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62nd Street/ New Utrecht Avenue Complex
This complex serves the D West End line on the elevated
section, while the N Sea Beach line travels on the open cut
section below street level. Both lines share a common BMT
entrance located at the namesake intersection .
62nd Street (West End)
Opened 6/22/1916:
Express stop, 3 tracks, 2
island platforms, 2 fare control areas, F/T side at 62nd Street,
P/T side at 60th Street and is where the "French Connection"
chase sequence ends a few dozen feet south of this station.
Transfer to the N train at New Utrecht Ave station downstairs at
F/T end. The P/T side was actually renovated and has HEET
access available most of the day, of course a ghost booth once
existed here. New windows and lighting restores this
mezzanine to good condition. However the staircases from
street still have wooden boards. The rest of the station is in
need of TLC, especially the platform canopies. The F/T
area at the north end leads downstairs to the stationhouse
sitting inward on 62nd Street, of which you descend downstairs
again for the N train (see N line for more information on New
Utrecht Ave level). The BMT stationhouse used to have a
newsstand and two additional doors on the left side.
Outside and in front of the stationhouse is where the B23 bus
sits, up until the late 1940's this line was a trackless trolley
to Flatbush Ave. From the street area, you can see rope
and wires dangling below the staircases to the upper West End
level, and more wires along the elevated structures, these wires
are no longer live but were once used as overhead electrical
cables in order to power the PCC-type cars on the Trackless
Trolley Route 23. A yellow electrical circuit box is also
on the curb on 62nd Street and in front of the stationhouse, it
might be the box where the circuit breakers for the trackless
trolley were. For more information, please see our
Trackless Trolleys page.
New Utrecht Ave (Sea Beach) opened 8/23/1915:
The platform extensions are both to the north end and beyond the
main staircase, both ends are indoors. The north end has 2
staircases to the F/T booth and transfer to the D line upstairs.
The south end at 15th Ave and 62nd Street
is HEET access and ghost booth. The north end has unusual
bricks on the staircase walls, thus suggesting the staircase
were redone in the 1960’s along with the platform extension to
the north. The original staircase at this probable had only one
staircase to platform level. After the platform extension, the
staircase was redone in a T formation with two means of egress,
along with the installation of brick walls.
This station was the scene of an unusual incident in which a
mini van crashed through the retaining wall at street level and
landed wheels up on the Manhattan Bound N tracks.
A Station Agent relates this story:
" I was working in the booth when a customer came running
to the booth very excited and said that I had to kill the power,
a car is on the tracks. I told the customer to calm down and
that I am calling for help. I hit my emergency alarm and tried
to convince the supervisor of the incident. I finally got
results when I heard the call coming in on the police frequency
on the booth scanner. Supervisor agreed to put in the call which
was true. When I heard the train reply to the Control that there
is a car on the tracks and that it is getting ready to
explode and to call FD. I immediate used my PA system and
evacuated the station-upstairs and downstairs. Service on both
lines was disrupted in both directions. The driver fled the
station and was located and arrested by Police."
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