By Joseph Morales

The Bowling Green station on the 4,5 lines in the Financial District is one of New York City’s most historic subway stations, having been in operation for over 115 years. Since opening in 1905, the station has provided access to many of New York’s most famous attractions and key destinations. These include major office buildings, Battery Park, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Staten Island Ferry, the ferries to Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty. The station is mainly known by New Yorkers for its nontraditional red walls on the inside as well as its two unique entrances. One of these entrances is the station headhouse or control house, which has been used since the station’s opening in 1905 and is considered a designated NYC landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The other is an escalator surrounded by a glass canopy that, when riding, feels like you’re getting a grand entrance into the neighborhood, with an immersive view of the MTA headquarters, 2 Broadway, greeting you as you come above ground. The canopy opened in the station in 2007, 102 years after its opening.

By Joseph Morales

   The L train is a subway route that runs from the 8 Av station in Manhattan out to Canarsie-Rockaway Pkwy in Canarsie, Brooklyn. The line passes through many densely populated neighborhoods throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn that truly reflect the hustle and bustle as well as the diversity the city is known for, such as the West Village, Williamsburg, and Bushwick. More than 300,000 riders ride the L train daily as of April 2016, according to the Regional Plan Association. While those are well before pre-pandemic levels, it is essential to note that subway ridership did increase to 65% of pre-pandemic levels from 56% in 2022, according to statistics from the NYC Comptroller’s office. This indicates that subway ridership citywide is starting to recover.

By Joseph Morales

The G Train(Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown Line) is unique because it is the only subway line outside of shuttles that does not enter Manhattan. Nevertheless, it serves some of the busiest and fastest growing neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, connecting Long Island City to Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope and more. Long perceived as a low ridership route with trains having only 5 cars versus the typical 8-10, ridership has increased as neighborhoods have grown and residents and jobs came with it. According to census data obtained by Spectrum News 1, state assembly districts the G passes through  have seen an increase in population between 3.7 and 22.3% between 2011 and 2021. The population of Williamsburg/Greenpoint which is along along the G train grew by 26% between 2010 and 2020. Also, in the five years prior to the pandemic G train ridership rose 15%.  Thus, the need for travel is increasing along the line and the G train will continue to be an important connector between some of the most rapidly growing areas of the city.

By Joseph Morales

The Nostrand Avenue Station on the Fulton Line(A,C trains) is located under Fulton St between Nostrand and Bedford Avenues in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The area immediately surrounding the station is known for being a busy commercial strip with a combination of high-density residential buildings and retail stores. The station also provides transfer between local and express trains along the Fulton Line as well as the Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan, in addition to transfers to the B25 and B26 buses along with the B44-LCL/SBS. The station is also a short walk away from the Nostrand Ave LIRR station.

                 Though the station and surrounding community have always been extremely busy, two spacious entrances on Bedford Ave/Fulton St had been closed and abandoned between 1991 and 2021 after the NYPD Transit Bureau determined that they could not provide enough police in the entrances in order to protect straphangers when subway crime was considered out of control in New York City.