Woodhaven Boulevard station (IND Queens Boulevard Line)

the station at Queens Boulevard

New York City Subway station in Queens

The Woodhaven Boulevard station is a local station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway, consisting of four tracks. Located in Elmhurst, Queens, it is served by the M train on weekdays, the R train at all times except nights, and the E and F trains at night. The station serves the adjacent Queens Center Mall, as well as numerous bus lines. Woodhaven Boulevard was opened on December 31, 1936, as Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza. At the time, the station was part of the Independent Subway System. The plaza was demolished in the 1950s, but the name tablets displaying the station's original name were kept. In the 1980s, the Woodhaven Boulevard station was renamed after Queens Center, an adjacent shopping mall. The station was renovated in the 1990s.

The Queens Boulevard Line was one of the first built by the city owned Independent Subway System (IND), and was planned to stretch between the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan and 178th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, with a stop at Woodhaven Boulevard. The line was first proposed in 1925. Construction of the line was approved by the New York City Board of Estimate on October 4, 1928. The line was constructed using the cut and cover tunneling method, and to allow pedestrians to cross, temporary bridges were built over the trenches. The first section of the line opened on August 19, 1933 from the connection to the Eighth Avenue Line at 50th Street to Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights. Later that year, a $23 million loan was approved to finance the remainder of the line, along with other IND lines. The remainder of the line was built by the Public Works Administration. In 1934 and 1935, construction of the extension to Jamaica was suspended for 15 months and was halted by strikes. Construction was further delayed due to a strike in 1935, instigated by electricians opposing wages paid by the General Railway Signal Company. By August 1935, work had resumed on the Woodhaven Boulevard station and three other stations on the Queens Boulevard Line. During the station's construction, the main road of Queens Boulevard was depressed into underpasses at the intersections with Woodhaven Boulevard and Horace Harding Boulevard (also known as Nassau Boulevard). The easternmost underpass now carries Queens Boulevard below the Long Island Expressway (LIE), which replaced Horace Harding Boulevard. As a result of the extension, areas in Elmhurst were accessible by subway. The E train, which initially served all stops on the new extension, began making express stops in April 1937, and local GG trains began serving the extension at the time.

The station was originally named "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza", after Slattery Plaza, the area where four main Queens thoroughfares (Eliot Avenue and Horace Harding, Woodhaven, and Queens Boulevards) intersected. former New York City Board of Transportation chief engineer who died in 1932 while supervising the construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line. The construction of the LIE along the Horace Harding corridor in the 1950s resulted in the demolition of Slattery Plaza, although the name tablets retained the original name even after the plaza's demolition.

Queens Center Mall first opened in 1973, but the name convention on subway maps was not in use until the mid to late 1980s. The station became dilapidated by the 1980s due to lack of maintenance over the years, and in 1981, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system. The station was also heavily used, serving 15,000 passengers per weekday by 1993. The refurbishment added a new token booth, new signage and platform edge strips, replaced platform tiles, staircase components, and lighting, and restored the station's restrooms. Four new turnstiles were added at the east end of the station, a new east end staircase was added to the north side of Queens Boulevard and the west end staircase was widened. A new public address system was added to the station, the west end token booth was moved closer to the turnstiles and turnstiles equipped for the Automated Fare Collection system were installed. The project was expected to be completed in September 1996. After the renovation, the station retained the now out of date "Woodhaven Blvd–Slattery Plaza" name tablets. In 2019, as part of an initiative to increase the accessibility of the New York City Subway system, the MTA announced that it would install elevators at the Woodhaven Boulevard station as part of the MTA's 2020–2024 Capital Program. In November 2022, the MTA announced that it would award a $965 million contract for the installation of 21 elevators across eight stations, including Woodhaven Boulevard.

