Times Sq-42 St-Port Authority Bus Terminal
The connecting passageway at Times Square underneath 41 Street from the 8th Avenue Line to the rest of the station is decently long (slightly shorter than a street block) and always crowded. People seem to be very good about staying to their right as they walk through with their quick New York City strides. This is unlike trying to walk through Times Square above with all the tourists. Coming from the 42 Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal 8 Avenue Station; the ramp begins with a slight ramp uphill, the middle of it has advertisements to the northside and to the southside a bare black wall with mosaics of people fittingly celebrating New Years eve that is a part of the Art's For Transit Installation, The Revelers. These revelers continuing onto the 7 trains mezzanine that is part of this level and there are also a few in the upper mezzanine. Text is visible along the ceiling beams when walking from 8 Avenue to Times Square forming The Commuters Lament/A Close Shave.As the busiest long passageway in the subway, there is always some one playing music or preaching about something along it.
The eastern end of the tunnle, just before reaching the 7 lines extremely deep (about three stories) mezzanine, the tunnel gets much wider, there's even a newsstand present at this point before the tunnel path starts sloping quite downward (perhaps a story or two), the transfer corridor is step-free but the slopes of these ramps are too steep to make it ADA compliant. After the ramp, the passageway reaches the staircases down to the 7 line's single island platform terminus and becoming its mezzanine if you can call it that, to the south side of its single island platform. Towards the end of this corridor there is a wrap around two stories stairwell that leads up to the upper mezzanine (getting above where the 7 Ave IRT platforms are), here there are also two escalators (one for each direction) that lead directly from the #7 Flushing Line's platforms beneath to the upper mezzanine bypassing the lower one. Continuing west we reach a short passageway and staircases up to each of the IRT platforms (there are two up to each platform on each side of this east-west mezzanine area) accessed through small passageways off the main one, since this mezzanine is below those platforms. There is also the elevator that has four landings, the 7 platform beneath, this mezzanine, the downtown 1,2,3 platform, and the upper main mezzanine beneath 41 Street. At the very end of this long east-west mezzanine area is another long staircase to the upper mezzanine above the 7th Avenue IRT platforms, and an up escalator connecting the two mezzanines. Originally there were switchbacking (not ADA compliant ramps) here, but in the station's early 2000s renovation these were replaced with the escalator and staircase, with the ramps turned into non-public uses. This means there are two connections (plus the three escalators directly from the 7 line platform) from this mezzanine to the upper main mezzanine level, that provides exits to the street.
Photos 1-13: JUne 2, 2009; 14: August 5, 2009; 15 & 16: August 31, 2011; 17 & 18: September 7, 2011; 19: September 13, 2015; 20: May 25, 2013; 21: September 3, 2023; 22: May 25, 2013; 23: January 20, 2020
Arts For Transit at Times Sq-42 St-Port Authority Bus Terminal
