The Flushing Line was opened from Queensboro Plaza to Alburtis Avenue on April 21, 1917, with a local station at 69th Street. The platforms at 69th Street were extended in 1955–1956 to accommodate longer trains. As part of the 2015–2019 Capital Program, the MTA would renovate the 52nd, 61st, 69th, 82nd, 103rd and 111th Streets stations, a project that has been delayed for several years but is slated to begin in mid-2020. Conditions at these stations were among the worst of all stations in the subway system.
Station layout
This elevated station has three tracks and two side platforms. The center track is used by the peak direction express service during rush hours. The extreme north end of the northbound platform is a closed work stair leading to a storage area below the tracks. Both platforms have beige windscreens and brown canopies with green support frames and columns in the center and black, waist-high, steel fences at either ends. Black lampposts are at the un-canopied sections at regular intervals and the station signs are in the standard black name plate in white lettering. The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway passes under the IRT Flushing Line just east of the station. There were formerly crossovers and switches between this station and 61st Street–Woodside. They were removed in 2008 and replaced with crossovers on either side of 74th Street–Broadway. The new crossovers are set up in such a way that trains going in either direction on the express track can stop at 74th Street. Under the elevated structure of the Flushing Line directly east of the station and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is a track of the New York Connecting Railroad, which is used for freight by CSX.
Exits
This station has one elevated station house beneath the center of the platforms and tracks. Two staircases from the street, one at the northeast corner of 69th Street and Roosevelt Avenue and the other at the southwest corner, go up to the mezzanine, where there is a token booth at the center and a turnstile bank at either ends. Both turnstile banks lead to a waiting area/crossunder and have one staircase going up to each platform.
