Jamaica–179th Street station

New York City Subway station in Queens

The Jamaica–179th Street station is an express terminal station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located under Hillside Avenue at 179th Street in Jamaica, Queens, it is served by the F train at all times, the <F> train during rush hours in the reverse peak direction, and a few rush hour E trains. The station has 15 entrances, including two at Midland Parkway in Jamaica Estates. Jamaica–179th Street was opened on December 11, 1950, although a station had been planned at 178th Street as early as 1928. At the time, the Queens Boulevard Line was part of the Independent Subway System (IND), but the original IND plans did not provide for constructing the 178th Street station until the line was extended even further to Queens Village. The line opened to 169th Street, the next station west, in 1937. Various changes in plans, as well as material shortages due to the Great Depression and World War II, delayed the project until 1946. Jamaica–179th Street became among Queens' busiest upon its 1950 opening. After a period of deterioration, the station was renovated in the 1980s and again in the 2000s. As a result of planning for a never built expansion to Queens Village, the station has eight storage tracks to its east, giving it the highest peak capacity of any New York City Subway station.

The 179th Street station (drawn up as 178th Street) had been planned along with the rest of the IND Queens Boulevard Line as its original terminus as early as 1928. Under these plans, the 178th Street station would be built during a further eastward extension. The Queens Boulevard Line was extended up to 169th Street on April 24, 1937, with the tail tracks and switches used to store and reverse trains. The 169th Street station provided an unsatisfactory terminal setup for a four track line: there were no storage facilities provided at the 169th Street station, and since 169th Street was a local station, trains on the outer local tracks had to cross over to the inner express tracks to reverse direction. In June 1936, the association petitioned Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia for the extension. As early as 1936, the New York City Board of Transportation (predecessor to the New York City Transit Authority and the MTA) was evaluating construction of the station along with further eastward extensions of the line, with the board's 1940 budget allocating funding for the station. Under the 1940 plans, construction of the station was set to take place between 1941 and 1945. In January 1941, city councilman James A. Burke proposed extending the line to 178th Street, in order to relieve congestion at 169th Street. Burke believed that a station could be built within the existing tunnel and trackage and cost only $100,000, while engineers from the Board of Transportation stated it would require additional tunneling and new relay tracks extending to 184th Street. In July 1941, the Board of Transportation requested funding for a new express terminal station to replace 169th Street. Construction was delayed, however, due to material shortages caused by the Great Depression, and further delayed due to the onset of World War II. The plans for the station were approved after the war in 1946, in order to "provide a more satisfactory terminal" for the line. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on March 5, 1947, at 182nd Street and Hillside Avenue, with Mayor William O'Dwyer and now borough president Burke in attendance. A bus terminal accompanying the station, similar to the 165th Street Bus Terminal, was initially planned for the station but never built. The station opened on December 11, 1950, at the cost of over $10 million; Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri and Queens Borough President Maurice A. FitzGerald attended the opening. It was the last subway station whose construction was funded by New York City, until the construction of the 34th Street–Hudson Yards station on the 7 Subway Extension beginning in 2008. Upon opening, the station became a major transit hub for passengers from south and east Queens and Nassau County, and led to increased development in Jamaica. In 1981, the MTA listed the 179th Street station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system. Later in the 1980s, the station was renovated and modernized; as part of the renovation, the IND style purple tile band was removed from the station walls, and a design with intertwining blue and orange stripes was added. In 2002, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced that elevators would be installed at the 179th Street station. Subsequently, elevators were installed in the station to make it ADA accessible. The elevators were opened around 2005. Starting in August 2007, the MTA began installing decorative ventilation grates along Hillside Avenue above the station, and sealing other grates, both in order to combat flooding. At the time, the Hillside Avenue subway was considered the most flood prone area in the subway system.

Initially, E trains served the station at all times, while F trains only operated to the station during late nights. In 1953, the platforms at several IND stations were lengthened to allow eleven car trains; originally, service was provided with ten car trains. The extra car increased the total carrying capacity by 4,000 passengers. The operation of eleven car trains ended in 1958 because of operational difficulties. The signal blocks, especially in Manhattan, were too short to accommodate the longer trains, and the motormen had a very small margin of error to properly platform the train. It was found that operating ten car trains allowed for two additional trains per hour to be scheduled. 179th Street served as the full time northern terminal for both Queens Boulevard express services (the E and F trains), which led to congestion at the station, until December 11, 1988, when the E was rerouted to the Archer Avenue Subway. Late night G service to this station was replaced by F trains on August 30, 1997. Starting in 2001, selected rush hour E trains began running to 179th Street, making express stops along Hillside Avenue, due to capacity constraints at Jamaica Center. Starting on August 28, 2023, and continuing through the first quarter of 2024, E service to 179th Street was temporarily suspended.

The configuration of the relay tracks is evidence of the original plans to build an extension of the Queens Boulevard Line further east into Queens. The line would have continued under Hillside Avenue to Springfield Boulevard and Braddock Avenue (both formerly Rocky Hill Road) in Queens Village, The upper level was to be extended eastward while the lower level tracks were always intended to be relay tracks. The tracks on the upper level are longer than the lower level tracks and the upper level tracks have a wooden partition at the bumper blocks. A mosaic sign within one of the station's exits points to the "Monastery and Retreat House". This refers to the Passionist Monastery of the Immaculate Conception and Bishop Molloy Retreat House, located along a complex one block north of the station.