33rd Street station (PATH)

33rd Street station is a terminal station on the PATH system. Located at the intersection of 32nd Street and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) in the Herald Square neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan, New York City, it is served by the Hoboken–33rd Street and Journal Square–33rd Street lines on weekdays, and by the Journal Square–33rd Street (via Hoboken) line on late nights, weekends, and holidays. 33rd Street serves as the northern terminus of all three lines.

33rd Street
Port Authority Trans-Hudson PATH rapid transit station
33rd Street station turnstiles
General information
Location33rd Street and Sixth Avenue
Manhattan, New York
Coordinates40°44′57″N 73°59′18″W / 40.749111°N 73.988240°W / 40.749111; -73.988240
Owned byPort Authority of New York and New Jersey
Line(s)Uptown Hudson Tubes
Platforms2 side platforms, 2 island platforms
Tracks3
Connections
Construction
AccessibleYes (passageway to subway station not accessible)
History
OpenedNovember 10, 1910 (November 10, 1910)[1]
Rebuilt1939
Passengers
201810,039,352[2]Decrease 10.5%
Rank2 of 13
Services
Preceding station PATH Following station
Weekdays
23rd Street
toward Hoboken
HOB–33 Terminus
23rd Street JSQ–33
Weeknights, Weekends, Holidays
23rd Street JSQ–33 (via HOB) Terminus
Former services
Preceding station Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Following station
28th Street Summit Avenue–33rd Street Terminus
Location
Map

History

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Opening

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The 33rd Street station is part of the Uptown Hudson Tubes, built by the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H&M), the PATH's predecessor. The first section of the tubes opened in February 1908.[3] The 33rd Street station opened on November 10, 1910, as part of the northern extension of the line.[4]: 4 [1] The original plans for the Uptown Hudson Tubes called for a terminal at 33rd Street under the Gimbels department store, now Manhattan Mall. During construction, the plan was changed so the 33rd Street station was directly under Sixth Avenue, providing for a future northward extension.[4]: 4–5  The Gimbels store at the site opened in 1910, but the underlying plot was owned by an H&M subsidiary until 1919, when it was sold to Gimbels.[5]

An extension of the tunnel to Grand Central Terminal and the Grand Central subway station was proposed in 1910.[6][7] A franchise to extend the Uptown Hudson Tubes to Grand Central was awarded in June 1909.[8] Work never started due to various delays. By 1920, the H&M had submitted seventeen applications in which they sought to delay construction of the extension to Grand Central; in all seventeen instances, the H&M claimed that it was not an appropriate time to construct the tube.[9] On the H&M's seventeenth application, the Rapid Transit Commissioners declined the request for a delay, effectively ending the H&M's right to build an extension to Grand Central.[10]: 55–56 

Relocation

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In 1924, the city-operated Independent Subway System (IND) submitted its list of proposed subway routes to the New York City Board of Transportation. One of the proposed routes, the Sixth Avenue Line, ran parallel to the Uptown Hudson Tubes from Ninth to 33rd streets.[11] Negotiations between the city, IND, and H&M continued until 1929.[12] The IND and H&M finally came to an agreement in 1930. The city had decided to build the IND Sixth Avenue Line's local tracks around the pre-existing H&M tubes, and add express tracks for the IND underneath the H&M tubes at a later date.[13]

The 33rd Street terminal closed on December 26, 1937, and service on the H&M was cut back to 28th Street to allow for construction on the subway to take place. A temporary 29th Street entrance was installed at the 28th Street station.[14][4]: 7  The 33rd Street terminal was moved south to 32nd Street and reopened on September 24, 1939. The city paid $800,000 to build the new 33rd Street station and reimbursed H&M another $300,000 for the loss of revenue.[15] As part of this upgrade, the 28th Street station was closed and demolished. As a partial compensation for the loss of the station, an entrance to the new terminal was opened at 30th Street.[16] The IND line opened in December 1940.[17]

Subsequent years

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In 1962, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey formally took over the H&M, rebranding the system as Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH).[18] A "Gimbels passageway" was formerly used by pedestrians to connect to Penn Station a block to the west under 33rd Street. After years of safety and sanitation concerns, an epidemic of sexual assaults led to its closure in the 1980s.[19]

A train-car wash formerly operated at track 1 of the 33rd Street terminal. It was replaced by a wash that opened in mid-September 1993 in Jersey City. It was computer-operated, and designed to reclean and recycle the water used. More space for the operation was provided at Jersey City, allowing the detergent used on the cars to have more time to take effect. At 33rd Street, brushes began scrubbing the cars very soon after the detergent went on. Its completion allowed the PANYNJ to deactivate the car wash at 33rd Street, providing more flexibility in terminal operations there.[20]

PATH began testing out a new contactless payment system called TAPP, similar to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's OMNY system, at 33rd Street and Journal Square in December 2023.[21][22]

Station layout

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G Street level Exit/entrance, buses
B1 Upper mezzanine South fare control
B2
Platform level
Side platform   North fare control, subway station
Southbound      HOB–33 weekdays toward Hoboken (23rd Street)
     JSQ–33 (via HOB) weekends toward Journal Square (23rd Street)
Island platform  
Southbound      HOB–33 weekdays toward Hoboken (23rd Street)
          JSQ–33 (via HOB weekends) toward Journal Square (23rd Street)
Island platform  
Southbound           JSQ–33 (via HOB weekends) toward Journal Square (23rd Street)
Side platform  
B3 Lower mezzanine Subway fare control
B4 Southbound local   
Southbound express   
Northbound express   
Northbound local   
 
33rd Street station entrance

The present station has three tracks in a Spanish solution with two island platforms and two side platforms, located two stories below ground level.[23] There is a small mezzanine with turnstiles, located above the platforms, at the south end of the station. The tracks end at bumper blocks at the north end of the station, where ramps from each platform lead up to the northern turnstile area, located about one and a half stories below ground level.

