Van Siclen Avenue station (IND Fulton Street Line)

For other uses, see Van Siclen Avenue.

Van Siclen Avenue
New York City Subway station (rapid transit)
View across tracks from southbound stair area
Station statistics
Address	Van Siclen Avenue & Pitkin Avenue Brooklyn, New York
Borough	Brooklyn
Locale	East New York
Coordinates	40.672697°N 73.890266°W / 40.672697; -73.890266
Division	B (IND)[1]
Line	IND Fulton Street Line
Services	A  (late nights) ​   C  (all except late nights)
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	November 28, 1948; 76 years ago (November 28, 1948)
Opposite- direction transfer	Yes
Traffic
2023	525,801[2]  4.9%
Rank	379 out of 423[2]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station Liberty Avenue A  ​C  toward 168th Street Local Shepherd Avenue A  ​C  toward Euclid Avenue
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York
Track layout to Liberty Avenue to Shepherd Avenue
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only

The Van Siclen Avenue station is a local station on the IND Fulton Street Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Van Siclen and Pitkin Avenues in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, it is served by the C train at all times except nights, when the A train takes over service.

Construction on the Van Siclen Avenue station started in 1938 as part of a four-station extension of the Fulton Street subway eastward under Pitkin Avenue toward Queens. Work was delayed by funding problems due to World War II, even though the stations were mostly complete. Construction resumed on the extension of the Fulton Street Line in November 1946, and this part of the Fulton Street Line opened in 1948. The extension of the Fulton Street subway replaced the Fulton Street elevated line, which closed afterward.

History

Van Siclen Avenue was part of a four-station extension of the Fulton Street subway along Pitkin Avenue, past its original planned terminus at Broadway Junction.^[3][4][5] The Fulton Street subway was the city-owned Independent System (IND)'s main line from Downtown Brooklyn to southern Queens.^[3]

Further construction past the line's initial terminal at Rockaway Avenue was delayed by funding problems due to the Great Depression in the 1930s.^[6] This was temporarily solved by federal Works Progress Administration funding starting in 1936. The portion continuing from east of Rockaway Avenue along Pennsylvania and Pitkin Avenues to Crystal Street, including the Van Siclen Avenue station, began construction in 1938.^[5][7] The progress lasted only a few years, as all work on the last portions in Brooklyn was stopped by December 1942 shortly after the United States entered World War II due to material shortages, with Broadway−East New York complete but not in operation due to lack of signal equipment, and the remaining stations to Euclid Avenue as unfinished shells.^[6][8][9] At the time, work on the section that included the Van Siclen Avenue station was more than 99% complete, but vital equipment had yet to be installed, precluding its opening.^[7]

Construction resumed on the extension of the Fulton Street Line in November 1946,^[10][11] following the conclusion of the war and the allocation of funds obtained by Mayor William O'Dwyer.^[12][6] After several test runs, the station opened to the public in the early morning of November 28, 1948, along with the rest of the line to Euclid Avenue.^[5][13] The cost of the extension was about $46.5 million.^[6][14] Because Van Siclen Avenue and three other stations were completed later than the rest of the line, they received different design features than other IND stations, including different wall tiles and fluorescent lighting.^[6][5][15] It later became the replacement for the elevated BMT Fulton Street Line's Van Siclen Avenue station, which closed on April 26, 1956 when the connection to the eastern Fulton elevated was opened.^[7][16]

Under the 2015–2019 Metropolitan Transportation Authority Capital Program, the station, along with thirty other New York City Subway stations, was slated to undergo a complete overhaul and would have been entirely closed for up to six months. Updates would have include cellular service, Wi-Fi, charging stations, and improved signage and station lighting.^[17][18] However, most of these renovations were deferred until the 2020–2024 Capital Program due to a lack of funding.^[19]

Station layout

Ground	Street level	Exit/entrance
Mezzanine		Fare control, station agent, MetroCard machines
Platform level	Side platform
	Westbound local	← toward 168th Street (Liberty Avenue) ← toward Inwood–207th Street late nights (Liberty Avenue)
	Westbound express	← does not stop here
	Eastbound express	→ does not stop here →
	Eastbound local	→ toward Euclid Avenue (Shepherd Avenue) → → toward Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue late nights (Shepherd Avenue) →
	Side platform

