Description
This underground station, opened on July 17, 1918 as part of an expansion of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line north of Grand Central - 42nd Street, is built on two levels. Each level has two tracks and two side platforms. The upper level serves the local 6 trains while the lower level serves the express 4 and 5 trains. During late night hours, all service on the Lexington Avenue Line is local and the lower level is thus closed. Three staircases connect the level on each side.
There are no crossovers or crossunders between the platforms, making this one of only two express stations in the system where free transfers between opposite directions are not possible (the other is Nostrand Avenue on the IND Fulton Street Line). Each platform has its original Dual Contracts trim line consisting mostly of yellows and browns. Small "86" tablets in a circle run along this trim line. The name tablets have "86TH STREET" in white Times New Roman font on a reddish brown background with a light brown inner boarder and green outer boarder. Dark blue columns run along all four platforms at regular intervals.
This station underwent two renovations. The first took place with the opening of a Gimbels department store directly above in the early 1970s. The renovation took place mostly in the fare control areas. The second renovation was completed in Fall 2005. It consisted of repainting the columns from red to dark blue and removal of the information devices on the upper levels that gave advance notice of an approaching express train on the lower levels. These were later replaced with countdown clocks performing the same function.
Each upper level platform has one same-level fare control area in the center. The southbound side has a turnstile bank, token booth, two staircases going up to southwest corner of East 86th Street and Lexington Avenue, and two more that are built inside a Best Buy store on the northwest corner of the same intersection. The northbound fare control has an unstaffed turnstile bank and two staircases going up to the southeast corner of East 86th Street and Lexington Avenue. Two more staircases are built inside a shopping arcade that is in the basement of a Petco store on the northeast corner of the same intersection.
The 2004 artwork here is called Happy City by Peter Sis. It consists of four different glass and etched stone mosaic murals in the shapes of huge eyes surrounded by various animals and objects. They are located at each top of the four staircases near the fare control areas that go down to the lower level express platforms.
This station was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 2005.
Read more about this topic: 86th Street (IRT Lexington Avenue Line)
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