Bedford Avenue (BMT Canarsie Line)

 Bedford Avenue
 "L" train
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Station platform
Station statistics
Address Bedford Avenue & North Seventh Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Borough Brooklyn
Locale Williamsburg
Coordinates 40°43′04″N 73°57′27″W / 40.71772°N 73.95756°W / 40.71772; -73.95756Coordinates: 40°43′04″N 73°57′27″W / 40.71772°N 73.95756°W / 40.71772; -73.95756
Division B (BMT)
Line       BMT Canarsie Line
Services       L  (all times)
Transit connections NYCT Bus: B62
⛴ NYC Ferry: East River Route (at North Sixth Street west of Kent Avenue)
Structure Underground
Platforms 1 island platform
Tracks 2
Other information
Opened June 30, 1924 (1924-06-30)
Rebuilt July 1, 2019 (2019-07-01) to December 31, 2020 (2020-12-31)
Station code 120[1]
Accessible not ADA-accessible; accessibility planned
Wireless service [2]
Traffic
Passengers (2017) 9,644,831[3] Decrease 0.5%
Rank 30 out of 425
Station succession
Next north First Avenue: L 
Next south Lorimer Street: L 

Bedford Avenue is a station on the BMT Canarsie Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and North Seventh Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it is served by the L train at all times. With an annual total of 9,388,289 passengers for 2015, Bedford Avenue is the busiest subway station in Brooklyn outside of Downtown Brooklyn, as well as the busiest station in Brooklyn served by one subway service.[3]

History

Track layout
to 1 Av
to Lorimer St
Entrance at the northeastern corner of Bedford Avenue and North Seventh Street

Bedford Avenue opened on June 30, 1924, as part of the initial segment of the underground Canarsie Line that originally stretched from Sixth Avenue station in Manhattan to Montrose Avenue station,[4] built by the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) under the Dual Contracts.[5][6][7]

Ridership

Bedford Avenue has experienced a surge in ridership along with the recent gentrification of Williamsburg. In the 1970s, the station had a fairly low annual ridership of 1.2 million, amounting to an average of 3,000 entries during weekdays.[8] In 2000, there were 3,783,000 boardings recorded at the station,[9] but after the neighborhood was re-zoned in 2005, the MTA noted even higher ridership. By 2007, ridership had increased over 50%, to 5,776,000 annual passengers.[10] In 2008, Bedford Avenue was used by more than 6 million people, making it the 53rd most-used subway station in New York City and one of the busiest in Brooklyn.[11] In 2017, approximately 9.6 million riders used this station.[3]

Growing passenger numbers along the L, partly influenced by Bedford Avenue station, have made the L train one of the most overcrowded in the system, a fact that has adverse effects on riders.[12] In 2010, Bedford Avenue surpassed seven million entries for the first time in its history, receiving press for its particularly high weekend passenger volume.[13] Crowding has become such an issue that politicians have called upon the MTA to "create a schedule that is more reflective of ridership patterns."[14]

Station layout

G Street Level Exit/Entrance
B1 Mezzanine Fare control, station agent
B2
Platform level		 Northbound ← "L" train toward Eighth Avenue (First Avenue)
Island platform, doors will open on the left
Southbound → "L" train toward Canarsie–Rockaway Parkway (Lorimer Street) →

At platform level, Bedford Avenue utilizes a simple island platform setup with two tracks.[15] Trains to Canarsie use track Q1 with trains to Manhattan using track Q2; the Q- prefix denotes that the track is on the Canarsie Line, but this is only used by MTA officials and not by the general public. Bedford Avenue station has a brown-and-green mosaic pattern with geometric shapes and embellished "B" ornamentations.[15]

In 2019, as part of the wide scope in the rebuilding of the Canarsie Tubes that were damaged during Hurricane Sandy, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will renovate the Bedford Avenue station. At the Bedford Avenue end of the station, two new street-level stairways will be built, platform stair capacity will be increased, the mezzanine will be expanded, turnstiles will be added, and new elevators will be built. At the Driggs Avenue end, two new street-level stairways would be added, the mezzanine area would be redesigned with additional turnstiles installed, and a new platform stairway will be built.[16] Construction on the elevator and new street entrances started in 2017 and is expected to be completed by 2020.[17] During the shutdown, the Bedford Avenue station would serve as the western terminal of the L train, with one track in service at any given time due to the reconstruction of the tubes. There would be transfers to the L3 and L4 Select Bus Service routes to Manhattan (as well as the L14 SBS during late nights), and to a ferry route that connects to Stuyvesant Cove Park in Manhattan.[18][19]

Exits

Street stair

There are two sets of entrance and exit points. The western exits are one stair each to the southern and eastern corners of Bedford Avenue and North 7th Street and contains a 24-hour booth. The eastern exits are one stair each to the southern and eastern corners of North 7th Street and Driggs Avenue.[20]

In the Netflix TV series Marvel's Daredevil, a scene in "Into the Ring" has Foggy Nelson meet with Sgt. Brett Mahoney outside the entrances to Bedford Avenue, with the signage on the stairwell altered to dress it up as 50th Street on the IND Eighth Avenue Line.

References

  1. ↑ "Station Developers' Information". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  2. ↑ "NYC Subway Wireless – Active Stations". Transit Wireless Wifi. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "Facts and Figures: Annual Subway Ridership 2012–2017". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. July 12, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  4. ↑ Celebrate Opening of Subway Link, The New York Times July 1, 1924 page 23
  5. ↑ nycsubway.org — The Dual System of Rapid Transit (1912)
  6. ↑ "Celebrate Opening of Subway Link". The New York Times. July 1, 1924. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Subway Tunnel Through". The New York Times. August 8, 1919. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Spark It Up". frumin.net. Frumination. May 7, 2009. Archived from the original on October 18, 2011. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  9. ↑ 1904-2006 ridership figures Archived July 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Metropolitan Transportation Authority Retrieved August 7, 2009
  10. ↑ "2007 ridership by subway station". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Archived from the original on May 29, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2009.
  11. ↑ "2008 subway ridership". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Archived from the original on May 12, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2009.
  12. ↑ ‘L’ is for Likeable, Say Straphangers Brooklyn Eagle Retrieved August 7, 2009
  13. ↑ Grynbaum, Michael M. (July 10, 2011). "With weekends not sleepy anymore, subway faces a test". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved August 22, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Squadron: "Review weekend ridership on the L, F."". The New York Times. Retrieved August 22, 2011.
  15. 1 2 BMT Canarsie Line: Bedford Avenue NYCSubway Retrieved August 8, 2009
  16. ↑ "mta.info | Superstorm Sandy: One Year Later". web.mta.info. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Project Description, Budget and Scope". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. March 31, 2018. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  18. ↑ New York City Transit Authority (July 2018). "MTA New York City Transit Canarsie Tunnel Project Supplemental Environmental Assessment and Section 4(f) Review: Final Report" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. pp. 12–13. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  19. ↑ "(L) Tunnel Reconstruction" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. July 2018. pp. 14–19. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  20. ↑ "MTA Neighborhood Maps: Williamsburg & Bedford Stuyvesant" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
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