Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station
The Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station is a terminal station of the New York City Subway in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn. It is the railroad-south terminus for the D, F, N, and Q trains at all times and for the <F> train during rush hours in the reverse peak direction.
Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue is an elevated station with eight tracks and four island platforms; trains enter from both compass north and south. Opened in 1919–1920, the facility was designed at a time when Coney Island was the primary summer resort area for the New York metropolitan area, with all of the rail lines in southern Brooklyn funneling service to the area. The station has seen many service patterns throughout its history, and was completely renovated from 2001 to 2004.
The station is located at the corner of Stillwell and Surf Avenues in Coney Island, the site of the former West End Terminal. Geographically, the station is the southernmost terminal in the New York City Subway system. In addition, it is one of the largest elevated transportation terminals in the world. Below the tracks, there is a New York City Police Department transit precinct at the station.
History
Origins
Rail transportation to Coney Island had been available since 1864. The Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad was the first steam railroad to Coney Island. It ran from Fifth Avenue and 36th Street in what is now Sunset Park, to its West End Terminal, at the present-day Coney Island Terminal's location, along what is now the right-of-way of the West End Line. The nearby Culver Depot, along the Atlantic Ocean waterfront near the site of the present-day West Eighth Street station, served the Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railway and Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad. Other rail transportation included The Manhattan Beach Railroad; The Sea Beach Railroad; The Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad; a route to Long Island City via the Long Island Rail Road; and the Norton's Point Line trolley to what is now Sea Gate.These railroads were not all connected to each other, resulting in a series of spur lines crossing the island. However, the Brighton, Culver, Sea Beach, and West End railroads were acquired by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company by the late 1890s, and the Dual Contracts, signed in 1913, allowed many more subway lines to be built within New York City, which had been incorporated fifteen years prior.
New West End Terminal
In the late 1910s, a completely reconstructed New West End Terminal station was built on an elevated structure. The new terminal unified the terminals of most of the former steam railroad lines terminating at Coney Island, aside from the Long Island Rail Road-controlled New York and Manhattan Beach Railway. This new terminal could accommodate hundreds of thousands of passengers a day. This project entailed rerouting the Brighton and Culver Lines from a ground-level alignment to an elevated structure with eight tracks and four platforms.The BRT-operated Sea Beach Line, which served the terminal, opened on September 5, 1917, and the BRT West End Line had been similarly inaugurated on December 23, 1918. The terminal officially opened on May 29, 1919, when the new Brighton Line opened. With the opening of the Culver Line on May 1, 1920, the terminal was finally completed.
As a result of the Culver Line extension, the BRT's double fare to Coney Island expired, and was cut from 10 cents to 5 cents, and Coney Island became a more affordable vacation area compared to in previous years. In 1923, these lines came under the control of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, the BRT's successor company. Riders at the new station were promised trains that ran every three minutes during rush hours, but this quickly proved not to be true. In 1923, a reporter for the Brooklyn Standard Union observed that rush hour trains had headways of eight minutes on the Sea Beach Line and fifteen minutes on the West End Line, and that no direct Manhattan service was being run on either the Brighton or Culver Lines during rush hours.
In 1929, the BMT announced a new entrance for the station. This new entrance would have retail space that would be "periodically inspected." In June 1933, a new Brighton–Franklin weekday service was announced. This service would operate express providing a direct route from Franklin Avenue to Coney Island. Culver elevated trains would operate to either Sands Street or Park Row depending on the time of day.
There was a transfer from the Coney Island Terminal to the Norton's Point Trolley to Sea Gate, via an elevated footbridge across Stillwell Avenue to the elevated trolley station. In 1948, the trolley was discontinued and replaced with the B74 Mermaid Avenue Bus, The trolley ramp spanning Stillwell Avenue and West 15th Street was torn down around this time.
Matters became more complicated in 1954, when the Independent Subway System started operating D trains on the Culver Line. At the time, the tracks had lettered names. However, the IND also used lettered designations for its routes. The BMT had used numbered route designations up to this point, so this had not been a problem. However, the D route was now using the Culver Line, which departed from tracks E and F. To avoid confusion, the tracks were given numbered designations.
