Euclid Avenue (IND Fulton Street Line)

Euclid Avenue
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Manhattan-bound platform
Station statistics
Address	Euclid Avenue & Pitkin Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11208
Borough	Brooklyn
Locale	East New York
Coordinates	40°40′31″N 73°52′19″W / 40.675366°N 73.871899°W / 40.675366; -73.871899Coordinates: 40°40′31″N 73°52′19″W / 40.675366°N 73.871899°W / 40.675366; -73.871899
Division	B (IND)
Line	IND Fulton Street Line
Services	A  (all times)       C  (all except late nights)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: B13 MTA Bus: Q7, Q8
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 island platforms cross-platform interchange
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	November 28, 1948 (1948-11-28)
Accessible
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	3,509,500[1]  5.9%
Rank	146 out of 422
Station succession
Next north	Shepherd Avenue (local): A  C  Broadway Junction (express): A
Next south	Grant Avenue: A  (Terminal): C
Next north	Utica Avenue: A  C
Next south	Howard Beach – JFK Airport (via Rockaway): A  none (via Lefferts): A  C
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times Stops late nights only
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York Show map of the US

Euclid Avenue is an express station on the IND Fulton Street Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Euclid and Pitkin Avenues in East New York, Brooklyn. It is served by the A train at all times and is the southern terminal for the C train at all times except nights. During nights, this is the northern terminal for the Lefferts Boulevard shuttle from Ozone Park, Queens.

History

Track layout
Legend
to Bway Jct to Shepherd Av to Pitkin Yard to Grant Av Bumper blocks Possible provision for a 76th Street station

Euclid Avenue was part of a four-station extension of the Fulton Street subway along Pitkin Avenue, past its original planned terminus at Broadway–East New York.^[2][3][4] Construction of the extension began in 1938,^[4][5][6] with construction on the section of the line between Crystal Street and Grant Avenue that included the Euclid Avenue station and the Pitkin Yard beginning in late 1940.^[6][7] Construction of the station was halted in December 1942, and the station remained an incomplete shell during World War II that could not be finished because of material shortages from the war effort.^[4][5][6][8] At the time, the station was over 95 percent complete.^[6] Construction resumed on the extension in November 1946.^[6][9] The delay meant the station received different design features than the rest of the stations along the line, including a slightly different tile job, fluorescent lighting instead of then-standard incandescent lights, and improved restroom and phone booth facilities.^[4][10][11] The station also featured modern interlocking technology, known as the "NX" system.^[6][12]

After several test runs, the station opened to the public in the early morning of November 28, 1948. It became the new terminal of the Fulton Street Line, replacing the former terminal at Broadway–East New York (now Broadway Junction).^{[4][5][6][10][12]} It later became the replacement for the elevated BMT Fulton Street Line's Chestnut Street and Crescent Street stations, which closed on April 26, 1956 when the connection to the eastern Fulton elevated was opened.^[6][13]

In the mid-2000s, an elevator to the street and elevators between the mezzanine and each platform were installed, making the station ADA-accessible.^[14][15]

Station layout

G	Street Level	Exit/ Entrance
M	Mezzanine	Fare control, station agent (Elevator at NE corner of Euclid and Pitkin Avenues)
P Platform level	Northbound local	← toward 168th Street (boarding passengers only; all except late nights) (Shepherd Avenue) ← toward 207th Street (late nights) (Shepherd Avenue)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left, right
	Northbound express	← toward 207th Street (all except late nights) (Broadway Junction) ← termination track (late night shuttle)
	Southbound express	→ toward Rockaway Park (PM rush hours), or Lefferts Boulevard or Far Rockaway (all except late nights) (Grant Avenue) → → toward Lefferts Boulevard (late night shuttle) (Grant Avenue) →
	Island platform, doors will open on the left, right
	Southbound local	→ termination track (all except late nights) → → toward Far Rockaway (late nights) (Grant Avenue) →

Street staircase

This station has four tracks and two island platforms, and is the geographically easternmost (railroad southern) express station on the IND Fulton Street Line.^[4][10] It has the same 10" × 5" eggshell-beige wall tile as the next three stations west (railroad north), in contrast to typical IND white square tiles.^[16] The tile band, however, is a delicate shade of lilac with a violet border, similar to Delancey Street in Manhattan. The I-beams are tiled with color bands and mini-vertical name tablets reading "Euclid," along with the two-tone border motif. The I-beams are in pairs at the center of the platforms; towards each end the platforms narrow and there is a single row of these I-beams.^[16] A crew quarters room is over the south end of both platforms. The station has a crossover in the mezzanine along with an active newsstand and elevators to both platforms.

