the station using tidal energy generated by turbines located in the East River, which are part of the
Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project. This was part of a larger MTA initiative to use sustainable energy resources within the subway system. The initiative stalled due to development problems, but was revived in October 2020. To save energy, the MTA installed variable-speed escalators at Roosevelt Island and three other subway stations in August 2008, although not all of the escalators initially functioned as intended. From August 28, 2023, through April 1, 2024, F trains were rerouted via the
53rd Street Tunnel between Queens and Manhattan due to track replacement and other repairs in the 63rd Street Tunnel, and an F shuttle train ran between
Lexington Avenue-63rd Street and
21st Street–Queensbridge at all times except late nights, stopping at Roosevelt Island. In October 2024, the MTA completed esthetic improvements to the station as part of its Re-New-Vation program. On December 8, 2025, the
M train began serving the station on weekdays during the day, running via the 63rd Street Tunnel. The F train began running via the 53rd Street Tunnel during the day, operating via the 63rd Street Tunnel during weekends and nights. == Station layout ==