Chambers Street – World Trade Center / Park Place (New York City Subway)

Chambers Street – World Trade Center / Park Place
New York City Subway rapid transit station complex
Station statistics
Address	Church Street between Chambers Street & Vesey Street New York, NY 10007
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Financial District, Tribeca, World Trade Center
Coordinates
Division	A (IRT), B (IND)
Line	IND Eighth Avenue Line       IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line
Services	2  (all times)       3  (all except late nights)       A  (all times)       C  (all except late nights)       E  (all times)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: M5, M9, M20, M22, X1, X3, X4, X8, X10, X11, X12, X15, X17A, X17, X19, X27, X28 MTA Bus: BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, BxM18, QM7, QM8, QM11, QM25 NJT Bus: 120 PATH: NWK–WTC, HOB–WTC (at World Trade Center)
Structure	Underground
Levels	2
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	16,910,084 (station complex)  5.1%
Rank	15
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times

Chambers Street – World Trade Center / Park Place is a station complex on the IND Eighth Avenue Line and IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located on Church Street between Chambers and Vesey Streets in Lower Manhattan, it is served by the:

• 2, A, and E trains at all times
• 3 and C trains at all times except late nights

IND Eighth Avenue Line platforms

Chambers Street – World Trade Center
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Express platform (Chambers Street)
Station statistics
Address	Church Street between Chambers Street & Vesey Street New York, NY 10007
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Financial District
Division	B (IND)
Line	IND Eighth Avenue Line
Services	A  (all times)       C  (all except late nights)       E  (all times)
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	September 10, 1932 (1932-09-10)
Accessible	(Local platform only; elevator temporarily out of service due to construction)
Former/other names	Chambers Street – Hudson Terminal
Station succession
Next north	Canal Street: A  C  E
Next south	Fulton Street: A  C  (Terminal): E
Notes	The MTA defines this platform set as two separate stations.
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times

Chambers Street – World Trade Center on the IND Eighth Avenue Line is an express station with four tracks and two island platforms, but in an unusual layout: the station has separate island platforms for express and local trains. Both island platforms can accommodate 600-foot (180 m) trains. There is a passenger connection between the two platforms at mezzanine level. This passageway also includes the in-system transfer to the IRT station. Both platforms opened just after midnight on September 10, 1932, as was the rest of the IND Eighth Avenue Line north to Inwood – 207th Street.

A late-1990s renovation saw prefabricated tile panels installed on the trackside wall of the express platform, with a tile band of Concord Violet bordered in black and "CHAMBERS" in white Copperplate lettering on black tiles on each panel, and on the local platform's walls the new tiles were installed in 3-foot by 2-foot sections with a slightly different shade of dark blue violet bordered in black; no station name captions were placed. The trim lines in the entryways and passages use the Concord Violet color rather than the blue violet.

Chambers Street

Chambers Street, the express platform, is a through station. Just north of Chambers Street station is a third track between the uptown and downtown express tracks, with connecting switches at both ends, which was used to turn trains when Chambers Street was used as a terminal, before the Broadway – Nassau Street (now Fulton Street) station opened on February 11, 1933. It is served by the A and C trains. Exits/entrances through turnstiles to Church Street are located in the mezzanine of this station, along with a few High Entrance-Exit Turnstiles (HEETs). This platform is not wheelchair-accessible.

World Trade Center

An E train of R160 cars awaiting departure at local platform (World Trade Center).

World Trade Center, the local platform, forms the terminus of the local service and is offset to the south of the express platform, at the northern edge of the World Trade Center site. It is served by the E train. Southbound local trains reach the platform by ramping underneath the express tracks south of Canal Street station. The northern end of the World Trade Center station has a signal tower and a diamond crossover switch that are roughly at the middle of the through-platform. The local tracks end at bumper blocks at the south end of the platform. The station was formerly named Hudson Terminal. Since 1973, this station has been named after the two World Trade Centers that have occupied the area.

At the extreme southern end of the station is the wheelchair accessible exit via the PATH station, along with a few High Entrance-Exit Turnstiles (HEETs), but only this platform is ADA-accessible. The doors and ramp, as well as the structure from the first World Trade Center leading into the station, survived the September 11, 2001 attacks. The station itself was not damaged, but was covered by dust. The elevator to the local platform is out of service due to long-term construction on the World Trade Center, and so World Trade Center is not shown as an ADA-accessible station on New York City Subway maps. A free passageway at the southern end was planned as part of the Fulton Center project, which would have allowed for a free transfer between the local platform and the southbound Cortlandt Street (N R trains) station. However, a non-free transfer is to be made using the WTC Transportation Hub when the latter opens anyway, so the free transfer was then canceled.

