Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station

Origins

Rail transportation to Coney Island had been available since 1864. The Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad was the first steam railroad to Coney Island. It ran from Fifth Avenue and 36th Street in what is now Sunset Park,^[7] to its West End Terminal, at the present-day Coney Island Terminal's location,^[8] along what is now the right-of-way of the West End Line.^[7][9] The nearby Culver Depot, along the Atlantic Ocean waterfront near the site of the present-day West Eighth Street station, served the Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railway (now the Brighton Line) and Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad (now the Culver Line).^{[8][10][11][12]} Other rail transportation included The Manhattan Beach Railroad; The Sea Beach Railroad; The Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad; a route to Long Island City via the Long Island Rail Road;^[3][9] and the Norton's Point Line trolley to what is now Sea Gate.^[13]

These railroads were not all connected to each other, resulting in a series of spur lines crossing the island.^[10] However, the Brighton, Culver, Sea Beach, and West End railroads were acquired by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) by the late 1890s, and the Dual Contracts, signed in 1913, allowed many more subway lines to be built within New York City, which had been incorporated fifteen years prior.^[12][14]

New West End Terminal

In the late 1910s, a completely reconstructed New West End Terminal station (which gradually became better known as Coney Island Terminal station) was built on an elevated structure. The new terminal unified the terminals of most of the former steam railroad lines terminating at Coney Island,^[15] aside from the Long Island Rail Road-controlled New York and Manhattan Beach Railway.^[14] This new terminal could accommodate hundreds of thousands of passengers a day.^[15] This project entailed rerouting the Brighton and Culver Lines from a ground-level alignment to an elevated structure with eight tracks and four platforms.^[14]

The BRT-operated Sea Beach Line, which served the terminal, opened on September 5, 1917,^[2] and the BRT West End Line had been similarly inaugurated on December 23, 1918.^[3][14] The terminal officially opened on May 29, 1919, when the new Brighton Line opened.^{[3][14][15][16]} With the opening of the Culver Line on May 1, 1920, the terminal was finally completed.^{[3][17][18][19]}

As a result of the Culver Line extension, the BRT's double fare to Coney Island expired, and was cut from 10 cents to 5 cents,^[18][19] and Coney Island became a more affordable vacation area compared to in previous years. In 1923, these lines came under the control of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), the BRT's successor company.^[3] Riders at the new station were promised trains that ran every three minutes during rush hours, but this quickly proved not to be true. In 1923, a reporter for the Brooklyn Standard Union observed that rush hour trains had headways of eight minutes on the Sea Beach Line and fifteen minutes on the West End Line, and that no direct Manhattan service was being run on either the Brighton or Culver Lines during rush hours.^[20]

In 1929, the BMT announced a new entrance for the station. This new entrance would have retail space that would be "periodically inspected."^[21] In June 1933, a new Brighton–Franklin weekday service was announced. This service would operate express (except in evening rush hours) providing a direct route from Franklin Avenue to Coney Island. Culver elevated trains would operate to either Sands Street or Park Row depending on the time of day.^[22]

There was a transfer from the Coney Island Terminal to the Norton's Point Trolley to Sea Gate, via an elevated footbridge across Stillwell Avenue to the elevated trolley station.^[8] In 1948, the trolley was discontinued and replaced with the B74 Mermaid Avenue Bus,^[23] The trolley ramp spanning Stillwell Avenue and West 15th Street was torn down around this time.^[24]

Matters became more complicated in 1954, when the Independent Subway System (IND) started operating D trains on the Culver Line.^[25] At the time, the tracks had lettered names (i.e. Track A, Track B, all the way to Track H from east to west). However, the IND also used lettered designations for its routes (i.e. A, B, all the way to H as well).^[26] The BMT had used numbered route designations up to this point, so this had not been a problem. However, the D route was now using the Culver Line, which departed from tracks E and F. To avoid confusion, the tracks were given numbered designations.^[26]

In 1956, residents of Coney Island protested against paying a transfer to the bus on Mermaid Avenue (now the B74 bus to Sea Gate), with some saying that the 15-cent fee for transferring should be abolished because the bus was essentially an adjunct to the station.^[27] In 1979, the City Planning Commission proposed something similar, in that Coney Island residents would get a free transfer between the B36/B74 bus routes and the subway station.^[28] It was noted that the station was the only one that did not get a free bus transfer after the corresponding subway transfer was discontinued (in sharp contrast to the BMT Culver Line, BMT Myrtle Avenue Line, and IRT Third Avenue Line, which were discontinued but replaced by bus transfers). The free transfers would allow a $200 million apartment complex nearby, funded by the government, to get more residents to move in, as well as diversify Mark Twain Junior High School and attract a stable middle class.^[28] The experimental free transfer was instituted in November 1980, following three years of continuous advocacy by a Coney Island tenants' group. At the time, subway and bus fares were separate and cost a combined $1.20. The first phase of the program allowed riders to transfer for free, paying a 60-cent combined fare, while the second phase allowed for a half-price transfer, with the combined fare being 90 cents.^[29] Schedules showing trains' departure times were installed at the Coney Island Terminal in 1965.^[30]

