Kings Highway Subway Station (Culver Line)

Kings Highway is an express station on the IND Culver Line of the New York City Subway, located at Kings Highway and McDonald Avenue in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn. The station is served by the F train at all times and the train during rush hours in the peak direction.

History

As part of Contract 4 of the Dual Contracts, between the city and the BRT, a three-track elevated railway was built above the surface Culver Line from the Fifth Avenue Elevated southeast and south to Coney Island. The Culver Line was operated as a branch of the Fifth Avenue Elevated, with a free transfer at Ninth Avenue to the West End Line into the Fourth Avenue Subway. Kings Highway opened at 3:00 a.m. on March 16, 1919 as the terminal of the first portion of the line which began at Ninth Avenue. Kings Highway was supplanted as the line's terminal as the line was extended to Avenue X at noon on May 10, 1919.

On October 30, 1954, this station began being served by IND D Concourse Express trains operating to Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue as the connection between the IND South Brooklyn Line at Church Avenue and the BMT Culver Line at Ditmas Avenue opened. BMT Culver Line (5) trains were truncated to Ditmas Avenue, the south end of the connection, operating through to Manhattan via the Nassau Street Loop during the day, and terminating at Ninth Avenue at other times. This Culver Shuttle became full-time on May 28, 1959, and was discontinued in 1975.

From June 7, 2016, to May 1, 2017, the southbound platform of this station was closed for renovation with southbound trains stopping at the center track and using the Manhattan-bound platform. The Manhattan-bound platform was closed for a longer period of time, from May 22, 2017 until July 30, 2018 and Manhattan-bound trains stopped at the center track using the Coney Island-bound platform. In 2019, the MTA announced that this station would become ADA-accessible as part of the agency's 2020–2024 Capital Program.

Station layout

The station has three tracks and two island platforms. Each platform contains a green canopy with black roofs that run for the entire length except near the north ends, where a control tower is present on the Coney Island-bound platform.

Trains going to Coney Island (southbound) or Manhattan and Queens (northbound) use the local tracks. The center express track is normally used only during rush hours to short turn trains not going to Stillwell Avenue. There are platform signs informing riders that some rush hour 179th Street-bound trains are available from the center track.

There are no express stations south of this station. Instead, the center track offers the option of switching to either local tracks. Diamond crossover switches exist between the center and southbound tracks at both ends of the station. Switches exist at both ends of the station allowing northbound trains to switch from the express track to the northbound local track. Additional switches exist between Avenue U and Avenue X (one each from the center track to the northbound and southbound tracks), and south of Avenue X merging into the southbound local track and the yard leads towards the Coney Island Yard. The current track configurations allow trains to terminate and reverse at Kings Highway, but do not allow northbound local trains from Coney Island to run express north of Kings Highway without skipping Avenue U; these switches previously existed, but were removed during track rehabilitation projects in the 1990s.

Exits

This station has two entrances with the primary one at the northern end. From each platform, a single staircase goes down to an elevated station-house beneath the tracks. Inside is a token booth and regular turnstile bank. Outside fare control, two staircases go down to either southern corner of McDonald Avenue and Kings Highway.

An un-staffed entrance is at the south end of the station. From each platform, a single staircase goes down to an elevated station-house beneath the tracks. Inside are two HEET turnstiles. Outside of fare control, two staircases go down to either northern corner of McDonald Avenue and Avenue S.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Kings Highway station (IND Culver Line)" and modified on June 2, 2020 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.