145 Street
145 Street is the stop where the Central Park West Line splits into the Concourse Line and the Washington Heights Line. The station has two platform levels, the upper level with 4 tracks and 2 island platforms serves all trains going to and from Washington Heights, the lower-level with 3 tracks and two island platforms serves all trains going to and from Bronx and the Concourse Line. The middle track on the lower-level where trains can stop at either or both the Uptown and Downtown platforms is quite heavily used in different ways depending upon the time of day. Rush Hour Peak Direction only D Concourse Line Express trains stop at it. With Midday and Evening B trains using the track to terminate (and opening their doors on both sides of the platform) at 145 Street and trips to and from Brighton Beach. The width of both platform levels is the same with the Concourse-bound platform extra wide, since the middle track is beneath the Downtown A Express track above with platform where the second express track would normally be. These platforms all have lots of yellow columns and the track walls have a yellow trimline with a black border and lots of 145s written beneath the border.
The junction just south of the station between 145 Street and 135 Street where the Washington Heights Line and Concourse Line merge to become the Central Park West Line is well designed. Each of the Concourse line tracks arrives at the Washington Heights tracks at a flying junction. The two local tracks have high-speed switches with their respective directions local and express track. The middle track ends at one between the two A Express tracks. Originating and terminating B trains use the local track’s flying junctions to reach the Concourse line lower-level before using standard crossover switches just before the station to enter the middle express track to terminate. There are also switches on the upper level after this junction that allow trains to stop at 163 and 155 Street and then switch onto the Express track. These used to be used by all A trains during evenings, before the B and C trains switched terminals on March 1, 1998. At this time Evening C trains terminated at 145 Street, while B trains no longer served 168 Street at this time, rerouted to their evening (and weekends) terminal of 21 Street-Queensbridge.
The station, though requires a lot a steps for passengers wanting to get between destinations on the Washington Heights Line and the Concourse line. This is unlike West 4th Street the other two platform levels IND station complex, where a mezzanine makes change of direction transfers a breeze. There is no mezzanine between the platform levels at 145 Street. I still remember going to a Yankee Game (living in Washington Heights, where I go up) with my grandfather and him asking if there was an elevator while we overextended him with all of the steps required to get between the A train and the D train. Anyone trying to make this transfer who doesn’t want to climb lots of steps (where there is also an elevator available) should transfer at 125 Street instead of 145 Street.
To make the transfer between the two platforms and exit the station, the station was built with a full-length mezzanine. This mezzanine has been chopped into two by the NYPD’s Transit Bureau District 3’s Police Station above the middle of the platforms. The police station closed what was formerly an exit to 146 Street, although the streetstair railings at the NW corner of 146 Street and St. Nicholas Avenue wasn’t demolished and still sits on the street with Red Globes and signs saying no Entry enter at 145 Street, now surrounding an emergency exit hatch for use by the police department. The building of the police station means that passengers wanting to transfer between platforms or directions can only do so at the front or back of the trains.
The station’s token booth and main entrance is at the southern end of the station. Here two staircases connect each of the upper and lower-level platforms. 3 staircases lead up to the mezzanine from the Upper-Level Downtown platform, and two from the Upper-Level Uptown platform. There is finally an escalator that leads from the Lower-Level Uptown Concourse Line platform directly to the mezzanine to allow exiting passengers from uptown B and D trains to skip some of the station’s many steps. This mezzanine has a single bank of turnstiles that leads out to a single streetstair up to all four corners of 145 Street and St. Nicholas Avenue.
The secondary entrance is at the northern end of the station. Two more staircases connect both platform levels in each direction, with two staircases from each upper level platform to the mezzanine. There is also another escalator that goes from the Uptown Concourse line platform, through the upper-level platform without stopping to the mezzanine. This mezzanine has now unstaffed turnstiles. These lead out to a unique subway entrance along the west side of St. Nicholas Avenue just north of 147 Street. This staircase is inside its own little portal (with unique 1930s detailing under two white text on black signs for Subway) in a small stretch of vacant space between two low-rise mixed-use buildings. There is another conventional streetstair across the street to the east side of St. Nicholas Avenue (which is on top of a hill and there are no through streets to the east between 145 Street and 150 Street.
Photo 1-5: December 19, 2003; 6: January 25, 2004; 7-9: February 23, 2004; 10: Early 2007; 11-12: June 9, 2007; 13-16: JUne 30, 2008; 17-22: July 22, 2009; 23 & 24: August 25, 2010; 26: January 3, 2011; 27: January 7, 2011; 28: October 10, 2012; 29-33: November 5, 2012; 34: September 30, 2013; 35: September 16, 2015; 36: October 8, 2018
