Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street (New York City Subway)

Lexington Avenue–63rd Street
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Upper platform after reconstruction for the Second Avenue Subway
Station statistics
Address	Lexington Avenue & East 63rd Street New York, NY 10065
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Upper East Side, Lenox Hill
Coordinates	40°45′53″N 73°57′59″W / 40.764649°N 73.966398°W / 40.764649; -73.966398Coordinates: 40°45′53″N 73°57′59″W / 40.764649°N 73.966398°W / 40.764649; -73.966398
Division	B (BMT/IND)
Line	IND/BMT 63rd Street Lines
Services	F  (all times)       N  (selected rush-hour trips)       Q  (all times)
System transfers	With MetroCard only:       4  (all times)       5  (all except late nights)       6  (all times) <6> (weekdays until 8:45 p.m., peak direction)       N  (all times)       R  (all except late nights)       W  (weekdays only) at Lexington Avenue / 59th Street (Transfer stations are not accessible)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: M101, M102, M103 MTA Bus: BxM1
Structure	Underground
Depth	100 feet (30 m)
Levels	2
Platforms	2 island platforms (1 on each level) cross-platform interchange
Tracks	4 (2 on each level)
Other information
Opened	October 29, 1989; 27 years ago (1989-10-29)
Rebuilt	January 13, 2011; 6 years ago (2011-01-13) to January 1, 2017; 52 days ago (2017-01-01) (for Second Avenue Subway)
Accessible
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	4,718,159  5.3%
Rank	102 out of 425
Station succession
Next north	Roosevelt Island (63rd): F  72nd Street (2nd Ave): N  Q
Next south	57th Street (6th Avenue): F  57th Street–Seventh Avenue (Broadway): N  Q
Next north	Roosevelt Island (63rd): F  72nd Street (2nd Ave): N  Q
Next south	47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center (6th Avenue): F  Times Square–42nd Street (Broadway): N  Q
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times except late nights Stops all times Stops rush hours only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only Stops weekdays 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

Lexington Avenue–63rd Street is a New York City Subway station in Lenox Hill, Manhattan, shared by the IND and BMT 63rd Street Lines. Located at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street, it is served by the F and Q trains at all times, and by some N trains during rush hours. The station has two platform levels; trains headed southbound to downtown and Brooklyn use the upper level, while trains headed northbound to uptown and Queens, use the lower level.

The station was expanded as part of the construction of the Second Avenue Subway, which the N and Q trains use. Trains to and from the Second Avenue Subway began stopping here on January 1, 2017. Because of the construction, the station's original red-orange wall tiles were removed, and beige-white wall tiles were installed; in addition, a never-opened entrance at Third Avenue was redesigned and opened to the public.

The current 63rd Street Line was the final version of proposals for a northern midtown tunnel from the IND Queens Boulevard Line to the Second and Sixth Avenue Lines, which date back to the IND Second System of the 1920s and 1930s. The current plans were drawn up in the 1960s under the MTA's Program For Action.

Construction on the 63rd Street Line, including the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station, began on November 25, 1969. About US$1,230,000,000 was spent to create three tunnels and a half-dozen holes as part of construction on the Second Avenue and 63rd Street Lines. The station was built using a combination of cut-and-cover construction and tunneling machines. However, after the construction of the Second Avenue Subway ceased in 1975 due to the city's severe fiscal crisis, the BMT side basically led to a non-existent subway line, so the BMT side was abandoned and walled off with a temporary orange brick wall, and a false ceiling was placed on the upper level's IND side. Finishing touches were only applied to the IND side of the station. The tracks on the closed-off BMT side were used only to store trains outside of rush hour.