Canal Street (New York City Subway)

Infobox NYCS
name=Canal Street
bg_color=black

---

service=Canal
borough=Manhattan
accessible=yes
acc_note= IRT Lexington Avenue Line platforms only
passengers = 15.666 million
pass_year = 2006
pass_percent = 2

Canal Street is a New York City Subway station complex in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chinatown, shared by the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the BMT Nassau Street Line, and the BMT Broadway Line. It is served by:
*NYCS|6, NYCS|J, NYCS|N and NYCS|Q trains at all times
*NYCS|R train all times except late nights
*NYCS|M and NYCS|W trains weekdays
*NYCS|Z trains rush hours in the peak direction
*NYCS|4 trains late nights

The complex consists of four originally separate stations joined by underground passageways. Three of the four are perpendicular to Canal Street, crossing at Broadway (Broadway Main Line platforms), Lafayette Street (Lexington Avenue Line platforms) and Centre Street (Nassau Street Line platforms). The Broadway Manhattan Bridge Line platforms run parallel to, and directly underneath, Canal Street itself.

This complex was fully renovated between 1999 and 2004. The Broadway Main Line station was restored to the original look, with new mosaics featuring Chinese characters, reflecting the station's location in Chinatown. The symbols on the red wall plaques mean "money" and "luck", and the "Canal Street" name tablet has ideographs that actually read "China" and "Town." During the most recent renovation in the 1990s, the original mosaics were uncovered but then either removed or covered over again. One of original tablets has been preserved at the New York Transit Museum.

Some relative depths of the stations in the Canal Street complex are as follows:
*IRT Lexington Avenue Line, 20 feet below street
*BMT Nassau Street Line, 20 feet
*BMT Broadway Line, main branch, 40 feet
*BMT Broadway Line, Manhattan Bridge branch, 50 feet__TOC__

IRT Lexington Avenue Line platforms

Infobox NYCS

---

accessible=yes
acc_note=not accessible to other routes
bg_color = #007527
line = IRT Lexington Avenue Line
service = Lexington local
platforms = 2 side platforms
tracks = 4
open_date=October 27, 1904New York Times, [http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/nytimes-1904-dayoneopen.html Our Subway Open: 150,000 Try It] , October 28, 1904]
north_station = Spring Street
north_line = IRT Lexington Avenue Line
north_service = Lexington local
south_station = Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall
south_line=IRT Lexington Avenue Line
south_service=Lexington local
south_acc=yes
south_custom_station = Closed:
Worth Street

Canal Street on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line has four tracks and two side platforms. Due to platform lengthening in the 1940s and 1950s, there are two distinct sections of this station. The original portion has tile-covered I-beams with small and large mosaics and an ornamental ceiling. The newer portion has 1950s green tile at the ends of the platforms. There are also IND-type "To Canal Street" signs. New lights are being installed. Non-original name tables and small "C" mosaics exist.

BMT Nassau Street Line platforms

Infobox NYCS
bg_color = #874F17
line = BMT Nassau Street Line


service = Nassau north
platforms = 2 island platforms (1 in revenue service)
tracks = 3 (2 in revenue service)
open_date = August 4, 1913Fact|date=March 2007
north_station = Bowery
north_line = BMT Nassau Street Line
north_service = Nassau north
south_station = Chambers Street
south_line = BMT Nassau Street Line
south_service = Nassau north

Canal Street on the BMT Nassau Street Line has three tracks and two island platforms, but only the western island platform is accessible to passengers. Formerly, Canal Street resembled the typical express station, except that the inner "express" tracks dead-ended at the south end of the station, with a platform-level connection joining the southern ends of the two platforms. These stub-end tracks were occasionally used to terminate trains, most recently a weekend NYCS|J service in the late 1980s.

After a reconfiguration of the Nassau Street Line, completed in 2004, the eastern (former "northbound") platform was abandoned. The platform-level connection was removed, allowing the former southbound express track to run through to Chambers Street and beyond. Today, the westernmost (former "southbound") platform remains in operation. Both tracks provide through service, with southbound traffic using the former southbound "local" track and northbound traffic using the former southbound "express" track. The former northbound local track is now used only for non-revenue moves, train storage and emergencies; the northbound express stub track has been removed; the now unused northbound island platform is a storage area.

In the renovation, the original "Canal Street" mosaics were restored, and new wall and floor tiling were installed.

