Chambers St
Chambers Street (name of the northern A,C platforms)/World Trade Center (name of the southern E terminus platforms) is a unique and long IND station in lower Manhattan. The Brooklyn-bound IND station has been called Chambers Street since the station opened in 1932. The terminus platforms (with their unique location) were originally named the Hudson Terminal for the original Hudson Terminal Station of the Hudson & Manhattan Tubes (now PATH). When the Hudson Terminal PATH station was closed (the Hudson Terminal Building had already been torn down) and PATH moved to its new World Trade Center Station in 1971 these platforms were gradually renamed World Trade Center. The platforms originally had H and M tiling beneath the trimline this was originally blacked out. The text was covered over when the station was renovated in 1998 and the terminal platform lost any name beneath the trimline. At this time all the column signs said World Trade Center.
Between 1988 and 1999, the C train used both platforms depending upon the time of day: Rush Hours and Middays: the Chambers Street platform heading to Brooklyn; Evenings and Weekends the World Trade Center Terminal. Passengers had to know which distinct platform to go to get the C train. This wasn’t an issue before 1988 since the C train operated during rush hours only between Rockaway Park and 168 Street with the K train provided non-rush hour 8th Avenue line local service (during middays, evenings, and weekends) between World Trade Center and 168 Street. The K train was name for this route was extremely short lived, only introduced in 1985 as part of the MTA’s elimination of double letters replacing the former AA that had operated as non-rush hour local service along the same route since 1940 (and after the opening of the first segment of the IND 8th Avenue subway between 1932 and 1933 when there were just two lines the A Express and AA local).
The station received only minimal damage in the 9/11 attacks with just dust and minimal flooding. By Friday, September 14, 2002 A trains began running via Lower Manhattan again (skipping Broadway-Nassau and Chambers Street), E trains (with the World Trade Center terminal closed) replaced the C train in Brooklyn. On September 21, 2021 E trains began using their island platform as a terminus again but with the station still closed with destination signs (at least on the rare R46s used on some E trains at the time) saying To Canal Street. On October 1, 2001, the A,C Chambers Street platforms reopened. The E's terminal platform finally reopened (although trains were terminating there, running light without passengers since just 10 days after the attacks) on January 28, 2002 at 5:00am. The signs on the E platform were changed to say Chambers Street but the station is still referred to as World Trade Center (the Chambers Street A,C portion and World Trade Center E portion of the stop are listed separately on the subway map) on the subway map, and in train announcements and on destination signs.
The station has a configuration of two island platforms for four track line that are on the same level but completely staggered from each other. The west and northern platform is an island platform that serves both directions for A,C service to and from Brooklyn. The southern World Trade Center platform is a stub-end terminal serving E trains that pull up and terminate at bumper blocks at the southern end of the station. E trains crossover and change directions using a diamond crossover across from the Chambers Street-AC platform (on the east side of it). North of the station, before Canal Street downtown E trains on what becomes local track cross beneath the Express A and C tracks to resume the normal express local configuration. It is also not until Canal Street where C trains switch over to join the E's local tracks. The two platforms both have lines of dark blue columns, and all the column signs now say Chambers Street, a few with WTC beneath it for PATH. The track walls (where there are not the E train tracks, or the mezzanine passageway opposite them) were retiled in 1998 and have dark purple trimlines with a black border. On the 'Chambers Street' A,C platform these have Chambers written one tile beneath. The Terminal platform's walls are blank with just the trimline and no tiled text beneath it.
The station is connected by a long mezzanine (that slopes downwards via a ramp after the A,C platform to be at the same level as most of the E train platform) that forms a continuous path outside of fare control with multiple entrances into the subway system to reach various different staircases. A pedestrian entering at Church Street can walk underground, passing through the World Trade Center transportation hub, all the way to the Fulton Street Transit Center, a distance of 8 blocks (nearly a half-mile) without paying a subway fare, entirely underground. The portion of the mezzanine outside of fare control path is under the western side of the platforms and Church Street so entrances are predominately to that side of the street. This makes the station's free transfers slightly confusing. The mezzanine has the same dark blue columns as the platforms. The walls have a single dark purple trimline with a black boarder, beneath this are most of the various mosaic eyes of Oculus (the art installation, not the PATH station). Others are on other walls in the station.
