168th Street station (New York City Subway)

The full-time fare control area is at the center of the mezzanine, and has a turnstile bank, token booth, and one staircase and one elevator going up to the southeast corner of West 168th Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue. The part-time side at the north end of the mezzanine has HEET turnstiles and three staircases, two to the southwest corner of Broadway and 169th Street and one to the northwest corner. An exit-only turnstile in the middle of the mezzanine, near the corridor leading to the IRT platforms, leads to a staircase going up to north end of Mitchell Square Park on the south side of West 168th Street between Broadway and Saint Nicholas Avenue.[7]

The passageway leading to the IRT elevators is just beyond the full-time fare control area. There are two exit stairs past this part-time fare control area, both of which diverge in opposite directions near the southwest corner of Broadway and 168th Street.[7]

The southernmost portion of the mezzanine, which is outside fare control, is closed. It features one passage on the east side of the IND station with two exits to the southeastern corner of 167th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue[8] and a passage on the west side of the IND station with two exits to Mitchel Square Park. The closed mezzanine area is now used for New York City Transit employees only. The western area was closed in the 1980s for safety reasons, while the eastern area was closed in 1992.[8]

The West Side Branch of the first subway was extended northward to a temporary terminus at 221st Street and Broadway on March 12, 1906, with the station at 168th Street not yet open.[11] This extension was served by shuttle trains operating between 157th Street and 221st Street until May 30, 1906 when express trains began running through to 221st Street.[12][13] The 168th Street station opened for service on April 14, 1906.[14]

In 1948, platforms on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line from 103rd Street to 238th Street were lengthened to 514 feet (157 m) to allow full ten-car express trains to stop at this station. Previously, the station could only hold six-car local trains. The platform extensions were opened in stages. On April 6, 1948, the platform extension opened for stations from 103rd Street to Dyckman Street, with the exception of 125th Street.[15][16]

On December 28, 1950, the New York City Board of Transportation issued a report concerning the construction of bomb shelters in the subway system. Five deep stations in Washington Heights, including the 168th Street station, were considered to be ideal for being used as bomb-proof shelters. The program was expected to cost $104 million. These shelters were expected to provide limited protection against conventional bombs, while providing protection against shock waves and air blast, as well as from the heat and radiation from an atomic bomb. To become suitable as shelters, the stations would require water-supply facilities, first-aid rooms, and additional bathrooms.[17]

Between July 5 and September 8, 1997, trains did not stop at the station while the elevators were modernized.[18]

In 2005, the station was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[9]

From January 5 to December 20, 2019, the station was closed so the elevator cars could be replaced, and elevator shafts, mechanical components, and the stairways could be upgraded. During this time, a free out-of-system transfer was provided to the A train at Inwood–207th Street, from both 207th Street and 215th Street.[19][20][21]

This deep station has a high arched, tiled ceiling. White globe lights on ornate fixtures hang from the walls and the ceiling on the north half. The south half, where the platforms were extended in the 1950s, has a much lower ceiling and large marble columns with alternating ones having the standard black station name plates in white lettering, but the name tablets and trim line are the same as those on the north half of the station. There is a closed stairway on the extreme northern end of the northbound platform leading to an unknown location.

Near the north end of the station, there are two pedestrian overpasses above the tracks, each of which has two staircases going down to each platform. On the western side of the bridges, several steps above the southbound platform, there is a lower concourse area with four elevators, one of which is staffed. They lead to an unstaffed fare control area on an upper mezzanine level, where a turnstile bank leads to two staircases going up to the southwest corner of Broadway and West 168th Street. A corridor within the fare control leads to the IND mezzanine.

The northern open bridge and northbound platform features a passageway east of the northbound side to an eastern elevator shaft.[22] This shaft contained the original elevators to and from the platforms, but was partially destroyed when the IND platforms were built; the space has since been repurposed as a ventilation chamber.[23]

In 2004, the number of elevator attendants at the station and four others in Washington Heights was reduced to one per station as a result of budget cuts by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The agency had intended to remove all the attendants, but kept one in each station after many riders protested. The change saved $1.2 million a year.[24] In November 2007, the MTA proposed savings cuts to help reduce the agency's deficit. As part of the plan, all elevator operators at 168th Street, along with those in four other stations in Washington Heights, would have been cut.[25] On December 7, 2007, the MTA announced that it would not remove the remaining elevator operators at 168th Street, along with those in four other stations in Washington Heights. The move was intended to save $1.7 million a year, but was not implemented due to pushback from elected officials and residents from the area.[26] In October 2018, the MTA again proposed removing the elevator operators at the five stations, but this decision was reversed after dissent from the Transport Workers' Union.[27]

The elevator attendants serve as a way to reassure passengers as the elevators are the only entrance to the platforms, and passengers often wait for the elevators with an attendant.[28] The attendants at the five stations are primarily maintenance and cleaning workers who suffered injuries that made it hard for them to continue doing their original jobs.[29]

The 168th Street station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line is not accessible, despite having two sets of elevators: the elevator from the street to the IND mezzanine and the elevator bank from the IND mezzanine to the IRT mezzanine. As part of the 2017 Fast Forward plan to modernize the subway system, 50 more stations will become ADA-accessible during the MTA's 2020–2024 Capital Program, allowing all riders to have an accessible station within two stops in either direction.[30]^:41 To meet this goal, one station in the Washington Heights/Inwood area will have to be made accessible on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line.[31] The 168th Street station was ultimately selected to be retrofitted as part of the plan.[32]

Following the 2019 renovation, a rear passageway at the lower mezzanine level was reopened to allow passengers to board and alight on different sides of the elevator cabs. A rear passageway at the upper mezzanine also exists, but remains closed.

The station was served by Seventh Avenue express trains from 1906 to 1959, after which the station has been served by local 1 trains.[33] From 1989-2005, the 9 service, a skip-stop variant of the 1, called at the station.[34]

• 
  Mosaic name tile
• 
  Details of the mosaic work on the wall
• 
  Middle of uptown platform under renovation in 2013.
• 
  The southbound platform under reconstruction in 2015

When the line opened, this station was served by an AA local train from 168th Street to Chambers Street/World Trade Center.[37] It was discontinued in 1933 when the CC was created to run on the local tracks along the IND Eighth Avenue and Concourse lines. It was resurrected in 1940 when the BB (later B) was created.[38] The AA, which only ran outside rush hours after 1940,[38] was renamed K in 1985 and completely replaced by the C's midday service on December 11, 1988.[37][39]

The original BB train, beginning with the opening of the Sixth Avenue Line on December 15, 1940, ran as a rush-hour only local service starting at 168th Street–Washington Heights. The designation "B" was originally intended to designate express trains originating in Washington Heights and going to Midtown Manhattan on the IND Sixth Avenue Line.[40][38] On March 1, 1998, the B and the C switched northern terminals, ending B service to this station and bringing C trains to this station at all times except late nights.[40][41]

The A train has always served this station since its inception in 1932.[40][8]

• 
  An R32 C train entering service at 168th Street bound for Brooklyn
• 
  Deteriorating walls