It is not the original station on the site; the original station opened on November 10, 1910 serving PATH's predecessor, the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad. When the Independent Subway's Sixth Avenue line was being built in 1936 it was necessary to relocate the H&M 33rd Street station. The original station was closed in December 1937, and a temporary terminal was built at 28th Street, one stop south. A new terminal station located at 32nd Street was opened on September 24, 1939, at a cost of $500,000. Although the station is at 32nd Street, the 33rd Street name was retained.
As part of this upgrade, the 28th Street station was closed and demolished. As a partial compensation for the loss of the station, an entrance to the new terminal was opened at 30th Street. A "Gimbels passageway" was formerly used by pedestrians to connect to Penn Station a block to the west under 33rd Street. After years of safety and sanitation concerns, an epidemic of sexual assaults led to its closure in the 1980s. A train-car wash formerly operated at track 1 of the 33rd Street terminal. It was replaced by a wash that opened in mid-September 1993 in Jersey City. It was computer-operated, and designed to reclean and recycle the water used. More space for the operation was provided at Jersey City, allowing the detergent used on the cars to have more time to take effect. At 33rd Street, brushes began scrubbing the cars very soon after the detergent went on. Its completion allowed the PANYNJ to deactivate the car wash at 33rd Street, providing more flexibility in terminal operations there.
Station layout
The present station has three tracks in a Spanish solution with two island platforms and two side platforms, located two stories below ground level. There is a small mezzanine with turnstiles, located above the platforms, at the south end of the station. The tracks end at bumper blocks at the north end of the station, where ramps from each platform lead up to the northern turnstile area, located about one and a half stories below ground level.
Exits
At the south end of the 33rd Street station are two staircases, one to either side of Sixth Avenue between 30th and 31st Streets. The northern end contains exits to the northwest and northeast corners of Sixth Avenue and 32nd Street, and an elevator on the west side of Sixth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets. From the northern end of the station, there are also passageways to the connected New York City Subway station and its own exits.
