42nd Street–  Port Authority Bus Terminal  ​​
Southeastern stair
Station statistics
Address	West 42nd Street & Eighth Avenue New York, New York
Division	B (IND)[1]
Line	IND Eighth Avenue Line
Services	A  (all times) ​  C  (all except late nights) ​  E  (all times)
System transfers	AtTimes Square–42nd Street:   1  (all times) ​  2  (all times) ​  3  (all times)​   7  (all times) <7>  (rush hours until 9:30 p.m., peak direction)​​   N  (all times) ​  Q  (all times) ​  R  (all except late nights) ​  W  (weekdays only)   S  (all except late nights)
Transit	NYCT Bus:M7,M20,M34A SBS,M42,M104,SIM8,SIM22,SIM25,SIM26,SIM30 MTA Bus:BxM2 Port Authority Bus TerminalNew Jersey Transit Bus:101,102,105,107,108,109,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,119,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,135,136,137,138,139,144,145,148,151,153,154,155,156,157,158,159,160,161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168,177,190,191,192,193,194,195,196,197,198,199,319,320,321,324,355
Structure	Underground
Levels	2 (lower level abandoned)
Platforms	2island platforms cross-platform interchange (upper level) 1 abandonedside platform (lower level)
Tracks	4 (upper level) 1 (lower level)
Other information
Opened	September 10, 1932; 93 years ago (1932-09-10)[2] (upper level) August 25, 1952; 73 years ago (1952-08-25)[3] (lower level)
Closed	1981 (lower level)
Accessible	ADA-accessible (passageway toTimes Square–42nd Street not accessible)
Traffic
2024	57,743,486[a][4]  6.4%
Rank	1[a] out of 423[4]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station 59th Street–Columbus Circle A  towardInwood–207th Street Express 34th Street–Penn Station A  ​C  ​E  southbound 50th Street A  ​C  ​E  services split Local
Track layout Legend Upper level to59th Street–Columbus Circle to50th Street lower level to50th Street upper level to former lower level from former lower level to34th Street–Penn Station Former lower level from middle southbound track platform cut off by wall tracks
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops in station at all times Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only Stops late nights and weekends only Stops weekdays during the day Stops weekends during the day Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction Stops all times except weekdays in the peak direction Stops all times except nights and rush hours in the peak direction Stops rush hours only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only Station is closed (Details about time periods)

The42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station is an expressstation on theIND Eighth Avenue Line of theNew York City Subway. Located at the intersection of42nd Street andEighth Avenue inManhattan, it is served by theA andE trains at all times, and by theC train at all times except late nights. Passageways connect this station to the nearby station atTimes Square–42nd Street, providing a free transfer, and to thePort Authority Bus Terminal.

The 42nd Street station was built as an express station for theIndependent Subway System (IND)'s Eighth Avenue Line. The station opened on September 9, 1932, as part of the initial section of the Eighth Avenue Line. The connection to the Port Authority Bus Terminal opened in 1950, and a platform on a lower level operated intermittently between 1952 and 1981. A free transfer to the Times Square station opened in 1988.

The station has two offsetisland platforms and four tracks, as well as a mezzanine leading from 40th to 42nd Streets. There was originally a lower level with one track and oneside platform that served southbound trains from theQueens Boulevard Line. The station is compliant with theAmericans with Disabilities Act of 1990, but the passageway to the Times Square–42nd Street complex is not accessible. The Times Square/Port Authority stations comprise the busiest station complex in the system, serving 65,020,294 passengers in 2019.^[5]

As early as March 1918, soon after theBrooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT)'sBroadway Line opened toTimes Square–42nd Street, plans were being considered for an extension of that line beyond the stubs at57th Street–Seventh Avenue to theUpper West Side andWashington Heights viaCentral Park West (Eighth Avenue).^[6] On August 3, 1923, theNew York City Board of Estimate approved theWashington Heights Line, an extension of the Broadway Line to Washington Heights. The line was to have four tracks from Central Park West at 64th Street under Central Park West, Eighth Avenue,Saint Nicholas Avenue, and private property to 173rd Street, and two tracks underFort Washington Avenue to 193rd Street. South of 64th Street, one two-track line would connect to the Broadway Line stubs at 57th Street, and another would continue under Eighth Avenue to30th Street atPenn Station, with provisions to continue downtown.^[7][8]

MayorJohn Hylan instead wanted to build an independent subway system, operated by the city. TheNew York City Board of Transportation (NYCBOT) gave preliminary approval to several lines in Manhattan, including one on Eighth Avenue, on December 9, 1924. The main portion of the already-approved Washington Heights Line—the mostly-four track line north of 64th Street—was included, but was to continue north from 193rd Street to 207th Street. South of 64th Street, the plan called for four tracks in Eighth Avenue,Greenwich Avenue, the planned extension ofSixth Avenue, andChurch Street. Two tracks would turn east underFulton Street orWall Street and under theEast River toDowntown Brooklyn.^[9][10] The BOT announced a list of stations on the new line in February 1928, with an express station at 40th Street.^[11]