Our tour of the station begins at the northern end of the station, beneath Chambers Street and Church Street. Here four street stairs, one at each corner of the intersection lead downstairs. There is a wide bank of turnstiles, both regular and a few high and the scar of what was once a token booth, a customer assistant booth in the later years. There are plenty of TVMs. For a few years (I remember experiencing this in the early 2000s) this entrance was open on weekends but no turnstiles were, passengers had to walk the entire length of the A,C platform via the mezzanine to get to the open 24 hour entrance in the center of the platform.
From here the mezzanine becomes split with a fence running down the middle to separate fare control from platform access. Four Staircases (the closest one to Chambers Street is just before the northern end of the platform) lead down to the Chambers Street A,C platform. Continuing south in this split configuration we reach Warren Street. Here there are streetstairs down from the NW and SW corners of Warren and Church Street. These have red globes and lead down to the passageway outside of fare control but by only some high exit only turnstiles. Passengers wanting to enter the system must walk a block north underground to the nearest Chambers Street turnstiles or go south to other entrances. There is an additional high exit turnstile along the mezzanine at the southern end of this section within fare control. This leads to a single exit only staircase to the SE corner of Warren and Church Streets. A staircase to the NE corner of Warren Church Streets is abandoned and slabbed over.
The open portion of the mezzanine continues along one block south, there are crew rooms over the A,C Chambers Street platform. The next cross street, Murray Street has street stairs to the NW and SW corners. These also have red domes and lead down to high exit turnstiles only at the northern end of the southern half of the A,C mezzanine area. Passengers have to use the passageway outside of fare control to go a block south before they can enter the subway system. This mezzanine area contains another 3 staircases down to the A,C platform and one down to the northern end of the E's terminal platform. This staircase from the E platform is the only one that makes free connections to the rest of the station. It is just after these turnstiles where the main entrance beneath Park Place and Chambers Street with streetstairs to all four corners is located. The streetstair to the SE corner leads up in front of a construction site when in 2011 where construction has been suspended on a 912 foot residential building because of the recession. When this building was finally completed in 2016, a new modern streetstair with a glass canopy was opened, along with another elevator (opening I believe in 2017) down to the mezzanine area below, this entrance and elevator are maintained by the building’s developer. This elevator provides another accessible entrance to the E train only. This accessible entrance is by walking the length of the E train platform via the mezzanine to the front of the E train platform beyond the bumper blocks. The elevator is also signed R,W via passageway since it is an accessible connection to the WTC transportation hub or via the new accessible transfer between the two stations. In theory, this elevator does provide a connection to the A,C,2,3 trains but via the next station at Fulton Street by rolling through the WTC transportation Hub through the Dey Street Passageway and into the Fulton Center (which would be nearly three-quarters of a mile to the 2,3 trains, the Accessible entrance to the 2 and 3 trains their Chambers Street Station at West Broadway is significantly closer). Before the new entrance opened, the short upper landing of the then conventional green street stair (many at this station have them) had a blue plywood wall. Until 2006 this was a direct entrance to a now demolished office building at 99 Church Street.
The Park Place and Chambers Street fare control area contains the token booth and is a bit confusing. There are two, disconnected within fare control at this level, banks of turnstiles, one is to the north at the southern end of the previously mentioned A,C mezzanine. It is signed for the A,C,E and serves staircases to the A,C platform and the single one to the E platform. The other bank is along the western side of the mezzanine and just south of it is the flagship mosaic slightly angled floor pattern of Oculus representing an abstract version of the earth surrounded by eyeballs. This turnstile bank is signed for the 2,3. It leads to a staircase down to the southern end of the A,C platform and another staircase down to the much deeper Park Place 2,3 Station platform. There is no direct connection from the 2,3 platform to the E platform. Passengers must go up the most northern staircase of the E platform to the connecting point on the mezzanine to the A,C platform. Then back down that platform to the last stairwell (as signs on the platform say) back up to the other portion of the mezzanine level to finally make the connection to the 2,3.
The mezzanine outside of fare control continues south, now to the east side of the E trains World Trade Center terminal platform. Just south of the complicated Chambers Street entrance are an additional two high entrance/exit turnstiles, these lead down to an intermediate landing before splitting into two staircases down to the E platform. The mezzanine then heads downhill with a recently added ramp that has its own railings for ADA compliancy. It's a gradual descent and the east wall becomes a fence, separating it from the west terminal track of the E train's World Trade Center Terminal. A single streetstair leads up (via an intermediate landing, its two flights) to the SW corner of Barclays Street & Church Street. The mezzanine continues another block across from the E platform. Along the walls here are modern exit name tablets with blue tiling for St. Peter's Church and Barclay's Street with arrows beneath. One now says Vesey Street but was clearly added later, the tiles are covering ones that must have said World Trade Center and St. Peter's Church and Barclays Street.
