South Ferry (IRT station)
- Until 1950, the IRT also had an elevated station at South Ferry.
| New York City Subway station South Ferry Manhattan | |
|---|---|
| Line | IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line |
| Services | 1 |
| Transfers | Staten Island Ferry |
| Crossovers | single side platform; free access between directions |
| Next north | Rector Street (1) |
| Next south | terminal |
| Opened | July 10, 1905 |
South Ferry is the southern terminal of the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line, carrying 1 service, supplemented by 9 service during rush hours. The single platform is on the outside of the outer track of a two-track loop, with room for only the front five cars on the severely curved platform. Gap fillers are used to bridge the gap between the platform and the doors.
Reconstruction is planned as part of a new station complex in the area, with direct access to the adjacent South Ferry, including the Staten Island Ferry.
Inner platform
| Line | IRT Lexington Avenue Line |
| Services | closed |
| Crossovers | single side platform; free access between directions |
| Next north | Bowling Green |
| Next south | terminal |
| Opened | July 1, 1918 |
| Closed | February 12, 1977 |
The outer platform is used by IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line trains, but it was originally built for the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. When the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line opened in 1918, it started using the outer platform, and the Lexington Avenue Line was moved to a new inner track and inner platform. This platform has an even sharper curve, and only the center doors opened at South Ferry, with special arched openings in a wall between the platform and track at the locations of the doors.
In the late 1950s, the IRT division began to use mostly R-type cars, which could not have only the center doors opened, and 5 trains (which ended at South Ferry evenings and weekends only) and 6 trains (which ended at South Ferry late nights) were rerouted to the outer loop. The Bowling Green-South Ferry Shuttle, which ran weekdays and at first also late nights, continued to use the inner loop, running to the west platform at Bowling Green until 1977; since then the inner platform has been closed, and Lexington Avenue Lines have stopped using the outer loop.
There was never a free transfer between the two platforms. The inner track is now used to turn 5 trains at all times but rush hours (when some trains extend into Brooklyn; the rest still turn here) and late nights (when they don't run in Manhattan).