Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)

Infobox NYCS
name = Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street
bg_color = #E20F00
line = IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
service = Broadway-Seventh north
platforms = 1 island platform in service
2 unused side platforms
tracks = 2
borough = The Bronx
open_date = August 1, 1908
north_custom_station = (Terminal)
south_line = IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
south_local_station = 238th Street
south_local_service = Broadway-Seventh north local
south_express_station = Dyckman Street
south_express_service = Broadway-Seventh north express

Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street is the northern terminal station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 242nd Street and Broadway in the Bronx, it is served by the NYCS|1 train at all times.

This station is adjacent to Van Cortlandt Park, Manhattan College, and the 240th Street Yard of the subway system. It serves Riverdale, a comparatively affluent community in the Bronx. A snaking steep walk along West 242nd Street and Manhattan College Parkway west of Broadway leads to the college and along the way there is a panoramic view of the yard.

The station has two tracks with one island platform and two side platforms. There are bumper blocks at the north end of the station. The station house is just beyond the ends of the tracks at platform level. The two side platforms are normally unused, and have a windscreen along nearly their entire length. A crew quarters straddles the tracks and platforms at the south end of the station.

Just south of the station, the line widens to three tracks, which is the configuration up to just before Dyckman Street, and again between 145th Street and 103rd Street. This is an unusual layout in the New York City Subway, as the middle express track does not platform at any stations along its route. No service has been regularly operated using the express track in this section since the 1970s, when a peak-direction Broadway "Thru Express" was operated. Instead, the middle track is used for sending non-revenue trains to the storage yard at 137th Street–City College after they finish their final run, as well as for extra flexibility when one of the local tracks is undergoing repairs.

Bus connections

NYC Route
*Bx9Bee-Line Routes
*1
*2
*3

External links

*NYCS ref|http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/stations?6:177|IRT West Side Line|242nd Street/Van Cortlandt Park
*Station Reporter — [http://www.stationreporter.net/1train.htm 1 Train]