Astoria Blvd
Astoria Blvd-Hoyt Ave is the second to last stop on the Astoria Line and located directly above the entrance to the Triborough Bridge. It is the one express stop on the line with two island platforms for the 3 track line. The stop was the W Lines only stop between Queensboro Plaza and Ditmars Blvd, when W trains ran express during weekdays peak direction, from July 22, 2001, the date of the Manhattan Bridge flip and introduction of the W train, until January 15, 2002 when Astoria Line express discontinued because it was unpopular with commuters, resulting in empty W trains and crowded N trains because the local stops have such high ridership.
The two island platforms give an amazing view of the entrance plaza of the Triborough Bridge and are canopied near their midsections but exposed at either end. Each platform has two staircases in the middle and just south of the middle of the platforms, these each lead to a separate free change of direction cross under and two separate banks of turnstiles with the token booth in between them. One entrance to the turnstiles along each platform is through enclosures with little windows that provides a bit of a waiting shelter. The station house is also measly enclosed by wind-screened dividers on each of the two sides of the fare control area. Here no doors, making it not really feel like a station house, lead out to what are signed as overpasses (along with the subway entrance) across the entrance plaza to the Triborough Bridge. Beneath each side of the subway elevated structure a staircase leads down at each of the four far apart corners of this huge plaza along the two roadways of Astoria Blvd (east of the 31 Street)/Hoyt Avenue (west of 31 Street), which are the service roads of the Grand Central Parkway, and 31 Street. The entire relatively large station feels in disrepair with lots of peeling green paint.
The station was closed for a full Cuomo’s Sexy Station refurbishment including the installation of 4 elevators to make the station ADA compliant from May 17, 2019 through December 18, 2019. These renovations added two new street elevators to corners were the M60SBS bus stops. This major bus route provides connections to LaGuardia Airport and across the Triborough Bridge to Manhattan along 125 Street. The elevators are at the NW corner and SE corner of the huge entrance plaza formed by Hoyt Avenue/Astoria Blvd and 31st.
This project also reconfigured the fare control area and means that there is no longer a free way to cross over 31 Street (although each entrance is still signed as a pedestrian overpass across the Grand Central Parkway and Astoria Blvd). There are now two separate banks of turnstiles serving entrances from either the east side or the west side of 31 Street, each has TVMs nearby with the token booth is along the western side. To reach the platforms the two staircases have been rebuilt and lead up to the platforms up to doors enclosed by walls with laminated glass windows. This laminated glass - with 102 panels in all - is also on the station's pedestrian bridges across to the northern side of Astoria Blvd/Hoyt Avenue).
Between the two staircases up to each platform is an elevator up to each platform. To reach the lower landings of the elevators on the mezzanine, ramps lead up and surround the shaft of each elevator leading up to the lower landings. These ramps were needed because of the required floor space for equipment at the bottom of the elevators and there wasn't space to lower the floor of the station house (without providing too low clearances for traffic on the streets below) so passengers have to use ramps to reach each elevator. The station's elevators are a good example of how complex building elevators on the New York City Subway system is, which is one of the MTA's most important current projects for making the subway accessible to all.
Photos 1 & 2: October 10, 2003; 3-5: December 17, 2004; 6-12: January 17, 2005; 14-36: August 5, 2009; 37: September 3, 2012; 38-94: September 5, 2023; 95-103: September 22, 2023
Arts For Transit at Astoria Blvd-Hoyt Avenue
I AM A RAINBOW TOO, 2019,
Laminated Glass
By Jeffrey Gibson
Station Subway Lines (2010-2016)