In 1956, residents of Coney Island protested against paying a transfer to the bus on Mermaid Avenue, with some saying that the 15-cent fee for transferring should be abolished because the bus was essentially an adjunct to the station. In 1979, the City Planning Commission proposed something similar, in that Coney Island residents would get a free transfer between the /B74 bus routes and the subway station. It was noted that the station was the only one that did not get a free bus transfer after the corresponding subway transfer was discontinued. The free transfers would allow a $200 million apartment complex nearby, funded by the government, to get more residents to move in, as well as diversify Mark Twain Junior High School and attract a stable middle class. The experimental free transfer was instituted in November 1980, following three years of continuous advocacy by a Coney Island tenants' group. At the time, subway and bus fares were separate and cost a combined $1.20. The first phase of the program allowed riders to transfer for free, paying a 60-cent combined fare, while the second phase allowed for a half-price transfer, with the combined fare being 90 cents. Schedules showing trains' departure times were installed at the Coney Island Terminal in 1965.
Station renovation
Once a grand hub, the Coney Island Terminal had started deteriorating by the 1960s. By 1980, the entire system was in a state of disrepair, and the terminal was no exception. It was slated to be rebuilt that year. According to the New York Daily News, the renovated station would get "a bright, new airy look" as well as one of the system's first installations of continuously welded rail. The steel and concrete station was badly corroded by the effects of salt water and poor maintenance. In 1983, the MTA added funding for a renovation of the Stillwell Avenue station to its 1980–1984 capital plan. The New York Times wrote in 2008: "The old station was a gaping masterpiece of stalactited decrepitude nicely mirroring the seedy ambience of the Coney Island Boardwalk."Initial renovation attempts
Plans to renovate the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station were brought up again in the late 1980s, after restaurant mogul Horace Bullard proposed rebuilding the nearby Steeplechase Park. The Steeplechase Park reconstruction was later canceled. Nonetheless, plans for the station renovation moved forward, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority indicated in 1988 that it would spend $30,000 to study what to do with the station building. At the time, The Washington Post characterized the shops around the entrance as being arranged around a dark alley that smelled like urine; according to the Post, it had been 15 years since the station had been repainted. By the mid-1990s, the MTA had finalized plans to overhaul the station completely.On December 23, 1992, a contract was awarded for $21.14 million to rehabilitate the viaduct at the station. As part of the project, the concrete on columns and beams were to be removed and replaced. Once work started on the project, the contractor discovered that the extent of the concrete deterioration was greater than expected. Work on the change proceeded on April 1, 1994, and additional workers, including asbestos and lead abatement, were retroactively approved on May 23, 1994. By late 1998, the MTA was planning to renovate the station for $200 million. The MTA requested $125 million in federal funding for the renovation the next year. As part of renovation, a group of satellite dishes was proposed for the station. By this point, the New York City Transit Police were operating from a tent adjacent to the station, and there were vestiges of a carousel within the station.
2000s renovation
The MTA began evicting existing tenants from the station house in early 2001, including Philip's Candy, a candy store that had operated in the station building for seven decades. Despite the economic effects of the September 11 attacks in 2001, the MTA awarded a $282 million construction contract the next month. A full reconstruction started in November 2001 with the closure of the Sea Beach platform, which was used by the N train. The Brighton and Culver Lines' platforms, hosting the F and Q services, were closed in September 2002, as was the adjacent West Eighth Street–New York Aquarium station. At the time, the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce estimated that 75 percent of tourists to Coney Island traveled there via one of the two subway stations.The project included restoring the BMT station building's facade and adding a roof with solar panels. To minimize impact on the surrounding community, the renovation was supposed to take 42 months, and the West End Line continued serving the station through the renovation. One platform at a time remained open during construction so the West End services could keep serving the station. Although local officials supported the renovation, they worried that the closure of three platforms would negatively impact local businesses. During the 2003 season, merchants in Coney Island reported that their business had declined significantly because of the station's partial closure.
The new terminal opened on May 23, 2004, with the restoration of F and Q train service and the relocation of D service to tracks 1 and 2. The New York Times called the refurbished station house "one of the grandest subway stations in the city" and wrote that the station house would give Surf Avenue "a much needed face-lift". The project was completed on May 29, 2005, with full restoration of N service. The final cost of the renovation is variously cited as $240 million, $260 million, $294 million, or $300 million. Although the station had been made fully wheelchair-accessible during the renovation, the Daily News reported in 2007 that the elevators were often in disrepair and that passengers had to take two elevators to reach their platforms.