The street elevator is located at the Northeast corner of Pitkin and Euclid Avenues, and exits stairs are present at all four corners of the intersection.^[15][17]

East of the station

The next station east (railroad south) for IND Fulton Street service is Grant Avenue, located in City Line, Brooklyn. However, an unfinished station is rumored to exist at 76th Street in nearby Ozone Park, Queens, just four blocks east of Grant Avenue.^[5]

Weekend construction work at the station

The track work is quite complex there, allowing trains to enter the Pitkin Yard from both the express and local tracks (where C trains relay to get from the southbound to the northbound local track), and with connections to the two-track Grant Avenue station from both the express and local tracks; the Grant Avenue spur then veers northeast towards Liberty Avenue.^[18][19] All four mainline tracks continue below the Grant Avenue connection, used only to store trains, east under Pitkin Avenue until approximately Eldert Lane (just south of the Grant Avenue station). It was planned that these tracks would continue under Pitkin Avenue to Cross Bay Boulevard, as part of a never-built system expansion which would have extended the Fulton Street Subway to the Rockaways and to Cambria Heights near the Queens-Nassau County border.^{[5][9][20][21]} On the electric light signal board in the control room at Euclid Avenue, there is a taped-over section of the board that hides the 76th Street station.^{[5][20][22][23]} There are also two tracks coming from the Pitkin Yard heading towards the planned 76th Street station site. When Pitkin Yard originally opened, the yard leads toward 76th Street were usable to relay short trains on. Today, those two tracks are no longer connected via switches. Parts of the trackways still exist, but the switches were removed and the tunnel ends in a cinderblock wall.^[20][23]

As late as 1951, the mainline and relay tracks were still planned to be extended as far as 105th Street (the modern location of Aqueduct Racetrack), with a connection to the then-recently abandoned Rockaway Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road east of Cross Bay Boulevard.^[24] The extension of the subway, however, was never built; instead the line was connected to the former Fulton Street elevated on Liberty Avenue and the former LIRR Rockaway branch (now the IND Rockaway Line), both via the Grant Avenue station opened in 1956.^[13][25][26]

Rumors that the proposed station was actually constructed, at least partially, are prevalent. Evidence supporting the existence of the station includes the signal board,^{[5][20][22][23]} the cinderblock wall at the end of the tunnel (cinderblock, brick, and wooden partitions are used in other parts of the subway to seal potential expansion sites)^[20][22][23] and several signals for trains running from the station into Euclid Avenue facing the wall, including one directly in front of the wall.^[22][23] On online transit forums, such as the website SubChat, some have claimed to have known people who have seen the station. The New York Times has likened the rumor to the Roswell UFO incident.^[20] Steve Krokowski, a retired transit worker and police officer, was quoted by the Times in reference to the station, mentioning:

• The taped-over portion of the signal board which covers a label for the 76th Street station.^[20] (This control board actually exists, and has indeed been taped over.^{[5][22][23][27]})
• The remnants of the Pitkin Yard leads that head northeast and then stop near the aforementioned cinder-block wall.^[20] Krokowski tried to dig under the wall, and found a track tie, but stopped when the hole caved in.^[20]
• A retired police officer claimed that the cinder-block wall previously had a door, and that in the 1960s. he walked through it, and saw a station complete with everything except for turnstiles and token booths.^[20] Other "colleagues", all supposedly dead, also claimed to have seen the station, though whether anyone else actually made such claims is unknown.^[20]

However, there is also significant evidence against the existence of the station, including a lack of newspaper coverage, the lack of subway infrastructure such as ventilation grates or skylights on Pitkin Avenue in the area, and the absence of documentation of the work from the Board of Transportation or the Board of Estimate.^[5][20]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Euclid Avenue (IND Fulton Street Line).

• nycsubway.org – IND Fulton: Euclid Avenue
• Station Reporter — C train
• Station Reporter — A Lefferts
• Station Reporter — A Rockaway
• The Subway Nut — Euclid Avenue Pictures
• Euclid Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View