Third Avenue – 149th Street (IRT White Plains Road Line)

For other places with the same name, see Third Avenue (disambiguation).

"149th Street (IRT White Plains Road Line)" redirects here. It is not to be confused with 149th Street – Grand Concourse (IRT White Plains Road Line).

Third Avenue – 149th Street
New York City Subway rapid transit station
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Station statistics
Address	East 149th Street, Third, Willis & Melrose Avenues Bronx, NY 10455
Borough	The Bronx
Locale	The Hub & Mott Haven
Coordinates
Division	A (IRT)
Line	IRT White Plains Road Line
Services	2  (all times)       5  (all except late nights)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: Bx2, Bx4, Bx4A, Bx15, Bx19, Bx21, Bx41, Bx41 SBS
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Other information
Opened	July 10, 1905 (1905-07-10)
Accessible
Traffic
Passengers (2014)	7,763,151  6.2%
Rank	54 out of 421
Station succession
Next north	Jackson Avenue (local): 2  5 all except late nights and rush hours, peak direction East 180th Street (express): 5
Next south	149th Street – Grand Concourse: 2  5
Next north	Simpson Street (local): 2  5 all except late nights and rush hours, peak direction East 180th Street (express): 5
Next south	135th Street (via Lenox): 2  125th Street (via Lexington): 5
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction Stops all times Stops rush hours in the peak direction only

Third Avenue – 149th Street is a station on the IRT White Plains Road Line of the New York City Subway. It is located at Third Avenue and East 149th Street (the latter of which is also known as Eugenio Maria de Hostos Boulevard) in The Hub in the South Bronx adjacent to Mott Haven and Melrose, and is served by the 2 and 5 trains, the latter of which does not stop here during late night hours. It is the second busiest station in the Bronx (161st Street – Yankee Stadium has more riders), 54th overall, with 7,310,115 passengers as of 2013.

History

The station opened on July 10, 1905, along with the 149th Street – Grand Concourse station and the connection with the IRT Lenox Avenue Line in Manhattan. Free transfers were provided between the subway and the existing 149th Street elevated station of the IRT Third Avenue Line, which opened in 1887. The convergence of the two rapid transit lines, the surface trolley lines along Third Avenue and 149th Street, and the ensuing commercial development led to the coining of the name "the Hub" for the intersection in the early 20th Century.

Following the closure of the Third Avenue elevated in 1973, free paper transfers were provided between the subway and the Bx55 limited bus which replaced the elevated. Because of the unique transfer, the station was one of the first to test the MetroCard system in the early 1990s.

Station layout

G	Street Level	Exit/Entrance (Uptown elevator at SW corner of 149th Street and 3rd Avenue; downtown elevator at NW corner)
P Platform level	Side platform, doors will open on the right
	Southbound	← toward Flatbush Avenue (149th Street – Grand Concourse) ← toward Flatbush Avenue weekdays or Bowling Green weekends (149th Street – Grand Concourse)
	Northbound	→ toward Wakefield – 241st Street (Jackson Avenue) → → toward Nereid Avenue PM rush or Dyre Avenue all times (East 180th Street rush hours, Jackson Avenue other times) →
	Side platform, doors will open on the right

File:3 Av 149 IRT 25 sta jeh.JPG

Street stair

The station has two tracks and two side platforms, with no crossovers between the platforms. The station has been renovated, with ADA-accessible elevators installed on both sides of the station. The fare control is at platform level and there is a closed crossunder. Each fare control area has a bus transfer booth, which was used for the connection to the former Bx55 bus route that replaced the IRT Third Avenue Line in the Bronx. The extra booths and turnstiles, while still present, are no longer in use, having closed in July 1997 when system-wide free transfers were introduced with the MetroCard.

The station tiles have dark red and dark green/gray lower accents and dark red upper border. There are ceramic mosaics, installed in 1996 under the MTA's Arts for Transit program, entitled Una Raza, Un Mundo, Universo (One Race, One World, One Universe), by Jose Ortega. Four such mosaics are on each platform near the fare control. The token booths are built into the wall. Prior to the renovation, terra cotta "3" plaques were on the platform walls. One of these has been preserved at the New York Transit Museum.

For each platform, three staircases lead up from fare control to the street; the north side of 149th Street for the Manhattan-bound platform, and the south side for the Bronx-bound platform. The elevators are located on the west side of the intersection.

North of the station (geographically one block east) at Bergen Avenue, the tracks ascend to become an elevated structure for the trip to East 180th Street. This is the longest section of elevated track built under IRT Contract I. Rising to the El level one can still see the shortened supports for former track connections with the Third Avenue El.

Points of interest

The station is located in The Hub, the oldest major shopping locale in the Bronx.

Nearby points of interest include:

• Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School
• Bronx Opera House
• College of New Rochelle, John Cardinal O'Connor Campus.
• Patterson Houses
• South Bronx Educational Campus, formerly South Bronx High School.

See also

• 149th Street (IRT Third Avenue Line)

External links

• nycsubway.org—IRT White Plains Road Line: 3rd Avenue/149th Street
• nycsubway.org — Una Raza, Un Mundo, Universo (One Race, One World, One Universe) Artwork by Jose Ortega (1996)
• Station Reporter — 2 Train
• Station Reporter — 5 Train
• The Subway Nut — 3rd Avenue – 149th Street Pictures
• MTA's Arts For Transit — 3rd Avenue – 149th Street (IRT White Plains Road Line)
• Third Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Platforms from Google Maps Street View