Exits

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At the south end of the 33rd Street station are two staircases, one to either side of Sixth Avenue between 30th and 31st Streets. The northern end contains exits to the northwest and northeast corners of Sixth Avenue and 32nd Street, and an elevator on the west side of Sixth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets. From the northern end of the station, there are also passageways to the connected New York City Subway station and its own exits.

33rd St to 34th St subway cross-section
11th Av 10th & 9th Avs
are skipped

Farley Building &
Moynihan Train Hall
8th Av Madison Square
Garden
7th Av Storefronts 6th Av &
Broadway
5th & Madison Avs
are skipped
Park Av
mezzanine train hall A / C / E concourse 1 / 2 / 3 Former Gimbel's
passageway
mezz PATH 6 / <6>
mezzanine conc mezzanine concourse mezzanine N / Q / R / W
7 / <7> Penn Station (platform level) B/D/F/<F>/M


Nearby attractions

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References

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  1. ^ a b "M'Adoo Tubes Now Reach 33rd Street; First Through Train from the Downtown Terminal to New One in the Shopping Belt". The New York Times. November 3, 1910. p. 11. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 16, 2009.
  2. ^ "PATH Ridership Report". Port Authority NY NJ. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  3. ^ "In M'Adoo Tunnel To Jersey, Fast Run; Fifteen Minutes from Fourteenth Street to Hoboken on Trial Trip Yesterday". The New York Times. February 16, 1908. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  4. ^ a b c "Hudson and Manhattan Railroad". Electric Railroads (27). Electric Railroaders Association. August 1959. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  5. ^ "Gimbels Purchase Store Building". The New York Times. July 22, 1919. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  6. ^ "By Hudson Tunnel to Grand Central". New-York Tribune. February 11, 1909. p. 1. Retrieved August 13, 2019 – via newspapers.com  .
  7. ^ D'Orazio, Bernard (April 23, 2018). "In 1874, a Daring Downtown Plan: Build a Train Tunnel Under the Hudson". Tribeca Trib Online. Archived from the original on May 3, 2018. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
  8. ^ "M'Adoo Extension To Be Ready In 1911; Head of Hudson & Manhattan Road Promises It After the Board of Estimate Approves". The New York Times. June 5, 1909. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  9. ^ "Hudson Tube Asks Delay; Seventeenth Application for More Time to Extend Subway". The New York Times. February 16, 1920. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 28, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
  10. ^ Cudahy, Brian J. (2002), Rails Under the Mighty Hudson (2nd ed.), New York: Fordham University Press, ISBN 978-0-82890-257-1, OCLC 911046235
  11. ^ "New Subway Routes in Hylan Program to Cost $186,046,000 – Board of Transportation Adopts 22.90 Miles of Additional Lines – Total Now $345,629,000 – But the Entire System Planned by Mayor Involves $700,000,000 – Description of Routes – Heaviest Expenditures Will Be Made on Tunnels – No Allowance for Equipment – New Subway Routes to Cost $186,046,000". The New York Times. March 21, 1925. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  12. ^ "Final Contracts To Finish Subway Awarded By City; Include $20,000,000 for Cars, Equipment and Substations for Manhattan Line". The New York Times. August 1, 1929. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  13. ^ "Delaney For Razing Elevated Line Now; Work in 6th Av. Could Begin in Six Months if Condemnation Started at Once, He Says". The New York Times. January 11, 1930. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 28, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
  14. ^ "Hudson Tube Terminus At 33d St. Closes Today". The New York Times. December 26, 1937. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  15. ^ "Hudson Tube Opens Terminal Today – Remodeled 33d St. Station Cost City $800,000 as Part of 6th Ave. Subway Expense – Closed for Two Years – Two Train Platforms and 3 Sets of Tracks Among New Transit Equipment". The New York Times. September 24, 1939. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 16, 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  16. ^ "Tube Terminal to Reopen – Station at 33d St. and 6th Ave. to Renew Service Sept. 24". The New York Times. September 12, 1939. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 16, 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  17. ^ "New Subway Line on 6th Ave. Opens at Midnight Fete". The New York Times. December 15, 1940. pp. 1, 56. Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  18. ^ Wright, George Cable (January 23, 1962). "2 States Agree On Hudson Tubes And Trade Center". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  19. ^ Cuozzo, Steve (November 28, 2010). "Remembering the Gimbels tunnel". New York Post. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  20. ^ Roberts, Donald (September 1993). "New Wash for PATH Cars". Pathways. 25 (3). Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation: 1–3.
  21. ^ Higgs, Larry (December 4, 2023). "PATH to start testing tap-and-go fare payments at 2 stations Tuesday". nj. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
  22. ^ Brachfeld, Ben (December 4, 2023). "Port Authority unveils new contactless payment system for PATH Train, dubbed 'TAPP'". amNewYork. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
  23. ^ Dougherty, Peter (2006) [2002]. Tracks of the New York City Subway 2006 (3rd ed.). Dougherty. OCLC 49777633 – via Google Books.
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  Media related to 33rd Street (PATH station) at Wikimedia Commons