50th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)


50th Street is a local station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 50th Street and Broadway at the northwest corner of the Theater District, it is served by the 1 train at all times and by the 2 train during late nights.

History

Operation of the first subway began on October 27, 1904, with the opening of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from City Hall to 145th Street on the West Side Branch including the 50th Street station.
In 1981, the MTA listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.
On September 7, 1987, Alex Cumba fell onto the tracks of the 50th Street station. Bystanders Edwin Ortiz, Jeff Kuhn, and Melvin Shadd jumped onto the tracks and attempted to lift Cumba back onto the platform, which was difficult due to Cumba's weight. The three were able to remove Cumba seconds before the train arrived. A recreation of the story aired on Rescue 911 on September 17, 1991.

Station layout

This underground station has four tracks with two side platforms. The two express tracks are used by the 2 train during daytime hours and the 3 train at all times. Original tile plaques at this station were removed during remodeling, but one of them has been preserved at the New York Transit Museum.
The station contains the artwork Liliana Porter's Alice, The Way Out, a series of mosaics installed in 1994 depicting characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Exits

Each platform has same-level fare control at the center and there are no crossovers or crossunders to allow free transfer between directions. Each fare control area has a token booth, turnstile bank, and newsstand. The northbound has four staircases to the streets: two to the northeast corner of 50th Street and Broadway, one to the southeast corner, and one inside a building on the south side of 50th Street midblock between Broadway and 7th Avenue. The southbound platform has an exit to an underground shopping arcade on the south side of 50th Street west of Broadway, and another to the southern sunken courtyard of Paramount Plaza on the northwest corner of 50th Street and Broadway.