Shepherd Avenue station

The Shepherd Avenue station is a local station on the IND Fulton Street Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Shepherd 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.

Shepherd Avenue
New York City Subway station (rapid transit)
R179 C train arriving on the southbound platform
Station statistics
Address	Shepherd Avenue & Pitkin Avenue Brooklyn, New York
Borough	Brooklyn
Locale	East New York
Coordinates	40.674064°N 73.880825°W / 40.674064; -73.880825
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; 75 years ago (November 28, 1948)
Opposite- direction transfer	Yes
Traffic
2023	559,941[2]  3.3%
Rank	371 out of 423[2]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station Van Siclen Avenue A  ​C  toward 168th Street Local Euclid Avenue A  ​C  Terminus
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York
Track layout Legend to Van Siclen Avenue to Euclid Avenue
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only

Construction on the Shepherd 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

Station entrance

Shepherd 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 Shepherd 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. The Broadway−East New York station was complete but not in operation due to lack of signal equipment, and the remaining stations to Euclid Avenue were unfinished shells.^[6][8][9] At the time, work on the section that included the Shepherd 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 Shepherd 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 Linwood Street and Montauk Avenue stations, which closed on April 26, 1956 when the connection to the eastern Fulton elevated was opened.^[7][16]

Station layout

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

Mosaic name tablet

This underground station has two side platforms and four tracks.^[17] 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.^[18][19] The station is between Euclid Avenue to the east (railroad south) and Van Siclen Avenue to the west (railroad north).^[20]

Both platform walls have a periwinkle trim line with a dark periwinkle border and mosaic name tablets reading "SHEPHERD AVE." in white sans-serif lettering on a dark periwinkle background and periwinkle border. Small tile captions reading "SHEPHERD" 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 where the exit is.

This station has a full length mezzanine above the platforms and tracks.

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 Shepherd Avenue.^[21]

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 (PDF) from the original on February 12, 2018. 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 (PDF) from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
17. Dougherty, Peter (2020). Tracks of the New York City Subway 2020 (16th ed.). Dougherty. OCLC 1056711733.
18. "A Subway Timetable, Effective December 17, 2023". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
19. "C Subway Timetable, Effective December 17, 2023". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
20. "Subway Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. September 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
21. "MTA Neighborhood Maps: Shepherd Av (C)". mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. September 2018. Archived from the original on September 29, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2019.

External links

• nycsubway.org – IND Fulton: Shepherd Avenue
• Station Reporter — C Train
• The Subway Nut — Shepherd Avenue Pictures Archived November 12, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
• Shepherd Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Platforms from Google Maps Street View