Pelham Parkway
Pelham Parkway is the one subway station, not built as a subway station. That might sound strange (and I believe the MTA might not even classify it as a subway station internally) but the stop is fully underground in a just under one-mile-long tunnel. The station originally opened as an underground express stop on the New York, Westchester, and Boston Railroad in 1912, closed in 1937 and reopened as the only underground subway station, not originally built to be a subway station but a railroad station in 1941, with through service to Manhattan beginning in 1957. In the 1940s only shuttle trains stopped at the station, no track connection had been built yet at East 180 Street, with the middle tracks still containing their overhead wires with the idea that through commuter rail service to and from Westchester potentially be restored. This never happened but if they had Pelham Parkway would have become an express stop with a cross-platform transfer between subway and regional rail.
As an express station, the station has two island platforms for the original 4 track line. At times the former express tracks were completely removed but these have been restored over the years, with 2 tracks through the station as of 2023, and 1 in 2011. The former Dyre Avenue-bound track – missing in 2011 – ends just before the tunnel portal south of the next station, Gun Hill Road. The tracks were rebuilt to use on this very straight stretch of subway line as a test track for new subway cars, with the “new technology” R142s being tested on this track during their delivery.
I visited the station during a service change (GO – general order) on the 5 train in 2013 that resulted in all Dyre Avenue bound trains operating on the former southbound Express track between East 180 Street and Dyre Avenue. Much to my surprise trains bypassed this station, instead of stopping like they could have done. I don’t know the reason some hypotheses are the signaling system could only accommodate one train on the express track at a time, so the goal was to get trains through as quickly as possible, an issue somewhere along the express side of the platform, or maybe someone at the MTA forgot that Pelham Parkway is an express stop since this service change is really rare.
The station’s two platforms have track walls painted black and lots of steel columns with little Y brackets as they meet the tunnel roof, a single set of columns run down the middle of the platforms painted blue, these provide the only decorative color at the station that is overwise a simple concrete platform and bare track walls painted black. There is no tiling along the platform.
To leave the station passengers go up one of two, enclosed in concrete, staircases up to the inside of a building (there are no windows yet) at street level. Doors then lead into a very small entrance area with the single set of turnstiles along one side and barely space for the emergency exit gate, with a single bench under a small upper window on the opposite side. The interior walls are simply cream-colored painted concrete, with a small mosaic trimline around the station house.
After passing through the turnstiles is one of the most unusual token “booth” in the subway system. The token booth, isn’t a booth at all, but is a ticket window set up right along one of the three turnstiles. It is painted black and has been retrofitted to kind of look like a token booth with a Pelham Parkway sign, and silver MTA New York City transit sign beneath it. A metal panel swings open or closed around the ticket window and allows it to be closed overnight (only the Dyre Avenue line stations are not staffed 24/7, tokens and fares were collection directly on the shuttle trains by conductors until the 1990s).
Passengers reach the street out of two sets of two blue doors under a faded mosaic in the middle of a concrete building with minimal additional ornamentation. Two small private businesses occupy each side of the building one on each side of the subway entrance. One is still a real estate office, the other empty. This building is located in a plaza (grass with trees are on each side of the building) in the middle of the Esplanade, a wide boulevard that runs its entire length over the former NY, W, & B railroad line, and today’s tunnel portion of the Dyre Avenue line.
About 200 feet south of the station is the northern side of the wide set of roadways and grassy malls including a nice bike path that is the Pelham Parkway, along with connections to the Bx12 SBS, the first NYC BRT route with off-board fare collection, and a super important bus route since the Bronx lacks any crosstown subway lines.
Photos 1-4: May 8, 2004; 5-8: December 28, 2006; 9-20: January 7, 2011; 21-36: September 8, 2013;
