Court Square–23rd Street station
The Court Square–23rd Street station is a New York City Subway station complex on the IND Crosstown Line, the IRT Flushing Line and the IND Queens Boulevard Line. The complex is located in the vicinity of One Court Square in Hunters Point and Long Island City, Queens. It is served by the 7, E, and G trains at all times ; the F train on weekdays; and the <7> express train in the peak direction, and the <F> train in the reverse peak direction, during rush hours.
The complex comprises three originally separate stations, formerly known as the 23rd Street–Ely Avenue station, Long Island City–Court Square station, and 45th Road–Court House Square station. The Flushing Line station was the first to open, in 1916. The Crosstown Line station opened in 1933, followed by the Queens Boulevard Line station in 1939.
Two passageways were built to connect the three stations. The first was built in 1990, following the opening of the Citigroup office tower at One Court Square. In December 2001, this passageway came into greater use when G trains started to terminate at Court Square. A second passageway was completed between the Crosstown and Flushing Line stations in 2011. The Flushing and Crosstown Line stations were renamed "Court Square"; these stations became ADA-accessible in 2011 and 2023, respectively. The Queens Boulevard Line station, which is not fully ADA-compliant, was renamed "Court Square–23rd Street".
History
IRT Flushing Line station
In 1913, the New York City Public Service Commission formalized the Dual Contracts, specifying new lines or expansions to be built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. As part of the Dual Contracts, the IRT was to complete and open the Steinway Tunnel as part of the new Flushing subway line. The tunnel, running under the East River with trolley loops on both the Manhattan and Queens sides, had sat unused since 1907, when test runs had been performed in the then-nearly-complete tunnel. The route was to go from Times Square through the tunnel over to Long Island City and from there continue toward Flushing.The first part of the future IRT Flushing Line, from Grand Central–42nd Street in Manhattan to Vernon–Jackson Avenues in Long Island City, opened in 1915 and was extended to Hunters Point Avenue in February 1916. The IRT's 45th Road–Court House Square station opened on November 5, 1916, as part of a two-stop extension of the line from Hunters Point Avenue to Queensboro Plaza.
The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. The IRT routes were given numbered designations in 1948 with the introduction of "R-type" rolling stock, which contained rollsigns with numbered designations for each service. The route from Times Square to Flushing became known as the 7. In 1949, the New York City Board of Transportation announced that the Flushing Line platforms would be lengthened to 11 IRT car lengths; the platforms were only able to fit nine 51-foot-long IRT cars beforehand. The platforms at the station were extended in 1955–1956 to accommodate 11-car trains. However, nine-car trains continued to run on the 7 route until 1962, when they were extended to ten cars. In 2005, the station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
IND stations
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the city-owned Independent Subway System constructed the first sections of the Crosstown and Queens Boulevard Lines. The Crosstown Line station at Court Square was the first Queens station on either line to be built; its structure was completed in July 1930, and the tilework and equipment were installed afterward. On August 19, 1933, the IND opened the Court Square station as part of the first leg of the IND Crosstown Line. The IND Queens Boulevard Line between Manhattan and Roosevelt Avenue opened that same day, with trains operating between Queens Plaza and Nassau Avenue in Brooklyn.The Queens Boulevard Line station, provisionally called "21st Street/Van Alst Avenue," was constructed between 1931 and 1933 along with the original section of the line east to Roosevelt Avenue. Although the station had been completed, it was not opened alongside the rest of the line due to lack of demand perceived by the city Board of Transportation, which called the station a "dead" station. This was in spite of protests from local civic and industry leaders, due to the numerous factories in the surrounding area. By December 1933, the station was referred to as "Ely Avenue", likely to avoid confusion with the nearby station on the Crosstown Line. In September 1936, it was decided to complete the station as an infill station due to expanding commercial and industrial operations in the area, with tilework, staircases, and other equipment installed. The station was finished by 1938, but its opening was delayed once again due to alleged lack of demand, with calls to open the station to serve the Long Island City Courthouse, St. John's Hospital, and the newly opened Queensbridge Houses.