Wall tiles reading "H AND M" remained on the walls of the World Trade Center station as late as December 1974, a year after the first World Trade Center was completed. The tiles were initially painted over, and have since been covered over during the station's renovation.

Presentation on maps

The station has been portrayed in a variety of ways on New York City Subway maps since 1932. Originally, it was shown as a single station called Chambers Street – Hudson Terminal. Starting in about 1948, two stations were shown, Chambers Street – Hudson Terminal for the express trains continuing to Brooklyn, and Hudson Terminal for the local trains terminating at the station. A 1959 map showed two stations enclosed in a box, but a single label. The 1964 and 1966 maps were similar.

On the 1972 map, it once again appeared to be a single station, with the label showing Chambers Street, Hudson Terminal, World Trade Center, and PATH, although the Hudson Terminal office building complex had already been demolished by this time.

On the current map published by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, it is shown as two separate stations with a free transfer — Chambers Street (served by A and C trains) and World Trade Center (served by E trains).

January 23, 2005 fire

Around 2:00 p.m. on January 23, 2005, a fire destroyed the interlocking plant at Chambers Street. This caused restriction of A service and complete suspension of C service. Specifically, about one-third of the normal number of A trains ran. Some newspaper articles have blamed the fire on a homeless person trying to keep warm, but that was not confirmed.

The C in Brooklyn (east of Jay Street) was replaced by an extension of V service on weekdays. The upper level platforms of the Eighth Avenue Line at 50th Street are only served by the C at all times except late nights, when the A train replaces it, and were thus closed; the only uptown service to 50th Street was via the Queens Boulevard Line's connection (E service) into the lower level of the station. Additionally, the A, which normally uses the express tracks on the Eighth Avenue Line south of 168th Street (the C's northern terminus), switched to local at 145th Street, serving the two local stations that are only served by the C during the day (155th Street and 163rd Street – Amsterdam Avenue). The A also used the local tracks in Brooklyn, serving all stations. Direct rush-hour A trips to Rockaway Park – Beach 116th Street were suspended in favor of the always-running Rockaway Park Shuttle.

Before the fire, on weekday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight, the C was the only service on the local tracks north of 59th Street; the D was switched to local to cover this. The A was switched to local service on weekends to compensate for the resulting lack of local service. During rush hour, extra B trains were added, starting by January 28.

Until the morning of January 28, the MTA rerouted the A to the connected IND Sixth Avenue Line, Rutgers Street Tunnel, and IND Culver Line (the route used by regular F service) from West Fourth Street to Jay Street between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., in order to perform critical repairs. The last suspended service, rush-hour trips to Beach 116th Street, was restored on February 14, 2005; until then, those trips required a transfer to the Rockaway Park Shuttle.

Initial estimates gave a time of three to five years to restore full service, due to the rarity of the destroyed equipment. That was later cut back to six to nine months to bring back normal operations. However, C service and 70% of A service was restored at 5 a.m. on February 2, 2005, only ten days after the fire. On April 21, full service was restored. However, effects of the fire continued into 2006 because the equipment had not been replaced.

IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line platform

For the BMT station in Brooklyn, see Park Place (BMT Franklin Avenue Line).

Park Place
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Station statistics
Address	Park Place & Broadway New York, NY 10007
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Financial District
Division	A (IRT)
Line	IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line
Services	2  (all times)       3  (all except late nights)
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Other information
Opened	August 1, 1918 (1918-08-01)
Station succession
Next north	Chambers Street: 2  3
Next south	Fulton Street: 2  3
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times

Park Place on the Brooklyn branch of the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line is located on Park Place between Broadway and Church Street. This underground station is relatively deep because the line underpins the BMT Broadway Line and IRT Lexington Avenue Line, which were already built when it opened on August 1, 1918. It has two tracks and a single island platform with a line of blue i-beam columns with alternating ones having the standard black name plate in white lettering. Both track walls have a mostly gold trim line along with the "P" tablets at regular intervals.

The station has a mezzanine at each end. Towards the western end of the platform, two long staircases lead up to an intermediate landing where another, shorter staircase leads up to the main IND mezzanine near the full Oculus mosaic. From here, there is a bank of turnstiles leading to the street stair that goes to the northwest corner of Park Place and Church Street. A staircase in this mezzanine leads down to the very southern end of the IND express platform. To reach the local platform, passengers must walk down the express platform to the last staircase, go up to a different part of the mezzanine, crossover, and then go down a staircase the northern end of the local platform. This complex transfer is to allow a continued underground mezzanine outside of fare control from the southern end at the World Trade Center site (originally an entrance to the World Trade Center concourse and then the temporary PATH station from 2003 to 2009) to the most northern street stairs at Chambers and Church Street, which is just one block east of the Chambers Street station of the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. The total length of the mezzanine is seven blocks.

