Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts
Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets is a very unusual IND express station and across platform transfer point between Fulton Street Line A,C trains and Crosstown Line G trains. No switches between the Crosstown Line and Fulton Street Subway exist at the station, so routing a G train onto the A,C line to enter Manhattan isn’t possible. The station has four island platforms and six tracks in total, with only the central four tracks and two island platforms are currently in use. The outer two island platforms (The A,C trains platform on the same track) and wall tracks are permanently closed and only saw about ten years of service for the Court Street Shuttle, that operated from here to that IND station that is now the transit museum. C trains switch onto these tracks after leaving the station to provide service to Fulton Street local stops.
The outer platforms were last used as the one intermediate stop (after trains began at the lower level platform at Times Square) for the extra-fare specials to Aqueduct Racetrack between 1959 through 1981. The tracks do see service at times for movie shoots (including Michael Jackson using the mezzanine for his music video 'bad') and the station name tiling beneath the wall trim has been known to be for other stations from time to time courtesy of this. The walls of the outer tracks have their lights turned low, making them feel dark and abandoned, the walls of the out of service tracks have a Green trimline with Hoyt written one tile width below at regular intervals.
The station's former large full mezzanine have been cut apart in a completely ridiculous manor, now with a NYPD transit police station and other non-public areas. There are three staircases up from each platform to a small mezzanine towards the middle of the platform to where the station's only fare control area is along the northern side of the mezzanine. After fare control narrow passageways lead in either direction along one side of the former full-length mezzanine to a single staircase at each end up to street level to exits along the north side of Schmerhorn Street near either Hoyt Street or Bond Street. Unusually, each of these exits is set at street level within buildings.
In the 2010s, new apartment building construction resulted in new and rebuilt station entrances. Around 2013, a new entrance inside 225 Schermerhorn Street opened, midblock with a staircase. On September 27, 2018 the former entrance (after being closed for 3 years) closest to Hoyt Street reopened inside Hoyt & Horn (45 Hoyt Street) Apartment Building with both a staircase and elevator down to the mezzanine (all maintained by a private developer), elevator access to the platforms still needs to be built by the MTA to make the station ADA accessible, which is planned as part of the 2020-2024 Capitol Program.
The stop has many abandoned (some deconstructed) entrances. In addition buissinesses used to line the mezzanine. Starting from the western end of the station there was once an entrance in an easement inside what is now a private parking lot along the northside of Schermerhorn Street west of Hoyt Street, a short passageway led to the start of the mezzanine. Next was also a streetstair down to the SW corner of Hoyt & Schermerhorn Streets. This was followed by two of the in-service entrances before a closed entrance that was once inside a building.
The open entrance near Bond Street once contained an underground passageway that led one block north to Livingston Street with an entrance to Loeser's Department Store and streetstairs up to each side of Livingston Street. Finally, the eastern end of the mezzanine had three entrances all closed off, a streetstair to the SE corner of Bond Street & Schermerhorn Street, and two entrances from the NE corner.
Photos 1 & 2: October 15, 2005; 3-7: November 29, 2005; 8: August 17, 2008; 9-14: June 1, 2009; 15-20: June 4, 2009; 21 & 22: February 26, 2014
