Canal Street
Northbound platform
Station statistics
Address	Canal Street & Varick Street New York, New York
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	SoHo,Tribeca,Hudson Square
Coordinates	40°43′21″N74°00′23″W / 40.7226°N 74.0063°W /40.7226; -74.0063
Division	A (IRT)[1]
Line	IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
Services	1  (all times) ​  2  (late nights)
Transit	NYCT Bus:M20
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2side platforms
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	July 1, 1918; 107 years ago (1918-07-01)
Accessible	notADA-accessible; accessibility planned
Traffic
2024	1,193,850[2]  3.9%
Rank	256 out of 423[2]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station Houston Street 1  ​2  towardVan Cortlandt Park–242nd Street Local Franklin Street 1  ​2  towardSouth Ferry does not stop here
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York
Track layout Legend toHouston Street toFranklin Street
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times Stops late nights only Stops late nights and weekends

TheCanal Street station is a localstation on theIRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of theNew York City Subway, located at the intersection ofCanal and Varick Streets in theTriBeCa andSoHo neighborhoods ofManhattan, it is served by the1 train at all times and by the2 train during late nights.

The station was built by theInterborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of theDual Contracts withNew York City, and opened on July 1, 1918. The station had its platforms extended in the 1960s, and was renovated in 1992.

TheDual Contracts, which were signed on March 19, 1913, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in theCity of New York. The contracts were "dual" in that they were signed between the City and two separate private companies (theInterborough Rapid Transit Company and theBrooklyn Rapid Transit Company), all working together to make the construction of the Dual Contracts possible. The Dual Contracts promised the construction of several lines in Brooklyn. As part of Contract 4, the IRT agreed to build a branch of the original subway line south down Seventh Avenue, Varick Street, and West Broadway to serve the West Side of Manhattan.^[3][4][5]

The construction of this line, in conjunction with the construction of theLexington Avenue Line, would change the operations of the IRT system. Instead of having trains go via Broadway, turning onto 42nd Street, before finally turning onto Park Avenue, there would be two trunk lines connected by the42nd Street Shuttle. The system would be changed from looking like a "Z" system on a map to an "H" system. One trunk would run via the new Lexington Avenue Line down Park Avenue, and the other trunk would run via the new Seventh Avenue Line up Broadway. In order for the line to continue down Varick Street and West Broadway, these streets needed to be widened, and two new streets were built, the Seventh Avenue Extension and the Varick Street Extension.^[6] It was predicted that the subway extension would lead to the growth of the Lower West Side, and to neighborhoods such asChelsea andGreenwich Village.^[7][8]

Canal Street opened as part of an extension of the line from34th Street–Penn Station toSouth Ferry on July 1, 1918.^[9][10] Initially, the station was served by a shuttle running fromTimes Square to South Ferry.^[9][11] The new "H" system was implemented on August 1, 1918, joining the two halves of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and sending all West Side trains south from Times Square.^[12] An immediate result of the switch was the need to transfer using the 42nd Street Shuttle in order to retrace the original layout. The completion of the "H" system doubled the capacity of the IRT system.^[7]

To make room for the construction of theHolland Tunnel exit plaza, a subway entrance at the station was reconstructed.^[13] In 1926, New York City, theNew York State Bridge and Tunnel Commission, and the New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission, reached an agreement to construct a passageway from the south side of Canal Street to the south side of Laight Street on the east side of Varick Street to replace the entrance.^[14] The cost of the project was split between the Bridge and Tunnel Commissions and the City, and was the first project done to separate pedestrian and vehicular traffic.^[15] Work on the project was underway in 1927. Pattelli & Wilson got the winning bid of $116,723 to construct the project.^[16][17]

The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.^[18][19] On August 9, 1964, theNew York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced the letting of a $7.6 million contract to lengthen platforms at stations on the Broadway—Seventh Avenue Line fromRector Street to34th Street–Penn Station, including Canal Street, and stations fromCentral Park North–110th Street to145th Street on the Lenox Avenue Line to allow express trains to be lengthened from nine-car trains to ten-car trains, and to lengthen locals from eight-car trains to ten-car trains. With the completion of this project, the NYCTA project to lengthen IRT stations to accommodate ten-car trains would be complete.^[20]

The station was renovated in 1992 byMTA New York City Transit's in-house staff,^{[citation needed]} and the passageway and the two staircases to the corner of Laight Street and Varick Street were closed.^[21]

As part of its 2025–2029 Capital Program, the MTA has proposed making the station wheelchair-accessible in compliance with theAmericans with Disabilities Act of 1990.^[22] An elevatoreasement to the northbound platform was previously proposed as part of the construction of a neighboring building at 2 Hudson Square.^[23]

Ground	Street level	Exit/entrance
Platform level	Side platform
	Northbound local	← towardVan Cortlandt Park–242nd Street(Houston Street) ← towardWakefield–241st Street late nights(Houston Street)
	Northbound express	← do not stop here
	Southbound express	→ do not stop here →
	Southbound local	→ towardSouth Ferry(Franklin Street) → → towardFlatbush Avenue–Brooklyn College late nights(Franklin Street) →
	Side platform

This station has twoside platforms and four tracks. The station is served by the1 at all times^[24] and by the2 during late nights;^[25] the center express tracks are used by the 2 and 3 trains during daytime hours.^[25][26] The station is betweenHouston Street to the north andFranklin Street to the south.^[27] The platforms are mildly offset, and although there are no crossovers or crossunders to allow free transfers between directions, there is evidence of a sealed crossunder on both of the platforms. Beige I-beam columns run along both platforms, alternating ones having the standard black station name plate with white lettering.

This underground station is located onthe street of the same name, which is the boundary ofSoHo andTribeca. Lying within a block of three different pocket parks (St. John's Park, Duane Park, and Cavala Park), the station sits at the entrance to theHolland Tunnel outside of the Tribeca North Historic District.^[28] Much of the surrounding area is characterized by its historic loft architecture.

Fare control is on platform level for both sides. The two northbound street stairs are on the northeast corner of Varick Street and Canal Street, and the two southbound street stairs are on the northwest corner.^[29] The northeast-corner entrances have beenfloodproofed.^[30][31] At the end of the uptown platform, there was a free zone passageway that had two staircases to Laight and Varick Streets; it was not monitored and was closed down for security reasons.^[21]

• 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 toCanal Street (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line).

• nycsubway.org –IRT West Side Line: Canal Street

• Future accessible New York City Subway stations
• IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line stations
• New York City Subway stations in Manhattan
• Railway stations in the United States opened in 1918
• 1918 establishments in New York City
• SoHo, Manhattan
• Tribeca

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