BMT Broadway Line platforms

Infobox NYCS
font_color = black
bg_color = #FFC800
font_color_2 = black
line = BMT Broadway Line


accesible=yes
service = Broadway
platforms = 2 side platforms on each of 2 branches
tracks = 4
open_date = September 4, 1917New York Times, [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60612FB3B5F157A93C7A91782D85F438185F9] "Open First Section of Broadway Line", September 5, 1917] (Manhattan Bridge)
January 5, 1918New York Times, [http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/nytimes-1918-broadway.html Open New Subway to Times Square] , January 6, 1918] (Broadway Line)
north_local_station = Prince Street
north_line = BMT Broadway Line
north_local_service = Broadway local
north_express_station=14th Street–Union Square
north_express_station_acc=yes
north_express_service=Broadway express
south_local_station = City Hall
south_line = BMT Broadway Line
south_local_service = Broadway south
south_express_station = DeKalb Avenue
south_express_station_acc = yes
south_express_service = Manhattan Bridge south DeKalb
south_custom_station = NYCS next|type=DeKalb bypass|station=Atlantic Avenue–Pacific Street|line=BMT Fourth Avenue Line|acc=yes|service=Manhattan Bridge south bypass
south_custom_station_2=Closed:
Myrtle Avenue

Canal Street on the BMT Broadway Main Line has four tracks and two side platforms. However, only the local tracks provide through service on the BMT Broadway Line; the "express" tracks, which have never seen revenue service, begin at the lower level of City Hall station and run north to Canal Street, dead-ending about two-thirds of the way through. As part of the Dual Contracts, these express tracks were to have continued up Broadway, fed by traffic from Brooklyn via the Montague Street Tunnel; local service was to have terminated at the upper level of City Hall. That plan was dropped in favor of local service via City Hall upper level and Montague Street and express service via the Manhattan Bridge. Today, just north of this station, the tracks from the south side of the Manhattan Bridge rise up and replace the stub-end express tracks from City Hall lower level.

In the late 1970s, New York City Transit fixed the station's structure and overall appearance by replacin the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting to the 70's style wall tiles, signs and fluorescent lights. They also fixed staircases and platform edges. In 2001, the station received a major overhaul, including state of the art repairs as well as upgrading the station for ADA compliance and installing new artwork on the wall tiling. Among the repairs included the staircases, re-tiling for the walls, new tiling on the floors, upgrading the station's lights and the public address system, installing ADA yellow safety threads along the platform edge, new signs, and new trackbeds in both directions, before taking the train service of the Broadway - Manhattan Bridge line.

Canal Street on the BMT Broadway Manhattan Bridge line has two tracks and two side platforms. When it originally opened, this station was known as Broadway. Although technically located on the BMT Broadway Line, it was originally a distinct station from the main line. Located on a lower level and oriented perpendicular to the other station, it is fed by northbound rail traffic from the south tracks of the Manhattan Bridge and by southbound express service from the Broadway Line. Under the Dual Contracts, this station was meant to be part of a crosstown line under Canal Street, running from the Manhattan Bridge to the Hudson River; however, prior to the opening of the Broadway Line, the BMT decided to route Manhattan Bridge traffic to the Broadway express tracks instead. A short section of tunnel heading westward from the west end of the station is a remnant from the original plans.

From 1988 to 2001, during the Manhattan Bridge reconstruction project, this station was temporarily abandoned, only used as part of the transfer between the Broadway local station and Nassau Street station. In 1997, an art exhibit known as the "Canal Street Canal" by Alexander Brodsky, was installed on the northbound trackway. It consisted a large waterproof tub filled with water, with Venetian canal boats floating inside. The station reopened on July 22, 2001 with new tiling on the floors, upgraded lights and public address system, ADA yellow safety threads along the platform edge, new signs, and new trackbeds in both directions.

Bus connections

*M1
*M6
*B51

References

External links

* [http://www.nycsubway.org/ nycsubway.org] :
** [http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/stations?5:3094 IRT East Side Line: Canal Street]
** [http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/stations?192:3234 BMT Nassau St./Jamaica Line: Canal Street]
** [http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/stations?202:3228 BMT Broadway Subway: Canal Street]
** [http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/earlyrapidtransitinbrooklyn.html Early Rapid Transit in Brooklyn, 1878 to 1913]
** [http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/psr_broadway.html Broadway Subway Now Open] , "Public Service Record", Volume IV, Number 9: September 1917
** [http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/nytimes-1918-broadway.html Opening of the Broadway Subway] , a collection of "New York Times" articles from 1918 regarding the then-new BMT Broadway Line
*Station Reporter — [http://www.stationreporter.net/canal.htm Canal Street Complex]