57th Street – Seventh Avenue (BMT Broadway Line) - Layout

Layout

When this station opened in 1919, the BMT Broadway Line had ended north of this station as 6 trackways, of which only 2 tracks (local tracks) continued to the 60th Street Tunnel to Queens. The other 4 trackways, both the express tracks and the outermost trackways (both of the outermost trackways are ramps which have never been used) curve slightly west before ending, which were a provision for the line to run to Upper Manhattan via Central Park West.

With four tracks and two island platforms, this station is the northernmost express station on the BMT Broadway Line. Much of the BMT system is chained from the zero point here. Most trains use the local tracks, which continue north under 59th and 60th Streets to Queens. The center express tracks are set up as terminal tracks for Q trains during late nights and weekends when this is their northern terminal. These express tracks continue north as the BMT 63rd Street Line to Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street and are not used in revenue service. Future plans provide for Q service to continue past 57th Street under 63rd Street to the Second Avenue Subway, which is currently being built to 96th Street with stops at 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets.

This station underwent an overhaul in the late 1970s, which included fixing the station's structure and replacing the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting with 1970s modern-look wall tile band and tablet mosaics, signs and fluorescent lights. Staircases and platform edges were also repaired.

In 1992-1993, the station received a major overhaul with state-of-the-art repairs as well as upgrading the station for ADA compliance. The original late 1910s tiling was restored, repairs were made to the staircases, new tiling on the floors, upgrades to the station's lights and public address system, installation of ADA safety treads along the platform edge, new signs, and new trackbeds in both directions. Accessibility to the mezzanine was further increased by the addition of an elevator on the southwest corner of 57th Street which is now open for use. While elevators have yet to be installed for platform access, it allows disabled access to the fare booth and Metrocard machines.

Before the BMT 63rd Street Line was built in 1989, the express tracks continued as layup spurs north of the station (Although construction of the 63rd Street line from 1971 to 1978 continued the section between this station and Lexington Avenue – 63rd Sreeet station). The express tracks ran for about 400 feet.