72nd Street (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line)

72nd Street
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Original control house (left) and newer control house, located on opposite sides of 72nd Street
Station statistics
Address	area of West 72nd Street, Broadway & Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10023
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Upper West Side
Coordinates	40°46′44″N 73°58′55″W / 40.779°N 73.982°W / 40.779; -73.982Coordinates: 40°46′44″N 73°58′55″W / 40.779°N 73.982°W / 40.779; -73.982
Division	A (IRT)
Line	IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
Services	1  (all times)       2  (all times)       3  (all times)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: M5, M7, M11, M57, M72, M104 MTA Bus: BxM2
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 island platforms cross-platform interchange
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	October 27, 1904; 112 years ago (1904-10-27)
Accessible
Wireless service
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	13,341,361  0.3%
Rank	22 out of 422
Station succession
Next north	96th Street (express): 2  3  79th Street (local): 1  2
Next south	66th Street–Lincoln Center (local): 1  2  Times Square–42nd Street (express): 2  3
Next north	96th Street: 1  2  3
Next south	66th Street–Lincoln Center (local): 1  2  Times Square–42nd Street (express): 2  3
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times Stops late nights only
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York Show map of the US
Control House on 72nd Street
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
MPS	Interborough Rapid Transit Subway Control Houses TR
NRHP Reference #	80002684
Added to NRHP	May 6, 1980
72nd Street Subway Station (IRT)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
MPS	New York City Subway System MPS
NRHP Reference #	04001017
Added to NRHP	September 17, 2004

72nd Street is an express 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 (including Verdi Square and Sherman Square) on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It is served by the 1, 2 and 3 trains at all times.

The 72nd Street station opened on October 27, 1904, as part of the original subway, with trains running from Brooklyn Bridge to 145th Street. The original configuration of the station was inadequate by IRT standards. It had just one entrance (the control house on the traffic island between 71st and 72nd Streets, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places), and the platforms and stairways were unusually narrow. There were no crossovers or crossunders as the control house had separate turnstile banks and token booths for each side. Express trains ran on the innermost two tracks, while local trains ran on the outer pair.

During the 1950s, the New York City Transit Authority (now the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or 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, which is a major transfer point to the IND Eighth Avenue Line, becoming an express stop.