Agroundbreaking ceremony was held at St. Nicholas Avenue and 123rd Street on March 14, 1925.^[12] Most of the Eighth Avenue Line was dug using a cheapcut-and-cover method, where the street above was excavated. Still, the construction of the line was difficult, as it had to go under or over several subway lines. 42nd Street, the longest station along the line at 1,115 feet (340 m), was expected to be a major express station with large platforms, so the platforms were staggered away from each other in order to avoid going under property lines.^[13] The station's construction required over 4,000 short tons (3,600 long tons; 3,600 t) of structural steel and nearly 15,000 cubic feet (420 m³) of concrete. Neighboring buildings, such as theTimes Square Hotel and the Franklin Savings Bank at 42nd Street, had to be underpinned because the station extended all the way to the property line on either side.^[14] Several workers died in cave-ins during construction.^[13] The stations on the line were built with 600 feet (180 m) long platforms, but they had provisions to lengthen them to 660 feet (200 m) to accommodate eleven-car trains.^[15]: 70

The IND's 42nd Street station was substantially completed by December 1930 except for some interior finishes.^[16] The entire line was completed by September 1931, except for the installation of turnstiles.^[17] The Eighth Avenue Line station opened on September 10, 1932, as part of the city-operatedIndependent Subway System (IND)'s initial segment, betweenChambers Street and207th Street.^[2][18] At the time of the IND Eighth Avenue Line's completion, theNew York Herald Tribune referred to the line's 42nd Street station as the "largest platform in the world".^[19] The line's opening was expected to spur development around the intersection of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue.^[20] The construction of the Eighth Avenue Line caused real-estate values along Eighth Avenue to increase by as much as 400 percent.^[21][22]

A pedestrian passageway under 41st Street, connecting the IND station at 42nd Street with the IRT and BMT stations at Times Square, opened on December 24, 1932; the passageway included an entrance on 41st Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.^[23] Passengers had to pay an additional fare to transfer to and from the IND.^[24]

With the construction of thePort Authority Bus Terminal, in September 1950, the Board of Transportation approved the construction of a 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) ramp between the Eighth Avenue Line station and the bus terminal for $100,000.^[25] The IND's lower level was built together with the upper-level platforms but existed as an unfinished shell.^{[26]: 484 [27]} The city approved a $300,000 renovation of the lower level in June 1952,^[27] and the lower level opened on August 25, 1952, to serve rush hour E trains.^[3] For most of its existence, the lower-level platform was only used for occasional service specials, including summer "Rockaway Special" trains toBeach 98th Street at theRockaways' Playland beginning in 1958, theAqueduct Racetrack special fare trains from 1959 to 1981, and rush hour E trains in the 1970s, beginning on March 23, 1970.^[28][29][30]

By the 1970s, city officials planned to raise funds for a renovation of the Times Square station complex, using sales-tax revenue from materials used in the construction of theNew York Marriott Marquis hotel.^[31] As part of a pilot program to reduce high crime in the New York City Subway system, in May 1981, the MTA spent $500,000 to installCCTV screens at the Columbus Circle subway station. The MTA expanded the experiment to the Times Square–42nd Street station in 1983.^[32] The cameras were deactivated in 1985 after further tests showed that their presence did not help reduce crime.^[33] The MTA considered transferring 220 CCTV cameras from these stations to token booths at the stations with the most crime.^[34] On August 1, 1988, the passageway between the IND Eighth Avenue Line station and the IRT/BMT complex was finally placed within fare control.^[35] The two previously separate stations had the highest crime rates in the system at the time.^[36]

TheEmpire State Development Corporation (ESDC), an agency of the New York state government, had proposed redeveloping the area around a portion of West 42nd Street in 1981.^[37] As part of the redevelopment, in 1988, the state and NYCTA announced that they would spend $125 million on renovating the Times Square subway complex.^[36] The project would have included an underground rotunda with stores, connecting several office buildings; new subway entrances inside these buildings; and elevators.^[36][38] The project excluded renovation of the platforms or the passageway under 41st Street.^[38] Park Tower Realty, which had committed to developing four buildings in the redevelopment, would have paid for 60 percent of the project's cost, while theNew York City Transit Authority would have provided $45 million and the city would have provided $10 million.^[36] The project was canceled in August 1992 afterPrudential Insurance and Park Tower Realty was given permission to postpone the construction of these buildings.^[39][40]

