abstract
| - 50th Street is a subway station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line and IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, it is served at various times by the A, C, and E trains. This station is a bi-level station. The upper level, a local station, is fed by Eighth Avenue traffic from Central Park West—usually the C, except when it is replaced by the A during late nights. It has two side platforms and four tracks, the center two of which carry Eighth Avenue express service (A ). Fare control is at platform level. The lower level is fed by traffic from the Queens Boulevard Line, currently the E train at all times. It has two side platforms and two tracks, separated by a curtain platform. In the southbound direction, lower level trains may access either the Eighth Avenue local tracks (as the E does) or express tracks; until recently, they also had the option of running to the abandoned lower level of 42nd Street. The two levels are offset, with the upper level running from 50th to 52nd Streets and the lower from 49th to 51st. Neither level has crossover or crossunder between directions, although level-to-level transfer in the same direction is possible. The southbound side of 50th Street has an expanded mezzanine area, with exits to West 49th and West 50th Streets; it also has two ADA-compliant elevators (one from the street to the mezzanine, the other from the mezzanine to the upper- and lower-level platforms). This mezzanine was reconstructed during the construction of the Worldwide Plaza Complex. An untitled etched-granite piece of artwork by Matt Mulligan was installed on the southbound upper level platform in 1989 and features neighborhood life. Renovation is planned for the current 2005-2009 MTA Capital Program and will reopen many closed stairways to the lower level. The southbound side has an escalator to the lower level and exits into a building façade. In contrast to the southbound side, the northbound platforms lack elevators and are not ADA-accessible. Closed exits are at 51st and 52nd Streets.
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