Template:34thStreetHeraldSquare

34th Street/Herald Square is a massive complex serving the IND 6th Avenue, the BMT Broadway, and the PATH line from New Jersey. As one might expect, this is the third busiest station complex in the system.

A textual description of the layout of this station is not easy. The Broadway and 6th Avenue subways cross in an "X" pattern following their respective streets, with the midpoint of the "X" at about 32nd Street. The 6th Avenue line, built later, passes underneath the Broadway line and the elevation of the tracks shows it; the 6th Avenue line tracks dip way down in the middle of its station, with the ends higher. From the top down, at the south end, the layout is roughly as follows: BMT mezzanine; BMT tracks; PATH station and tracks; 6th Avenue mezzanine; 6th Avenue tracks. Underneath all of this at a much lower level are the Long Island Rail Road tunnels from Queens to Pennsylvania Station. As the PATH predates the subway by about 32 years, its tracks are closer to the surface of 6th Avenue, with the subway tracks underneath. (Actually, the layout is more complex than that, see the descriptions of 23rd St./6th Ave. and 14th St./6th Ave. for more details.)

Discontiguous mezzanines exist at both the north and south end of this complex, providing a transfer at both ends. At the north end there is a single mezzanine with stairs and elevators to the Broadway platforms on the west and the 6th Avenue platforms on the east. At the south end, the 6th Avenue and Broadway mezzanines are connected inside the fare-paid area by stairs. The mezzanines are also connected outside the fare-paid area as well, and it is this area that provides access to the PATH station. A long passageway from one end of the complex to another connects the PATH mezzanine at the south with the "shared" mezzanine at the north. (Phew!)

There are numerous exits and passageways including a direct entrance to the shopping center that has variously been known as Gimbels, A&S Plaza, and Manhattan Mall. The station has exits from 30th St. at the south end, to 35th St. at the north end, and various others in between. Until the mid-1980s a passageway was available to connect, outside the fare control, to the IRT 7th Ave./West Side line and to Penn Station and the commuter railroads there, but this was closed citing security concerns and the lack of desire of the private property owner to maintain it.

Prior to a 1990s renovation effort, this was a dungeon of a station complex. The lighting was miserably faint, signs all mixed up, stairs dark and tricky. The renovations have improved all aspects of the station, although little of the original IND or BMT decor was kept. The combined stations are blended into a unified scheme of decor. The 6th Avenue station received new "34" monogram tablets installed along the trackside walls (these are not mosaics). The tile is white with two rows of bright red accents. The BMT station retained its "Dual Contracts"-style "34" mosaic monograms.

Some relative depths of stations in the 34th St./6th Ave. complex are as follows, +/- 10 feet.

• IND Platforms, 40 feet below street
• BMT Platforms, 20 feet below street
• PATH Platforms, 30 feet below street

Transfer to IND 6th Avenue Line, BMT Broadway Line, PATH Port Authority Trans-Hudson