Woodhaven Boulevard (IND Queens Boulevard Line)

Woodhaven Boulevard
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Forest Hills- and Jamaica-bound platform
Station statistics
Address	Woodhaven Boulevard & Queens Boulevard Queens, NY 11373
Borough	Queens
Locale	Elmhurst
Coordinates	40°44′00″N 73°52′13″W / 40.73347°N 73.870397°W / 40.73347; -73.870397Coordinates: 40°44′00″N 73°52′13″W / 40.73347°N 73.870397°W / 40.73347; -73.870397
Division	B (IND)
Line	IND Queens Boulevard Line
Services	E  (late nights)       M  (weekdays until 11 p.m.)       R  (all hours except late nights)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: Q59, Q88 MTA Bus: Q11, Q21, Q29, Q38, Q52, Q53, Q60, QM10, QM11
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	December 31, 1936 (1936-12-31)
Wireless service	[1][2]
Former/other names	Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza Woodhaven Boulevard–Queens Mall
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	7,120,037[3]  0.1%
Rank	60 out of 422
Station succession
Next north	63rd Drive–Rego Park: E  M  R
Next south	Grand Avenue–Newtown: E  M  R
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only Stops weekdays only
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York Show map of the US

Woodhaven Boulevard is a local station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway, consisting of four tracks. Located in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, it is served by the R train at all times except nights, when the E train takes over service. The M train provides additional service here on weekdays except nights. The station serves the adjacent Queens Center Mall, as well as numerous bus lines.

History

Track layout
Legend
to 63 Dr to Grand Av

The Queens Boulevard Line was one of the first lines built by the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND),^[4][5][6] and stretches between the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan and 179th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.^[4][6][7] The Queens Boulevard Line was in part financed by a Public Works Administration (PWA) loan and grant of $25,000,000.^[8]

During the station's construction, the main road of Queens Boulevard was depressed into underpasses at the intersections with Woodhaven Boulevard and Horace Harding Boulevard (also known as Nassau Boulevard). The easternmost underpass now carries Queens Boulevard below the Long Island Expressway (LIE), which replaced Horace Harding Boulevard.^[9] On December 31, 1936, the IND Queens Boulevard Line was extended by eight stops, and 3.5 miles (5.6 km), from its previous terminus at Roosevelt Avenue to Union Turnpike, and the Woodhaven Boulevard station opened as part of this extension.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15]}

The station was originally named "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza", after Slattery Plaza, the area where four main Queens thoroughfares (Eliot Avenue and Horace Harding, Woodhaven, and Queens Boulevards) intersected. The plaza, which no longer exists, featured several "mom-and-pop" small businesses.^[16] The plaza and subway station were named after Colonel John R. Slattery, former Transportation Board chief engineer who died in 1932 while supervising the construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line.^[16] The construction of the LIE along the Horace Harding corridor in the 1950s caused Slattery Plaza to be demolished,^{[13][17][18][19]} although the name tablets retained the original name even after the plaza's demolition.^{[16][17][18][19]}

Queens Center Mall first opened in 1973,^[20] but the name convention on subway maps was not in use until the mid-to-late 1980s.^{[lower-alpha 1]} The station became dilapidated by the 1980s due to lack of maintenance over the years, and in 1981, the MTA listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.^[21] The station was also heavily used, serving 15,000 passengers per weekday by 1993.^[22] In 1993, the Woodhaven Boulevard station began a three-year renovation project as part of a general refurbishment of seventy New York City Subway stations. The refurbishment added a new station agent booth, as well as replaced platform tiles, staircase components, and lighting; added new signs and safety treads on the platform edges; and restored the station's restrooms.^[22][23] After the renovation, the station retained the now out-of-date "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza" name tablets.^{[16][17][18][19]}

Station layout

G	Street Level	Exit/Entrance
M	Mezzanine	Fare control, station agent, MetroCard vending machines
P Platform level	Side platform, doors will open on the right
	Southbound local	← toward Metropolitan Avenue weekdays (Grand Avenue–Newtown) ← toward Bay Ridge–95th Street (Grand Avenue–Newtown) ← toward World Trade Center late nights (Grand Avenue–Newtown)
	Southbound express	← do not stop here
	Northbound express	→ do not stop here →
	Northbound local	→ ( weekdays) toward Forest Hills–71st Avenue (63rd Drive–Rego Park) → → toward Jamaica Center late nights (63rd Drive–Rego Park) →
	Side platform, doors will open on the right

