72nd Street (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)

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New York City Subway station 72nd Street


Station information
Line	IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
Services	1 2 3⁽¹²³⁴⁾
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	4
Other
Borough	Manhattan
Opened	October 27, 1904^[1]
Next north	Local: 79th Street 1 2⁽⁵⁾
	Express: 96th Street 2⁽¹²³⁴⁾ 3⁽¹²³⁴⁾
Next south	Local: 66th Street–Lincoln Center 1 2⁽⁵⁾
	Express: Times Square–42nd Street 2⁽¹²³⁴⁾ 3⁽¹²³⁴⁾

72nd Street is a station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Broadway, 72nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue (also known as Verdi Square) on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is several blocks to the south. The station is served by the 1 and 2 trains at all times, and by the 3 train at all times except late nights.

The original configuration of the station was inadequate by IRT standards. It had just one entrance (the headhouse between 71st and 72nd Streets), there was no crossover between the uptown and downtown sides of the station, and the platforms and stairways were unusually narrow. A substantial renovation was completed in October 2002, providing a new headhouse between 72nd and 73rd Streets, slightly wider platforms at the north end of the station, a crossover, and ADA compliance. The station remains unusual, in that the only access points are in the middle of traffic islands, with no station entrances from the sidewalk.

During the 1950s, the MTA considered converting the station to a local station by walling off the express tracks from the platforms. This would have coincided with 59th Street–Columbus Circle station becoming an express stop.