Mosaic name tablet

This underground station has two side platforms and four tracks.^[20] The C train stops here at all times except late nights, while the A serves the station at night and uses the center express tracks to bypass the station during daytime hours.^[21][22] The station is between Shepherd Avenue to the east (railroad south) and Liberty Avenue to the west (railroad north).^[23]

Both platform walls have a periwinkle trim line with a dark periwinkle border and mosaic name tablets reading "VAN SICLEN AVE." in white sans-serif lettering on a dark periwinkle background and periwinkle border. Small tile captions reading "VAN SICLEN" in white lettering on dark periwinkle run under the trim line, and directional signs in the same style are present under some of the name tablets. The walls have no ads, and there are no columns excepting a few in the recesses where the stairs are.

Exits

There is a crossover and a single, double wide stairway from each platform to the mezzanine. Outside of fare control, exits lead to all four corners of Pitkin Avenue and Van Siclen Avenue.^[24]

References

1. "Glossary". Second Avenue Subway Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) (PDF). Vol. 1. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. March 4, 2003. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
2. "Annual Subway Ridership (2018–2023)". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2024.
3. Duffus, R.L. (September 22, 1929). "Our Great Subway Network Spreads Wider; New Plans of Board of Transportation Involve the Building of More Than One Hundred Miles of Additional Rapid Transit Routes for New York" (PDF). The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
4. Proposed Additional Rapid Transit Lines And Proposed Vehicular Tunnel. Board of Transportation of the City of New York Engineering Department. August 23, 1929. Archived from the original on January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
5. "Trains Roll on $47,000,000 Fulton St. Subway Extension". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. November 29, 1948. p. 2. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
6. Raskin, Joseph B. (2013). The Routes Not Taken: A Trip Through New York City's Unbuilt Subway System. New York, New York: Fordham University Press. doi:10.5422/fordham/9780823253692.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-82325-369-2.
7. Linder, Bernard (February 2006). "Fulton Street Subway". New York Division Bulletin. 49 (2). Electric Railroader's Association: 2. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
8. Blauvelt, Paul (June 9, 1946). "Shortages Snarl $50,000,000 Tube Links". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 21. Archived from the original on October 26, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "Priorities May Halt Work on Fulton Tube: Vital Defense Materials Are Needed To Complete Spur to Queens County Line". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. November 18, 1941. p. 3. Archived from the original on January 27, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
10. Jaffe, Alfred (December 6, 1946). "Borough Subway Relief Still 2 or 3 Years Off". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. pp. 1, 5. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
11. "Last Word in Subways and Cars for Boro". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. November 23, 1948. p. 8. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
12. Sparberg, Andrew J. (October 2014). From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-6190-1.
13. "Fulton Subway Stations Open After All-Night 'Dry Runs'". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. November 28, 1948. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
14. Report for the three and one-half years ending June 30, 1949. New York City Board of Transportation. 1949. hdl:2027/mdp.39015023094926.
15. "Last Word in Subways and Cars for Boro". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. November 23, 1948. p. 8. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
16. "First Leg of Rockaways Transit Opened at Cost of $10,154,702" (PDF). The New York Times. April 30, 1956. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
17. Whitford, Emma (January 8, 2016). "MTA Will Completely Close 30 Subway Stations For Months-Long "Revamp"". Gothamist. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
18. "MTAStations" (PDF). governor.ny.gov. Government of the State of New York. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 4, 2019. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
19. Berger, Paul (April 3, 2018). "New York Subway Cuts Back Plans to Renovate Stations". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on April 3, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
20. Dougherty, Peter (2020). Tracks of the New York City Subway 2020 (16th ed.). Dougherty. OCLC 1056711733.
21. "A Subway Timetable, Effective December 17, 2023". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
22. "C Subway Timetable, Effective December 15, 2024". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
23. "Subway Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. September 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
24. "MTA Neighborhood Maps: Van Siclen Av (C)" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. September 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2019.

External links

• nycsubway.org – IND Fulton Street Line: Van Siclen Avenue
• Station Reporter — C Train
• The Subway Nut — Van Siclen Avenue Pictures
• Van Siclen Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Platforms from Google Maps Street View