Built as a local station, the station was constructed with bellmouth provisions to allow conversion into an express station. A close observation of both ends of this station reveals that the tunnel wall extends outward to allow space for the two side platforms to be replaced with island platforms, with the local tracks taking the side platforms' place.^[24] The station would have accommodated a major system expansion, with additional service coming from the Roosevelt Avenue Terminal station and the former LIRR Rockaway Line.^[25][26] Requests to convert the station were also put forward by the local community shortly after the station opened, due to heavy bus traffic feeding into the station and overcrowding at the Roosevelt Avenue express stop.^[27][28]

The name tablets on this station still retain the original name of Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza.^{[16][17][18][19]} The tilework in this station consists of blue bands with a black border,^[29] similar to the tilework found at the Elmhurst Avenue stop, two stations west.^[30]

One of the "orphaned" station entrances, at the southeast corner of Woodhaven Boulevard and Queens Boulevard.

The station's full-length mezzanine allows crossover from any of the station's four staircases from each platform, with a total of eight staircases from the mezzanine to platform level. There is no direct indoor access to the Queens Center Mall's entrance at the northwest corner of Queens Boulevard and 59th Avenue from the mezzanine.^[31]

The 1996 artwork here is called In Memory of The Lost Battalion by Pablo Tauler. It uses nine support beams in the station's mezzanine wrapped in different materials, including stainless steel, to honor the soldiers who served in the 77th Infantry Division during World War I.^[32]

Entrances and exits

The full-time side at the west end of the mezzanine has three street stairs. One leads to the northeast corner of Queens Boulevard and 59th Avenue, the closest to the mall. The other two staircases are through a long passageway to both southern corners of Queens Boulevard and Woodhaven Boulevard, acting as a pedestrian underpass outside of fare control.^{[9][31][33][34]} There is an entrance to the southeast corner of Woodhaven and Queens Boulevards that, as a result of the construction of the Long Island Expressway in the mid-1950s, leads only to two entrance ramps to the expressway, with no continuous sidewalk leading to the entrance.^[33][34][35]

The part-time portion at the former Horace Harding Boulevard on the east end has a closed and removed booth and one street stair to the north side of Queens Boulevard at 92nd Street. This entrance abuts two expressway ramps and leads to the former Horace Harding Boulevard, now replaced by the LIE exit ramp.^{[31][33][34][35]} This exit still has a directional mosaic pointing to it, listing the exit as 60th Avenue and 92nd Street on the north side of Queens Boulevard.^[35] The construction of the Long Island Expressway removed this intersection.^[31][33][34]

Bus service

A Glendale-bound Q29 bus stopping at Hoffman Drive.

Q53 Limited Bus via Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards.

The station and the nearby Queens Center Mall are served by nine local MTA Regional Bus Operations routes and two express bus routes. Three of the four Woodhaven Boulevard bus lines (Q11, Q21, Q52 Limited) terminate at the station, with the Q53 Limited bus continuing westward towards the Woodside - 61st Street Station. Except for the Q88, Rego Park-bound Q59, Jamaica-bound Q60, and Corona-bound Q38, all northbound buses stop at the mall entrance, while all southbound buses as well as the QM10 and QM11 express buses stop at Hoffman Drive adjacent to Hoffman Park. The Q88 terminates at 92nd Street, in between the two halves of the mall.^[31][36]

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Woodhaven Boulevard (IND Queens Boulevard Line).

• nycsubway.org – IND Queens Boulevard Line: Woodhaven Boulevard/Queens Mall
• Station Reporter — R Train
• Station Reporter — M Train
• MTA's Arts For Transit — Woodhaven Boulevard (IND Queens Boulevard Line)
• The Subway Nut — Woodhaven Boulevard Pictures
• Woodhaven Boulevard entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Horace Harding Boulevard (Long Island Expressway) entrance from Google Maps Street View