Station renovation

Once a grand hub, the Coney Island Terminal had started deteriorating by the 1960s.^[8] By 1980, the entire system was in a state of disrepair, and the terminal was no exception. It was slated to be rebuilt that year. According to the New York Daily News, the renovated station would get "a bright, new airy look" as well as one of the system's first installations of continuously welded rail.^[31] The steel and concrete station was badly corroded by the effects of salt water and poor maintenance.^[32] In 1983, the MTA added funding for a renovation of the Stillwell Avenue station to its 1980–1984 capital plan.^[33] The New York Times wrote in 2008: "The old station was a gaping masterpiece of stalactited decrepitude [...] nicely mirroring the seedy ambience of the Coney Island Boardwalk."^[34]

2000s renovation

The MTA began evicting existing tenants from the station house in early 2001, including Philip's Candy, a candy store that had operated in the station building for seven decades.^[42] Despite the economic effects of the September 11 attacks in 2001, the MTA awarded a $282 million construction contract the next month.^[43] A full reconstruction started in November 2001 with the closure of the Sea Beach platform, which was used by the N train.^[32] The Brighton and Culver Lines' platforms, hosting the F and Q services, were closed in September 2002, as was the adjacent West Eighth Street–New York Aquarium station.^[44][45] At the time, the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce estimated that 75 percent of tourists to Coney Island traveled there via one of the two subway stations.^[46]

The project included restoring the BMT station building's facade and adding a roof with solar panels.^[16] To minimize impact on the surrounding community, the renovation was supposed to take 42 months, and the West End Line continued serving the station through the renovation.^[16] One platform at a time remained open during construction so the West End services (the W until February 2004 and the D afterward^[47]) could keep serving the station.^[44] Although local officials supported the renovation, they worried that the closure of three platforms would negatively impact local businesses.^[48] During the 2003 season, merchants in Coney Island reported that their business had declined significantly because of the station's partial closure.^[46][47]

The new terminal opened on May 23, 2004, with the restoration of F and Q train service and the relocation of D service to tracks 1 and 2.^[4][49] The New York Times called the refurbished station house "one of the grandest subway stations in the city" and wrote that the station house would give Surf Avenue "a much needed face-lift".^[50] The project was completed on May 29, 2005,^[32] with full restoration of N service.^[51][52] The final cost of the renovation is variously cited as $240 million,^[53] $260 million,^[52] $294 million,^[54] or $300 million.^[32] Although the station had been made fully wheelchair-accessible during the renovation, the Daily News reported in 2007 that the elevators were often in disrepair and that passengers had to take two elevators to reach their platforms.^[55]

Station house

The station house, called the Portal Building, was designed by di Domenico + Partners^{[38][66][70][74]} and built by Vertex Engineering Services.^[32][38] The three-floor, 34,000-square-foot (3,200 m²) Portal Building,^[32][70] located at 1243 Surf Avenue, has a terracotta facade in imitation of the former terminal, including restored BMT signs and logos, and a parapet salvaged from the original station house.^[16][65] The original station house had about 580 terracotta tiles, as well as green medallions with the initials "BMT"; these had been covered with billboards during the late 20th century before being restored in the 2000s.^[75] The modern station building's design is supposed to evoke the area's amusement park-based history, with small lights hanging from the narrow, articulated tower that rises next to the station entrance. There are also art deco lamps and a semicircular window that fills an arch above the station entrance.^[76]

The Portal Building's main entrance is on Surf Avenue past the station's south end.^[77] From this entrance, there is a police precinct (Transit District 34 of the New York City Police Department^[70][78]), retail space, and the station's fare control area.^[65][70] There is also another entrance/exit to the bus shelter on Mermaid Avenue.^[65][77] The retail space and the new station entrance were built during the 2001–2005 renovation.^[44] There is also a side entrance from Stillwell Avenue itself.^[65][77]

There are also High Entry-Exit Turnstiles that allow entry to the station during late night hours, when the station booth is closed.^[65]

