2 Avenue
2 Avenue is a unique but decrypted IND 6th Avenue Line station and is one that has the shell of two never built subway projects. The first is the shell of a station in the ceiling above the western end of the station that was supposed to be for the Second Avenue subway passing above (with a station). This area has been turned into crew quarters. The rest of the platform has a shell of a full length mezzanine above it that I believe was never completed for passenger use. If the strange 3 of the current construction is ever built this far south, a station will be built deeply below, not above today's station with a free transfer. The second is that the middle 'express' tracks that currently terminate at the station were supposed to continue straight down Houston Street and run through another tunnel into Brooklyn and join the South 4th Street subway of the never built IND Second System. Tail tracks of the express tracks extend approximately 565 feet beyond the station to Ludlow Street. Today, these middle tracks at the station with two island platforms for four track line can only be used by trains terminating from the local tracks. The middle tracks once were originally just an extension of the express tracks at Broadway-Lafayette when the station opened in 1936 but they were stub-ended with crossover just before the station in the 1960s when the express tracks were rerouted to become the Chrystie Street Connection. The terminus was most recently used by the V train during its relatively short existence from December 17, 2001 until June 25, 2010 when it was through routed with and renamed the M train via the Chrystie Street Connection to the Williamsburg Bridge. It is still used frequently on reroutes, particularly by C or E trains when construction hampers service on the 53 Street Tunnel or Cranberry Street tubes. Select rush hour M trains terminated here (restoring the entirety of the V train) from July 1, 2017 to April 30, 2018 while the connection between the Myrtle Avenue elevated and Broadway-Jamaica elevated was rebuilt, since the temporary terminus at Broadway Junction couldn't handle the capacity needed to turn all M trains to and from Forest Hills.
Today the station is one of the more decrepit in Manhattan. The two platforms have two lines of concrete, solid, wide purple columns that look strong enough to hold up another subway line upstairs. The track walls of the station have a purple trimline with a purple boarder and 2nd Ave written in tile one tile beneath the trimline. The stop has exits at either end of the station, each with only a small portion of it's mezzanine open to the public and just one staircase down to each platform. The deepness of the station is noticeable with slightly longer staircases than many other stations and a few additional stairs in places. The western end (railway north) exit is now unstaffed but open 24 hours a day with both high and regular turnstiles (these were closed off when the stop was staffed part time) and streetstairs up to the NW corner of 2 Avenue and Houston Street and midway down the block on the southside of the Houston Street between Chrystie Street (which 2 Avenue becomes south of Houston Street) and the Bowery. The staffed entrance is at the eastern (subway south) end of the station, streetstairs lead up to the NW (in front of First Park) and SW corners of the intersection of Houston Street and 1st Avenue/Allen Street (the name changes at this intersection). There used to be a passageway under First Avenue to additional exits at the NE corner of Allen Street and 1 Avenue.
Photos 1 & 2: December 26, 2004; 2-16: December 28, 2008; 17-34: December 30, 2011; 35-37: September 26, 2012; 38-39: December 9, 2012
Station Subway Lines (2001-2010)