The station underwent total reconstruction in three stages starting in 1994.^[41] The Eighth Avenue Line platforms were renovated as part of the second phase of the project, finished in 2006.^[41]

In the late 2000s, the MTA began construction on anextension of the IRT Flushing Line to 34th Street, which would require demolishing the IND Eighth Avenue lower level platform.^[42] By January 2010, the lower level platform was being demolished as part of the Flushing Line extension, which slopes down through where the old lower level platform was.^[43] On September 13, 2015, the Flushing Line was extended one stop west from Times Square to34th Street–Hudson Yards.^[44][45] TheMetropolitan Transportation Authority announced in 2024 that it would replace the station's existingwaist-high turnstiles with taller, wide-aisle turnstiles.^[46] In April 2025, the MTA announced plans to install taller fare gates with glass panels at 20 stations, including the 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station. The fare gates would be manufactured byCubic Transportation Systems,Conduent,Scheidt & Bachmann, and STraffic as part of a pilot program to reduce fare evasion.^[47][48]

Ground	Street level	Exits/entrances
Basement 1	Upper mezzanine	Fare control, station agents,OMNY machines, passageway toPort Authority Bus Terminal andTimes Square–42nd Street *inside north wing of bus terminal at Eighth Avenue between 41st Street and 42nd Street, near airport bus ticket office inside theInterContinental Hotel at the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue at 44th Street. There is both an elevator and aplatform lift; the lift can be manually operated by a station agent's assistance. Note: Passageway toTimes Square–42nd Street has a steep grade
Basement 2	Northbound local	← toward168th Street(50th Street) ← towardJamaica Center–Parsons/Archer(50th Street) ← towardInwood–207th Street late nights(50th Street)
	Island platform
	Northbound express	← towardInwood–207th Street(59th Street–Columbus Circle)
	Southbound express	→ towardFar Rockaway–Mott Avenue,Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street, orOzone Park–Lefferts Boulevard(34th Street–Penn Station) →
	Island platform
	Southbound local	→ towardEuclid Avenue(34th Street–Penn Station) → → towardWorld Trade Center(34th Street–Penn Station) → → towardFar Rockaway–Mott Avenue late nights(34th Street–Penn Station) →
Basement 4 Flushing Line	Southbound	← do not stop here
	Northbound	→ do not stop here →

The 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station is an express stop that abuts thePort Authority Bus Terminal. TheA andE trains stop here at all times,^[49][50] while theC train stops here except at night.^[51] The A runs on the express tracks during the day and on the local tracks during the night, while the C and E always run on the local tracks. The next stop to thenorth is50th Street for local trains and59th Street–Columbus Circle for express trains, while the next stop to thesouth is34th Street–Penn Station for all service. It has one operational platform level, two offsetisland platforms, and a long mezzanine. Formerly, it also had a lower level with a singleside platform, which could be served by southbound trains from theIND Queens Boulevard Line.^[52] The 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station is fully wheelchair-accessible. A ramp connects to the Times Square–42nd Street station but is not accessible.^[53]

The station ranges up to 50 feet (15 m) below the street, running under Eighth Avenue in approximately a north–south direction, one block west of the Times Square–42nd Street station.^[14] Both island platforms were originally 600 feet (180 m) long,^[52] although the station served 660-foot-long (200 m), 11-car trains on the E route from 1953^[54] to 1958.^[55] The northbound platform extends from 42nd to 44th Streets^[13] and is 30 feet (9.1 m) wide.^[52] The southbound island platform extends from 40th to 42nd Streets^[13] and is 36 feet (11 m) wide. Formerly, escalators led from the mezzanine to the southbound side platform on the lower level, dividing the southbound island platforms.^[52] At 41st Street, the station crosses over the IRT Flushing Line tunnels; this overpass required 217,000 pounds (98,000 kg) of steel.^[14]

The walls beside each local track contain blue-tile bands with black borders; since 42nd Street is an express station, it has a wider tile band than local stations. The tile colors are intended to help riders identify their station more easily, part of a color-codedtile system for the entire Independent Subway System.^[56] The tile colors were designed to facilitate navigation for travelers going away fromLower Manhattan; on the Eighth Avenue Line, the tiles change color at the next express station to the north. As such, the 42nd Street station originally had purple tiles, which were also used at50th Street, the local station to the north; the next express station, 59th Street, used a different tile color.^[57][58]

The 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station formerly had a lower platform level, with one track underneath the southbound local track and one side platform underneath the southbound island platform. The lower level featured two high-speed escalators to the mezzanine, and three staircases to the southbound island platform.^[27] The walls featured 1950s-era cream tiles, a purple and black tile band, and white mosaic name plates with black "42ND ST" text.^[3][28]

