74 Street-Broadway
The 74 Street-Broadway Station on the #7 is the above ground portion of the mammoth mega-station that is connected with the IND Queens Blvd Subway Line (E,F,G,R,V) beneath it at Roosevelt Avenue-Jackson Heights. The station is surprisingly a local stop. When the subway planners were building the Flushing Line they had no idea that 74 St-Broadway would become such an important transfer point subway station when the IND was built. This is probably just as well that the stop is local, it helps distribute crowds more evenly between Express and Local trains. It means that, for example, a passenger who regularly transfers here, from an IND line train trying to reach Flushing-Main Street, is sent on a local train, which has probably emptied out quite a bit by now. Probably, if the stop were an express stop, all of these transferring passengers, unless they were trying to reach other local stops, would cram onto express trains with all the thru-riders that go from Manhattan to Flushing. This would make the expresses more crowded and the locals emptier. Anyway, the fact the station is only a local stop is only four extra stops for Flushing-bound commuters.
Now lets continue onto describing the station with its two side platforms for the three-track subway line. The station has been extensively rebuilt and renovated and both side platforms have the standard for a rebuilt elevated station of dark green accented metal holding up thinner sections that are a cream color. Both platforms are windscreened and canopied for their entire lengths. There are though some areas where the cream colored portions of the windscreens become a wire mesh, allowing some views of the surrounding neighborhood and busy shopping district of Jackson Heights. The platform canopy is held up by a series of narrow green painted columns that run down each platform close to their platform edges. These have little signs on them that say 74 St.
For exits from these platforms the station has two. One is at the extreme western (railway southern) end of the platforms. Here, a single staircase leads down from each platform to a small mezzanine area directly beneath the tracks, from here a structure of three escalators and a staircase continues down, through the ground and to the western end of the INDs long mezzanine level.
The main exits off the platforms are towards the middle of the platforms. Here quite wide staircases lead off both platforms to what was the station's original station house and fare control area nestled directly beneath the tracks. Here there is still a single exit, with part time turnstiles that stay open courtesy of a customer service assistant and High Entrance/Exit Turnstiles to provide access at other times. A single street stair leads down off the elevated structure at this exit to NE corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 74 Street. From this upper mezzanine there is also a single, triple wide 'grand' staircase that provides access down to the stations new (added in the 2005 renovations) and main headhouse that is also known as the Victor Moore Arcade. These, along with the covered bus loop and turnaround area take up the entire odd-triangular shaped block that Broadway, Roosevelt Avenue, 75th Street and a tiny bit of 74th Street form.
The Victor Moore Arcade is where the 24-hour token booth is along with doors to the outside world along Broadway, Roosevelt Avenue and directly out to the bus loop. This building has two banks of turnstiles on the street level and feels extremely modern (as of the first decade of the 2000s) with lots of frosted or stained glass providing decent and indirect lighting. This is also where the station is ADA accessible from. The Flushing-bound platform is served by a single elevator, the top of which is at the platform level, it makes a stop at the upper mezzanine level (for connections to the short elevator that leads from this mezzanine to the Flushing-bound platform), continues down to the main fare control area at ground level, where the station's accessible exit is before it continues underground to the IND's mezzanine level. There is also a bank of two (one for each direction) escalators that go directly from the upper mezzanine level of the 7 line, directly down and through the sidewalk to the underground mezzanine level of the IND Lines. This provides faster access for transferring passengers and helps traffic flow so everyone doesn't have to walk through the main atrium in the main station building.
Photo(s) 1 & 2: June 18, 2004; 3-5: September 7, 2005; 6: December 23, 2005; 7-35: July 28, 2009; 36-39: June 10, 2004; 40-46: November 2, 2012; 47: July 14, 2013; 48-56: September 3, 2023; 57-61: September 5, 2023; 62-65: November 25, 2023;
Arts For Transit at 74 Street-Broadway
Passage, 2004, Glass in windows of Victor Moore Arcade and on 7 platform windscreens
By Tom Patti