The IRT platform has its own entrance/exit at its extreme eastern (railroad south) end. Here, a staircase and two escalators, none of which are together, lead up to a mezzanine just beneath the street. The staircase splits into two separate staircases at an initial landing and each of those have another intermediate landing. On this mezzanine, there are turnstiles, both regular and HEET (from when the mezzanine had a part-time token booth and the regular turnstiles could not be left unstaffed). A single street stair leads out to the northwest corner of Broadway and Park Place. The signage for this entrance is the only one in the complex that says "Park Place" with bullets only for the 2 and 3 trains. A short staircase in the mezzanine once led to an entrance to the lobby of the Woolworth Building. It has been closed since the September 11 attacks.

North of the station, the tracks of this station become the express tracks of the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. The station is very close to Chambers Street which is north of the station.

• 

  Track wall mosaic

• 

  Entrance at Park Place & Broadway

Station layout

G	Street Level	Exit/ Entrance
B1	Mezzanine	Fare control, station agent (Elevator via PATH station ramp; MTA elevator out of service)
B2	Northbound local	← toward Jamaica Center – Parsons/Archer (Canal Street)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left or right
	Northbound local	← toward Jamaica Center – Parsons/Archer (Canal Street)
	Northbound express	← toward Inwood – 207th Street (Canal Street) ← toward 168th Street (Canal Street)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left
	Southbound express	→ toward Lefferts Boulevard, Far Rockaway – Mott Avenue, or Rockaway Park – Beach 116th Street (Fulton Street) → → toward Euclid Avenue (Fulton Street) →
B3	Northbound	← toward Wakefield – 241st Street (Chambers Street) ← toward Harlem – 148th Street (Chambers Street)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left
	Southbound	→ toward Flatbush Avenue – Brooklyn College (Fulton Street) → → toward New Lots Avenue (Fulton Street) →

Oculus

There are over 300 mosaics dispersed throughout the station, which are part of the 1998 installation Oculus created by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel. These eyes were modeled on photographs of the eyes of hundreds of New Yorkers.

According to Jones and Ginzel,

Oculus is a constellation of stone and glass mosaics in the underground labyrinth of interconnected subway stations of lower Manhattan. Over three hundred mosaic eyes, drawn from a photographic study of more than twelve hundred young New Yorkers, are set into the white tile walls of the World Trade Center/Park Place/Chamber Street Stations. The work’s centerpiece is a large exquisitely detailed, elliptical glass and stone mosaic floor (38 ft 8 in x 20’8”) at the heart of the Park Place Station. The continents of the earth, interwoven with the City of New York amidst an ultramarine pool, surround a large eye in the middle of the mosaic. The mosaic is at once a vision of the world, a reflecting pool of water and a representation New York City in its proper geographical orientation.

The eyes of "Oculus"

The work’s detailed renderings of the eye – the most telling, fragile and vulnerable human feature – offer a profound sense of intimacy within a public place. Together, the images create a sense of unity and flow: animating, orienting and humanizing the station. Oculus invites a dialogue between the site and those who move through it.

The former World Trade Center Station is situated at the northeast corner of the site. The station was flooded and closed to the public following the September 11, 2001 attack. The site was damaged but not destroyed, and it reopened eight months later with the work mostly intact. Oculus was recognized as “an unexpected monument” by the Wall Street Journal on September 11, 2003.

Oculus was realized in collaboration with the Roman mosaicist, Rinaldo Piras, Sectile.

Nearby points of interest

• Brookfield Place
• Battery Park City
• Century 21
• Church Street Post Office
• Trinity Church
• World Trade Center buildings (see also World Trade Center site)

External links

• nycsubway.org—IRT West Side Line: Park Place
• nycsubway.org—IND 8th Avenue: Chambers Street/World Trade Center
• nycsubway.org—New York City Subway Historical Maps:
• nycsubway.org—Oculus Artwork by Jones and Ginzel (1998)
• Station Reporter—World Trade Center Complex
• The Subway Nut—Chambers Street – Park Place – World Trade Center (A, C, E)
• The Subway Nut—Park Place (2, 3)
• A/C/V service updates after the fire (Internet Archive)
• MTA's Arts For Transit—Chambers Street/Park Place
• Chambers Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Warren Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Murray Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Park Place and Church Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Barclay Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Vesey Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Park Place and Broadway entrance from Google Maps Street View