In around 90 minutes, the Jay St.-MetroTech station that serves the A, C, F and R trains will open to the public, but it’s not the only new station name in the system. Also coming to us via Jeffrey from Twitter is this photo taken on the lower level of the Fulton St. complex. That tunnel, which serves as the final stop in Manhattan for the A and C, had long been called Broadway/Nassau St., leading to countless confused tourists (and more than a few lost locals).
Now, as part of the overall redesign at Fulton St., Broadway/Nassau is no more. The A and the C stop at Fulton St., and the system in Lower Manhattan is that much easier to navigate. As the sign says, “One Name, Many Connections.”
38 comments
It all makes sense of course, but still, every time they do this a little part of me dies.
Is it weird that official name changes make me overly excited? There’s just something about nomenclature…
No, not weird at all…at least among the souls that frequent this blog 🙂
The wall mosaic tiles were changed to “Fulton St.” a while ago, and it is a very smart change. It follows the precedent at Broadway Junction, which used to be called Broadway/East New York. If you go even farther back, the Manhattan Bridge platforms at Canal Street (used today by Q and part-time N trains) used to be called “Broadway”.
When you’ve got several lines crossing in a single station complex, it just confuses matters when the piece parts have different names.
+1 to what Marc said.
I’m sooooo glad someone at the MTA has decided to rationalize some of the station complex names. This is great news!
Hopefully they’ll rename 23rd Street – Ely Avenue and 45th Road – Courthouse Square to match Court Square on the G in February when the new connector opens. 23rd Street – Ely Avenue is probably the most confusingly named station in the system since both the M and the E already stop at 23rd Street in Manhattan and THERE IS NO ELY AVENUE. There also isn’t any place called Courthouse Square – the square adjacent to the station is simply called Court Square and people also use that name to refer to the area around the Citibank building.
This would actually made a ton of sense.
At least you have the “Ely Avenue” distinction here. The B technically doesn’t even have that, stopping at both Seventh Avenue (at 53rd Street, Manhattan) and Seventh Avenue (at Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn). Neither does the R, stopping at 36th Street (at Northern Boulevard, Queens) and 36th Street (at Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn).
Why do they use the term “connections” when MTA lingo usually uses “connections” to mean an out-of-system transit option (i.e. “Transfer is available to the A and C trains. Connection is available Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, and Amtrak”). That’s just slightly confusing.
Probably sounded catchier than “One name, many transfers.” In this context, “connections” sounds a lot more meaningful than “transfers.” I doubt this isolated bit of poetic license, as it were, will really confuse anyone.
In MTA-speak, “transfer” usually mean one doesn’t have to pay an additional fare to use another line or bus, whereas “connection” means that passengers do have to pay more (i.e. PATH, regional rail, etc.)
That’s a pretty major name change (but very logical). Jay Street is really getting an add-on to its name, but most likely still be referred to as Jay St.
Doesn’t that change affect the Lawrence Street station too? Lawrence Street -> Jay Street is a pretty big change.
The Lawrence St. station is no more. It kept the MetroTech part and is now just Jay St.-MetroTech.
I’ll have pictures shortly.
How about 71st/ Contenental Ave. in Forest Hills ? A long name that is redundent because 71st & Contenental are one & the same.
That’s why its official name is now “Forest Hills – 71st Ave”
Indeed, I remember conductors used to always say “71st Street, Continental Avenue”, when in reality 71st Street is is more like Jackson Heights!
23rd Street and Ely Avenue are one and the same; 21st Street and Van Alst Avenue are one and the same as well.
Not really. 23rd Street USED TO BE CALLED Ely Avenue and 21st Street used to be called Van Alst Avenue. And the name change happened BEFORE the subway stations were built. They are no longer named Ely or Van Alst either officially or unofficially.
They should do something similar at Broadway-Lafayette.
Sometimes it’s even more important for people to know what the intersecting street is than to know what street is at the other end of the station.
Some years ago they realized that and so the signs now read “Lexington Ave. – 63rd St.” “Lexington Ave. – 59th St.” and “Lexington Ave. – 53rd St.” at those stations.
I think that “Broadway – Houston St.” would make more sense than “Broadway – Lafayette”.