Theories differ on why the lower-level platform was built. The platform could only be reached by trains originating fromQueens via theIND Queens Boulevard Line, and 53rd Street (the current E service), and a 1930New York Times article said the platform had always been intended for Queens Boulevard Line service.^[52] Reportedly, this would have allowed E trains to load and unload passengers without having to wait for one of the two upper level tracks to clear.^[3][27] When the station was being built, the 42nd Street Property Owners' and Merchants' Association expressed concerns that the double-level station would prevent the Flushing Line from being extended westward.^[59] TheNew York Herald Tribune wrote in 1928: "The construction is such as will enable the engineers to extend the Queensboro subway under and beyond Eighth Avenue in the direction of the 42nd Street ferry if desired".^[60]

Film producers have used the lower-level platform for several films, most notablyGhost (1990), starringPatrick Swayze andDemi Moore. By the 2010s, the lower-level platform had been bisected by theextension of the Flushing Line.^[28]

The IND mezzanine stretches above the platforms, under Eighth Avenue, from 40th to 44th Street. It covers 130,000 square feet (12,000 m²).^[14] It was one of four large mezzanines at express stations on the Eighth Avenue Line where passengers could walk the entire length of the mezzanines without having to pay a fare. It was proposed to develop the mezzanines of these four stations with shops, so that they would become retail corridors.^[13] The station's mezzanine extends four blocks from 40th to 44th Streets.^[61] There were originally six stairs from the mezzanine to either of the IND's island platforms. The center of the mezzanine originally featured an 18-foot-wide (5.5 m) public passageway outside fare control. Between 44th and 42nd Streets, the passageway was flanked by stores on the west and stairs to the northbound platform on the east. Between 42nd and 40th Streets, the stairs to the southbound island platform were on the west, while there were stores to the east.^[52]

A 600-foot-long (180 m) passageway runs under 41st Street^[23] and connects the IND station with the Times Square complex.^[61] The passageway is located above the mezzanines at either end.^[62] It is stair-free but contains steep ramps at both ends, which are not ADA-compliant.^[53][62] At the eastern end of the passageway, the passageway connects to a mezzanine at the Times Square station, just above theIRT Flushing Line's platform.^{[63]: 7, 18}

The Port Authority and Times Square stations contain several artworks commissioned as part of theMTA Arts & Design program. In 1991,Norman B. Colp createdThe Commuter's Lament orA Close Shave, a series of signs attached to the roof of the 41st Street passageway between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, inspired by classicBurma-Shave ads.^[64] In order, the signs readOverslept/So tired/If late/Get fired/Why bother?/Why the pain?/Just go home/Do it again.^[64][65][66] The last panel is a picture of a bed.^[65] The panels were part of an art project that was supposed to last only one year, but were never removed.^[64] The mezzanine also contains a mosaic artwork byJane Dickson,Revelers. The mosaics depict about 70 life-size people who are moving around in groups.^[67]

The 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station contains the mosaic artworkLosing My Marbles, which was created by Lisa Dinhofer and installed in 2003.^[68][69] The primary section of the artwork is on a 32-foot-wide (9.8 m) portion of wall, which depicts marbles overlaid on a black-and-white "floor" with a gold-colored frame; the marbles seem to be rolling in the viewer's direction. The artwork extends onto two additional walls.^[69]

There is one street stair to each of the northwest, northeast, and southeast corners of Eighth Avenue and 40th Street. There are two underground passageways to Port Authority Bus Terminal: one between 40th and 41st Streets, and a wheelchair accessible passageway between 41st and 42nd Streets. At the intersection of Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street, there is one street stair to the northwest corner, one stair inside a building on the northeast corner, and one escalator bank inside a building on the southeast corner. One street stair leads to the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 43rd Street. Finally, there is one street stair to each of the northwest, southwest, and southeast corners of Eighth Avenue and 44th Street. The southwest-corner entrance also has a wheelchair lift that leads to an elevator. All of these exits are signed as serving the A, C, E, and 7 trains.^[70]

• Stookey, Lee (1994).Subway ceramics : a history and iconography of mosaic and bas relief signs and plaques in the New York City subway system. Brattleboro, Vt: L. Stookey.ISBN 978-0-9635486-1-0.OCLC 31901471.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to42nd Street – Port Authority Bus Terminal (IND Eighth Avenue Line).

• nycsubway.org –IND Eighth Avenue Line: 42nd Street/Port Authority Bus Terminal
• MTA's Arts For Transit –42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal (IND Eighth Avenue Line)

• Accessible New York City Subway stations
• 42nd Street (Manhattan)
• Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)
• IND Eighth Avenue Line stations
• New York City Subway stations in Manhattan
• Railway stations in the United States opened in 1932
• 1932 establishments in New York City

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from September 2025
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from August 2024
• Commons category link from Wikidata