50th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line) - Station Layout

Station Layout

This station is a bi-level station. The upper level is fed by Eighth Avenue local trains from Central Park West—usually the C, except when it is replaced by the A during late nights. It has four tracks and two side platforms. The center express tracks carry Eighth Avenue express trains (A) only during the day. Fare control is at platform level.

The lower level is fed by E trains from the Queens Boulevard Line at all times. It has two tracks and two side platforms, separated by a curtain wall. In the southbound direction, lower level trains may access either the Eighth Avenue local 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-accessible 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 downtown upper level platform in 1989 and features neighborhood life. Renovation, including addition of an elevator on the uptown side of the station, is planned for the current 2005–2009 MTA Capital Program and will reopen many closed stairways to the lower level. The downtown side has an escalator to the lower level and exits into a building façade. In contrast to the downtown platforms, the uptown platforms lack elevators and are not ADA-accessible. Closed exits are at 51st and 52nd Streets.