Next, across from the bumper blocks on the E platform, we reach what was the busiest staircase in the entire station from 2008 to 2016 with the new Oculus permanent PATH station was under construction. It is a narrow staircase between crew rooms for E train crews (one says Lunchroom) up to the pedestrian walkway along the northside of the World Trade Center site. It was the closest exit to the temporary PATH station, a block away at the foot of West Broadway and Greenwich Streets where they end at the World Trade Center site. In 2011, Small white sings said PATH and WFC (for the World Financial Center) at this staircase.
In 2011, the mezzanine passageway ended at a bank of both low and high turnstiles that lead down and past the bumper blocks to the end of the E train's World Trade Center terminal platform stepfree. This large fare control area contains another token booth and two streetstairs up to the west side of Church Street alongside the St. Paul's Churchyard just south of Vesey Street. These streetstairs meet at a lower-landing and arrive in the subway station as a single staircase. The very end of this mezzanine contains a very wide plywood wall, and a larger than normal walk-in newsstand that rests beneath an illuminated sign in 1970s font for 'Newsstand & novelties'. This is the last commercial remnant of the destroyed on 9/11 shopping and dining concourse at the World Trade Center. Behind the plywood wall is also a passageway of doors and steps from the subway into the World Trade Center Shopping plaza that survived the 9/11 attacks. The plywood wall was down between 2003 and 2008 and the doors served as a direct connection to the post 9/11 first temporary PATH station. The E train's platform at this station was also wheelchair accessible until 9/11 because of this connection. Wheelchair accessibility was also restored to the E train from 2003 and 2008 during the five years of the first temporary PATH station.
Between 2016 and 2017 this fare control area was reconfigured into two fare control areas (both with turnstiles) to allow for the opening of a free transfer to the R and W trains at Cortlandt Street. The transfer to the BMT Broadway Line trains are located through a passageway that leads beyond the E trains bumper blocks curves before reaching a right turn to the west, just before arriving at the northern end of the Downtown R,W platform. The former newsstand has been demolished because the transfer passageway cuts right through it's former location.
The two streetstairs up to the west side of Church Street for St. Paul’s Church now arrive immediately at their own bank of turnstiles these are signed for Church Street, Fulton Street, Vesey Street, and have a very narrow fare control area with just a couple TVMs (there wouldn't be space for a token booth, if desired). Today, these are the only entrance staircases in the entire station (there is also the exit only staircase to Warren Street) that are not connected to the rest of the station's exits within fare control.
The main bank of turnstiles from the continuous mezzanine and the World Trade Center have been reconfigured into two smaller bank of turnstiles with an Emergency Exit betewen them that are at about a 105 degree angle to each other. A modern, accessible entrance to the World Trade Center Transportation Hub is across from the portion of the turnstiles oriented north-south and closest to the E train's bumper block. The closer to east-west turnstiles face the historic passageway into the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. The long concourse/mezzanine now continues south, past this new bank of turnstiles oriented north-south, before arriving at the reopened and rebuilt 'surviving passageway' complete with the 1970s doors with spray paint from 9/11 rescue workers on one of them. There are older format green signs for the Subway and Path along with the travertine floors that were throughout the pre-9/11 World Trade Center concourses. Signs leading up to these silver doors and this entrance say it isn't wheelchair accessible. There is a ramp but the grade of it is too steep and doesn't meet ADA standards, as part of preservation rules at the World Trade Center site, the historical ramp couldn't be renovated. Both entrances lead into the balcony level of the WTC Oculus (not to be confused with the art installation) by the North Concourse, near its northern corner.
Photo 1-40: May 10, 2010; 41-45: December 30, 2010; 46-77: January 30, 2013; 78: November 23, 2003; 79: August 22, 2004; 80-85: November 6, 2004; 86: July 16, 2013; 87-88: January 23, 2014; 89-98: December 5, 2018; 99-111: December 7, 2018; 112-120: November 27, 2023
Arts For Transit at Chambers Street-World Trade Center
Oculus
By Adrew Ginzel & Kristin Jones
Ceramic Eyes are on walls throughout the station
