Broadway Station as seen a day prior to its opening. (Photo: QueensPost)
Jan. 24, 2019 By Meghan Sackman
Astoria’s Broadway station officially reopened today in what came as a surprise to many after nearly seven months of renovation work.
The station, according to MTA New York City Transit, reopened just before midday today, weeks earlier than its anticipated opening in February.
The station has been closed for work since July, and now features a repaired mezzanine and refurbished stairways, brand new countdown clocks, and customer information screens.
The station’s platform edges were also replaced, with repairs made to the platform’s structural steel and concrete, NYCT said, among other upgrades.
Straphangers have taken to posting videos of the renovated station, which had not seen extensive repairs since 1917, on social media.
The videos highlight the new colorful mural adorning much of the station’s walls, and also showcase the upgraded turnstiles and brighter look and feel of the station.
The Broadway station closed at the same time as the 39 Avenue station for renovation and repair work, and both were expected to open at the same time next month.
While the latter station’s opening is imminent, an exact date has not been provided, although NYCT has recently said that the station is expected to open in February.
The end of repair work at the Broadway station, with the 39 Avenue station soon to open, signals the next phase of work along the N/W line—the Astoria Boulevard station.
The MTA said in April that the Astoria Boulevard station would close for nine months after the Broadway and 39 Ave stations return to service. It is unclear when exactly the full closure will happen.
Work on the station, however, has been ongoing since last June, and includes bringing four elevators to the site.
Much of the work and timeline for the project centers on the elevators, which require the entire mezzanine to be demolished and replaced, and columns and foundation to be reinforced.
The opening of the Broadway station also follows renovations completed at the 30th and 36th Avenue stations in 2018, and are all part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Enhanced Station Initiative launched in 2016 to fix dozens of stations citywide.
Featured Events
23 Comments
Yeah you know I’m happy the stationed opened so I can get to my favorite restaurant, La Gata Golosa. I love their hamburgers.
What about that yellow cat? He’s friendly
These stations do nothing for “Quality of Life” for disabled . Amazing how businesses and street corners had to conform to handicapped access yet government business can ignore the laws they make. Obviously disabled and seniors aren’t considered or wanted here.
Question: How are private-sector developers able to build 40+ story luxury towers in LIC within 3 months but it takes the MTA 6 months per station for a paint job and a new set of stairs? ‘Splain it to me please.
That’s an amazing tale of fiction you’ve got going on there. But one of those 40+ cookie cutter towers took way way longer than 3 months to go up, more like over a year and the MTA did more than just paint the thing. They installed 9 new stairways, rebuilt the whole station basically, installed new turnstiles, doorways, sitting areas, the platforms, platform roofs, structural concrete and steel stuff… etc. So basically there was your question and then reality and this was explained.
Because pseudo-intellectual New Yorkers have been throwing their votes to Cuomo for the past 8 years and made the subway system what it is now under his watch.
3 months!? More like 3 years!
Anyway, the subway problems originated with Guiliani and Pataki diverting funds in the 90s, and every politician since (Cuomo, Silver, etc) using the MTA as a piggybank and simultaneously, scapegoat. They constantly try to dazzle the public with shiny new stations without fixing the core needs of the system (like, making trains run)!
It sure would be nice if they renovated all of the #7 line stations like this!
I agree. My god, the stations from 74 street up to Flushing Main Street are god awful and in desperate need of repair.
Note that the new staircases from mezzanine in these renovations are only 2 people wide insted of three people wide. This is going to cause a problem for people trying to get strollers up and down these stairs or parents holding onto small childrens’ hands. Also no noise abatement improvemens. The new stations will probably increase train noise out on the street. One furthr thing – no improvement in rainwater runoff on the street level. More frozen patches of water at sidewalk level in freezing weather.
What’s with the shortened emergency exit door / gate? Bums are just going to reach over and open the door and steal a free ride….
Any renovation without an elevator is truly a big miss. That would have been a true state of the art ( twenty-first century) renovation. Many people struggle and this seems to be cosmetic not substantial.
Why nobody thought of installing a lift for handicapped people on any renovated station in Astoria?
Elevators aren’t some magical structure you can just attach. You would need a minimum of 3, 1 to the turn-style and 1 for each train direction. Where would you find the space for the elevator housing and support structures?
Elevators are going in at Astoria Blvd. While I would have rather seen them at each of the 31st Street stations, it’s better than nothing. I think that there should be a way to engineer the elevators at 30th Ave, Broadway, etc. It just takes a lot more money, and most of these renovations are primarily cosmetic. (The metro card machines and turnstiles are all going to have to be replaced in a few years anyway when the system changes). The original design of the stations were inefficient and potentially dangerous with the lack of sufficient exits. So, the cosmetics and basic changes needed to be done, but Astorians need to continue to lobby for better access too.
Very good job
They need to make standard the anti fare beater turnstiles at ALL stations
Mason
At my home station in Forest Hills, there are anti-fare beater turnstiles at one end of the station (they eliminated that booth, but at the other end there’s a booth) and one high school kid will use his/her metrocard (which they don’t pay for) and then open the emergency door and let 20 of their nearest and dearest in the station. I’m glad my $121 is paying for these roaches to not respect the law.
This station, like the 36 Ave. station, gets a cosmetic makeover.
These stations, as many others, need escalators or elevators.
I don’t know what the MTA was thinking.
Just a lot of wasteful spending.
All things come to change by nature or the hand of man. I personally will always with fondness remember the wooden platforms and the ’40 – ’50’s train cars!
They did a really good job. They were always working on it.. I used to pass by at 6am most mornings and even on Sunday early morning they were there working on it. I spoke with a worker over the weekend and he said the plan was to open on Monday but it might take a few days longer. He said they got a bonus if they finished early so that is why they got it done before February. I happen to come upon it today as they opened it and went upstairs. It looks good… very spacious. Completely different looking station. They put a new stairwell on the Investors Bank side which is nice. There is also another huge long new stairwell as you head for Mcdonalds… that looks like an exit only stairwell. Wonder how they will monitor that. Anyway, Great job on the Broadway Station MTA!
Yea, they were working on the weekends. That’s because they get double-time for weekend work. Paying guys with a 9th grade education $125 dollars an hour to sit around doing the least amount of work possible is why the whole project is costing over $100 million dollars for largely cosmetic upgrades. 100 mil they you don’t even get new platform floors! Do you make $1,000 a day on the weekends with full benefits and a pension, Thomas?
Yawn.