Solar panels

The new station's infrastructure includes a soaring roof with arches reminiscent of grand European railway stations such as the Gare Saint-Lazare and the Paddington railway station.^[32] The roof is glazed with photovoltaic (solar electric) panels, consisting of 2,730 thin-film modules from Schott AG,^[79] which cover about 76,000 square feet (7,100 m²).^[52] The solar panel system has a nominal capacity of about 210 kWp;^[80][81] this equates to an annual output of 250,000 kWh.^[80] The solar panels provide about 15 percent of the station's power.^[16][82] Although the solar roof cost about $4 million more than a glass roof of the same size, the MTA believed that the panels would save money in the long run.^[82]

Due to their location near the beachfront, the station roof's solar panels needed to meet stringent hurricane standards. To meet those standards, the panels for the station were rigorously tested in a laboratory in York, Pennsylvania.^[80] This makes Stillwell Avenue the first solar-powered subway station in the New York City Subway system.^[44] The solar panels were expected to last for at least 35 years, and a catwalk is located below the roof if any solar panel replacements were ever needed.^[80] As a bonus feature, a low voltage current, which is emitted from the panels, serves as a deterrent against pigeons.^[80]

At the time of the panels' installation, Con Edison did not generally allow solar systems to be designed to feed energy back into its grid. As a result, output never exceeds demand, and much of the power produced on sunny days is wasted.^[80][83]

Services and tracks

More information Bay 50th Street (BMT West End Line), 86th Street (BMT Sea Beach Line) ...

Bay 50th Street (BMT West End Line)		86th Street (BMT Sea Beach Line)
North of the station
BMT West End Line Local:    D  (all times) Express: no regular service		BMT Sea Beach Line Local:    N  (all times) Express: no regular service
In the station
tracks 7 and 8    D  (all times)	tracks 5 and 6    F  (all times) <F>  (two rush hour trains, peak direction)​	tracks 3 and 4    Q  (all times)	tracks 1 and 2    N  (all times)
East of the station
lower level		upper level
IND Culver Line Local:    F  (all times) <F>  (two rush hour trains, peak direction)​ Express: no regular service		BMT Brighton Line Local:    Q  (all times) Express: no regular service
West Eighth Street–New York Aquarium (IND Culver/BMT Brighton Lines)

Close

Each line has its own pair of tracks and a pair of double switches between these tracks, and each service has its own island platform serving these tracks. In regular operation, no service needs to cross over the tracks of another service. The tracks are numbered sequentially from east to west, with the N train at tracks 1 and 2; the Q at tracks 3 and 4; the F at tracks 5 and 6; and the D at tracks 7 and 8.^[6] Tracks 1–6 can serve trains coming from both the north and south, while tracks 7–8 can only serve trains from the north, since they terminate at bumper blocks at the station's south end.^[6][84] Until 1954, track 2 ended at a bumper block to the south, while track 7 merged with track 6 at the south end of the station.^[84] The next stations to the north are Bay 50th Street for D trains, 86th Street for N trains, and West Eighth Street–New York Aquarium for F, <F>​​, and Q trains.^[85]

Though designed as a through station, service has rarely been provided between tracks. Aside from service changes, only two services have been scheduled to run through the station. These brief services ran as follows:

• 7 Brighton–Franklin service, via the BMT Franklin Avenue Line and BMT Brighton Line, through Stillwell Avenue to Manhattan (summer Sundays 1924–1952)^[86][87]
• NX Sea Beach "super-express" service (rush hours 1967–1968)^[88][89]

North of the station, tracks 7 and 6 merge into one track (with a switch from track 7 to track 8), tracks 5 through 2 merge into another track, and tracks 1 and 8 stay separate, so that there is a four-tracked structure when the BMT West End Line and BMT Sea Beach Line cross the Coney Island Creek. Before the structure crosses the creek, all four tracks have switches that connect the tracks to each other, before the West End and Sea Beach Lines split. Tracks from these lines then lead into Coney Island Yard.^[6] South of the station, tracks 4, 5, and 6 stay separate from the other tracks (with a pair of switches between tracks 5 and 6) and tracks 1, 2, and 3 merge and have a diamond crossover with track 4. Tracks 3 and 4 (the Brighton Line tracks) are above tracks 5 and 6 (the Culver Line tracks) at this point.^[6]

Subway–bus transfer coordination

To reduce missed connections and waiting time between the B36 and B82 buses and the Q train, New York City Transit began operating yellow holding lights to signal bus operators to wait for imminently arriving trains. The lights, which began operating March 10, 2014, are on the northeast corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues and in the Mermaid Avenue Bus Loop. This system operates during late nights, from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. daily.^[91]