46 Street
New York City Subway station (rapid transit)
View of northbound platform
Station statistics
Address	46th Street & Broadway Queens, NY 11103
Borough	Queens
Locale	Astoria
Coordinates	40°45′24″N 73°54′51″W / 40.756685°N 73.914256°W / 40.756685; -73.914256
Division	B (IND)[1]
Line	IND Queens Boulevard Line
Services	E  (late nights) ​   F  (late nights) ​   R  (all times except late nights)
Transit	MTA Bus: Q104
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Other information
Opened	August 19, 1933; 90 years ago (1933-08-19)
Opposite- direction transfer	No
Traffic
2022	1,591,672[3]  27.3%
Rank	180 out of 423[3]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station Steinway Street E  ​F  ​R  toward Bay Ridge–95th Street Northern Boulevard E  ​F  ​R  toward Forest Hills–71st Avenue
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York
Track layout Legend to Northern Boulevard to Steinway Street
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only Stops weekdays during the day

The 46th Street station is a local station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 46th Street and Broadway in Astoria, Queens, it is served by the R train at all times except nights, and the E and F trains at night.

History

The Queens Boulevard Line was one of the first lines built by the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND),^[4][5][6] and stretches between the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan and 179th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.^[4][6][7] The Queens Boulevard Line was in part financed by a Public Works Administration (PWA) loan and grant of $25 million.^[8] One of the proposed stations would have been located at 46th Street.

The first section of the line, west from Roosevelt Avenue to 50th Street, opened on August 19, 1933. E trains ran local to Hudson Terminal (today's World Trade Center) in Manhattan, while the GG (predecessor to current G service) ran as a shuttle service between Queens Plaza and Nassau Avenue on the IND Crosstown Line.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14]}

The station entrances to 48th Street did not open until some time after October 1933, when the Astoria Heights Taxpayers Association circulated petitions demanding that these entrances be opened.^[15]

The station was closed in June 2023 for structural improvements.

Station layout

Ground	Street level	Exit/entrance
Platform level	Side platform
	Southbound local	← toward Middle Village–Metropolitan Avenue weekdays (Steinway Street) ← toward Bay Ridge–95th Street (Steinway Street) ← toward World Trade Center, toward Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue late nights (Steinway Street)
	Northbound local	→ toward Forest Hills–71st Avenue weekdays (Northern Boulevard) → → toward Forest Hills–71st Avenue (Northern Boulevard) → → toward Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer, toward Jamaica–179th Street late nights (Northern Boulevard) →
	Side platform

This underground station has two tracks and two side platforms. The E and F trains serve the station at night,^[16][17] and the R train serves the station at all times except late nights.^[18] The station is between Steinway Street to the west and Northern Boulevard to the east.^[19] The express tracks on the IND Queens Boulevard Line, used by the E and F trains during daytime hours, run via a separate routing under Northern Boulevard.

Both platforms have a purple tile band with a black border and mosaic name tablets reading "46TH ST." in white sans-serif lettering on a black background and purple border. Small tile captions reading "46TH ST" in white on black run below the tile band, and directional signs in the same style are present under some of the name tablets.^{[citation needed]} The tile band was part of a color-coded tile system used throughout the IND.^[20] The tile colors were designed to facilitate navigation for travelers going away from Lower Manhattan. As such, the purple tiles used at the 46th Street station were originally also used at Queens Plaza, the next express station to the west, while a different tile color is used at Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue, the next express station to the east. Purple tiles are similarly used at the other local stations between Queens Plaza and Roosevelt Avenue.^[21][22]

Royal purple I-beam columns run along both platforms at regular intervals, alternating ones having the standard black station name plate with white lettering.^{[citation needed]} The I-beam piers are located every 15 feet (4.6 m) and support girders above the platforms. The roof girders are also connected to columns in the platform walls.^[23]: 3 The tunnel is covered by a U-shaped trough that contains utility pipes and wires. The outer walls of this trough are composed of columns, spaced approximately every 5 feet (1.5 m) with concrete infill between them. There is a 1-inch (25 mm) gap between the tunnel wall and the platform wall, which is made of 4-inch (100 mm)-thick brick covered over by a tiled finish. The columns between the tracks are also spaced every 5 feet (1.5 m), with no infill.^[23]: 3

Exits

Both platforms have one same-level fare control area at either ends and there are no crossovers or crossunders. The full-time side is at the west (railroad south) end of the Manhattan-bound platform. It has a turnstile bank, token booth, and one staircase to the northwest corner of 46th Street and Broadway. The fare control area on the same end of Forest Hills-bound platform has a part-time turnstile bank and token booth (with two High Entry-Exit Turnstiles providing access to and from the station at all times) and one staircase to the southwest corner of 46th Street and Broadway.^[24]

The fare control area on the east (railroad north) end of the Manhattan-bound platform has a turnstile bank (with two High Entry-Exit Turnstiles providing access to and from the station at all times) and one staircase going up to the north side of Newtown Road between Broadway and 48th Street. The fare control area on this end of the Forest Hills-bound also contains full height turnstiles, as well as one staircase going up to the southeast corner of Broadway and 48th Street.^[24]

Old token booths at this station were located at the center of both platforms.^[25][26] Both token booths have since been repurposed; the Forest Hills-bound platform has a set of doors leading into an employee-only facility while the Manhattan-bound platform has a wide fenced off area.^[27]