145 Street
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148 St-Lenox Terminal
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135 Street
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145th Street is one of the more unusual subway stations in New York. The station is the only station that presently can't accommodate a full ten car train. The now closed and replaced South Ferry Loop was the other long-term station with this impediment. The platform is short and can accommodate only six cars, although only the first five are open since the conductor is at this point in the middle of the train. There are many reasons for this, one is the 2 train switches onto the Lenox Avenue line from the 149 Street tunnel, jut south of the station and just north of it the 3 train returns to the surface to curve into the Lenox Yard and enter the 148 Street-Lenox Terminal. The other reason is that when the transit authority built the 148 Street-Lenox terminal which opened in tracks of the IRT's original train yard in 1968, this new statino was planned replace, leading to the abandonment of 145 Street but there was uproar from apartment buildings that wanted the station kept and wanted to avoid having to walk the ~1/3 mile to the 148 Street-Lenox Terminal Station.

The station (along with 148 Street) was closed during late nights between 1990 and 2008 (with the except of shuttle train service September 1994 and September 1995), with passenger directed to nearby bus routes because of low-ridership on previous shuttle trains to 135 Street (which are also an operational nightmare because of poor switch configurations. On July 27, 2008 late night 3 train service finally began operating between Times Square and 148 Street, restoring full time subway service to this station.

The station itself is of the typical design of an IRT local station from the Heins & LaFarge era of designing the original subway system as the station opened on November 23, 1984. There are two short side platforms both of witch are fairly narrow towards the ends and get a bit wider in the middle near fare control. There is no way to board uptown trains at this station, all that is on the uptown platform are two exits to the NE and SE corners of 145 Street and Malcom X Blvd (Lenox Avenue) with high exit turnstiles by each staircase. The downtown platform has entrance staircases down from the NW and SW corners of 145 Street Street and Malcom X Blvd (Lenox Avenue) to its fare control area with the token booth.

Booth platforms still have their original terra cotta cartouches with 145 on them although odd colors of paint seem to have gotten on them. Many original 145 Street tiled name tablets are also along the platform. Unfortunately, the roof has been replaced at some point over the years so there is no more ornamentation on it and its flat. There are also a couple of mosaic tiled replicas of the 145 Street cartouches, towards the ends of the platforms that were the first extensions in the 1920s. The station in many places, particularly near the northern end has many more columns that most and almost provide a fence between the train and the platform.
Photo 1-30: July 24, 2008

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