I wonder if they will change the names of Broadway-Lafayette and Bleecker once the connection is open.
That’s right!
Why don’t they make Bleecker into “Houston St.”?
That would work well with what I suggested above about changing Broadway-Lafayette into “Broadway-Houston St”.
And how about the signs saying “Delancey-Essex Streets”
on both of those intersecting stations?
Bleecker Street is an original IRT station and it has gorgeous ceramic plaques displaying the station name. It would be kind of a shame if they had to take those down or cover them because of a name change.
Well if Essex is “Crossing delancey.” *rim shot*
I don’t get it.
Is Rimshot a movie title?
If so, how does it relate to what we’re talking about?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimshot
“Crossing Delancey” is an old Rom-Com released in 1988.
More information at the address below.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094921/
Yes, I knew that “Crossing Delancey” was a movie.
That’s why I wondered at first if “Rimshot” was the title of another movie.
OK, so he meant a drumroll, as in a stand-up comedy routine.
“Broadway/Houston Street” probably does make more sense, but I’m not sure the need is there. I think people know where the Broadway-Lafayette station is. It’s not as if there’s another Manhattan Broadway station around, now that “Broadway-Nassau Street” is “Fulton Street” now.
I feel like the main reason all the Lexington Avenue stations have had the street name appended is that all three of them are easily accessible by Queens Boulevard trains. “Lexington Avenue” doesn’t mean much if your train could have been routed under 63rd Street, 59th Street (actually 60th), or 53rd Street.
Also a historical note:
When I was a child in Bensonhurst, the signs on my Sea Beach Line station said “22nd Ave.”
The street called 22nd Ave. had become Bay Parkway many years earlier,
well before my time, even before my parents lived in that neighborhood.
It seems that the Transit Authority has a long history of stations being poorly named or having out-of-date names.
Or my biggest source of confusion: Park Place 2/3 connects to Chambers St A/C, the Chambers St 2/3 does not. Meanwhile, from the street, its a quicker walk from Chambers A/C top Chambers 2/3 than the underground in-system transfer to Park Place. Since botj connect to WTC E, maybe this signage will be fixed with the opening of Calatrava’s WTC hub.
Yes. It still makes no sense why WTC is named separately from the AC Chambers St stop.
What do you mean named separately?
That entire IND station is called “Chambers St.-World Trade Center”, which sometimes gets people confused in a different way, because the street named Chambers St. is five blocks north of the World Trade Center site.
I mean it IS one large station complex of course, but anybody not familiar with the neighborhood might be misled into thinking that Chambers STREET itself is one of the boundaries of the WTC site.
I just realized something.
Is it possible that you meant to say:
“It makes no sense why WTC is NOT named separately from the AC Chambers St stop”?
I disagree. If you’re on a southbound IND train, it’s pretty important to know whether your train is going to the World Trade Center terminal or to the Chambers Street through station, since it’s a substantial walk from one to the other.
It would make sense to rename the entire complex to Park Place, with World Trade Center as a subtitle to the terminal station. Chambers is a minor exit at the far north end, nowhere near the WTC platform, while Park Place is where the three station segments come together. That would also get rid of a confusing asymmetry: to transfer from IND to IRT, you get off at Chambers, but then on your return trip, if you get off the IRT at Chambers, you’re one stop away from where you need to be.
[…] Another day, another new station name :: Second Ave. SagasThe wall mosaic tiles were changed to “Fulton St.” a while ago, and it is a very smart change. It follows the precedent at Broadway Junction, which used to … That’s a pretty major name change (but very logical). Jay Street is really getting an add-on to its name, but most likely still be referred to as Jay St. […]
the change from broadway/nassau is to satisfy elitest who move here to be a part of the bloomberg perfect utopia. if broadway and nassau train station confused people. too bad, you should of gotten used to it. you people who are not born and raised here should conform to the city, not have the city conform to you. there is no excuse for the change other than what i have mentioned. you can try to make sense of it any way you people choose. but im 44, and that name has been there since i can remember. so there is only one reason for the change. too many white elitest moving to the city, and are getting confused.
um, u mad?