The Queens Boulevard Line station finally opened as 23rd Street–Ely Avenue on August 28, 1939, six years after the first section of the Queens Boulevard Line and the opening of Court Square station on the Crosstown line. Ely Avenue was the former name of 23rd Street until many named streets in the borough were given numbers by the Queens Topographical Bureau in 1915. Similarly, Van Alst Avenue is now 21st Street, while the former Nott Avenue is the present-day 44th Drive.
Connections and renovations
In 1984, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority planned to construct a transfer passageway between the Queens Boulevard and Crosstown Line stations as part of a planned connector between the Queens Boulevard Line and the IND 63rd Street Line. Around 1986, Citigroup agreed to fund the passageway, at a cost of $8.5 million, as part of a zoning requirement for the construction of the adjacent One Court Square tower, which was being built to allow Citicorp to split its operations among several different buildings. Two of these buildings, Citigroup Center and 399 Park Avenue, were located near the Lexington Avenue–53rd Street station, the next stop southbound on the Queens Boulevard Line. However, that stop was located in Manhattan, across the East River from Queens. The company selected the Court Square site due to its proximity to the Queens Boulevard subway.The building opened in 1989, with the passageway completed later on. In 2000, the MTA began designing a second in-system passageway between the Flushing and Crosstown Line stations. On December 16, 2001, the 63rd Street Line connector was opened and service on the Queens Boulevard Line was increased, requiring G trains to terminate at Court Square on weekdays. To compensate Crosstown riders going into Queens, a free out-of-system transfer to the Flushing Line station was created. In addition, moving walkways in the corridor between the Crosstown and Queens Boulevard Line platforms were installed in December 2001. The moving walkway was subsequently found to have limited benefits: it saved commuters an average of 9 seconds; was often out of service; and could only operate in one direction toward the Queens Boulevard Line platforms.
In October 2005, Citigroup announced they would be funding the passageway between the Flushing and Crosstown line stations, as a zoning requirement for the construction of the Court Square Two building. On March 17, 2011, the Queens Boulevard station was renamed to "Court Square–23rd Street". On June 3, 2011, the $47 million ADA-accessible connection between the Crosstown Line and Flushing Line stations was opened and the two stations were renamed "Court Square". Most of the project was funded by Citigroup, but $13.9 million was covered by the MTA. The Flushing Line station was closed from January 21 to April 2, 2012, to complete further renovations, including platform upgrades and alterations to the station's mezzanine to make the station fully ADA-compliant.
ADA accessibility for the Crosstown Line platform was funded as part of the 2015–2019 Capital Program. The elevator project was originally expected to begin in 2018. However, after the 14th Street Tunnel shutdown was announced in 2016, the project was placed on hold in favor of capacity improvements to accommodate displaced riders on the 14th Street Tunnel, used by riders of the. Two staircases between the IND Crosstown Line platform and the mezzanine were widened and two new staircases added, and the moving walkways were removed, providing additional capacity. In December 2021, the MTA awarded a contract for the installation of elevators at eight stations, including the Crosstown Line platform at the Court Square station, replacing one of the stairways which had been added in 2018. The project was scheduled to be completed in March 2023, but completion was pushed back to mid-July of that year.
In December 2019, the MTA announced that the Queens Boulevard Line platforms would become ADA-accessible as part of the agency's 2020–2024 Capital Program. With the construction of the Skyline Tower above the station in the late 2010s, its developer spent $17 million to construct a new entrance to the Queens Boulevard Line's westbound platform, which opened in March 2021. A future developer will construct an elevator from the westbound Queens Boulevard Line platform to the mezzanine. The MTA began receiving bids for the construction of a ramp to the eastbound platform in May 2023, and the contract was awarded that December. In April 2025, the Court Square–23rd Street station became one of the first New York City Subway stations to have all their MetroCard vending machines removed, amid the replacement of the MetroCard with the OMNY fare payment system.