There are four tracks and two side platforms; the two center express tracks are used by the E and F trains at all times except late nights. The E and F trains serve the station at night, the M train serves the station on weekdays during the day, and the R train serves the station at all times except late nights. The station is between Grand Avenue–Newtown to the west and 63rd Drive–Rego Park to the east. At either end of both platforms are bellmouth provisions to allow conversion into an express station. The tunnel wall extends outward to allow space for the two side platforms to be replaced with island platforms, and for the local tracks to be relocated outside the island platforms. The station would have accommodated a major system expansion, with additional service coming from the Roosevelt Avenue Terminal station and the former LIRR Rockaway Line. Requests to convert the station were also put forward by the local community shortly after the station opened, due to heavy bus traffic feeding into the station and overcrowding at the Roosevelt Avenue express stop. The name tablets on this station still retain the original name of Woodhaven Boulevard–Slattery Plaza. The tilework in this station consists of blue tile bands with a black border, similar to the tilework found at the Elmhurst Avenue stop, two stations west. The tile band was part of a color coded tile system used throughout the IND. The tile colors were designed to facilitate navigation for travelers going away from Lower Manhattan. As such, the blue tiles used at the Woodhaven Boulevard station are also used at , the next express station to the west, while a different tile color is used at , the next express station to the east. Blue tiles are similarly used at the other local stations between Roosevelt Avenue and 71st Avenue. Near the edges of the platforms, I beam piers are located every 15 feet (5 m) and support girders above the platforms. The roof girders are also connected to columns in the walls adjoining each platform. The station's full length mezzanine allows crossover from any of the station's four staircases from each platform, with a total of eight staircases from the mezzanine to platform level. There is no direct indoor access to the Queens Center Mall's entrance at the northwest corner of Queens Boulevard and 59th Avenue from the mezzanine. The tunnel is covered by a U shaped trough that contains utility pipes and wires. The outer walls of this trough are composed of columns, spaced approximately every 5 feet (2 m) with concrete infill between them. There is a gap between the tunnel wall and the platform wall, which is made of thick brick covered over by a tiled finish. The columns between the tracks are also spaced every 5 feet (2 m), with no infill. These staircases date back to the station's original opening. There is an entrance to the southeast corner of Woodhaven and Queens Boulevards that, as a result of the construction of the Long Island Expressway in the mid 1950s, leads only to a sidewalk isolated between two entrance ramps to the expressway, requiring passengers to cross traffic signals on all sides. The construction of the Long Island Expressway removed this intersection.

The station and the nearby Queens Center Mall are served by nine local MTA Regional Bus Operations routes and two express bus routes. Three of the four Woodhaven Boulevard bus lines (Q11, Q21, Q52 SBS) terminate at the station, with the Q53 SBS bus continuing westward towards the Woodside – 61st Street Station. Except for the Q88, Rego Park bound Q59, Jamaica bound Q60, and Corona bound Q38, all northbound buses stop at the mall entrance, while all southbound buses as well as the QM10 and QM11 express buses stop at Hoffman Drive adjacent to Hoffman Park. The Q88 terminates at 92nd Street, in between the two halves of the mall. RouteStop locationNorth/West TerminalSouth/East TerminalvianotesLocal Bus RoutesQ11Queens Boulevard (northbound); Hoffman Drive (southbound)Woodhaven BoulevardOld Howard Beach or Hamilton BeachWoodhaven and Cross Bay BoulevardsQ21Howard BeachWoodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards, 155th Avenue, 157th AvenueQ29Jackson Heights (82nd Street Station)Glendale (81st Street and Myrtle Avenue)90th/92nd Streets, Dry Harbor Road, 80th StreetSome AM rush northbound service terminates here. Q3859th Avenue; Hoffman DriveCorona (60th Avenue and Otis Avenue)Rego Park (62nd Drive and 108th Street)Eliot Avenue, Metropolitan Avenue, Penelope Avenue, 63rd DriveVia Middle Village–Metropolitan Avenue StationQ52Queens Boulevard (northbound); Hoffman Drive (southbound)Woodhaven BoulevardArverne Q53 trips: Broadway and Queens Boulevard All trips: Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards, Rockaway Beach BoulevardSelect Bus ServiceQ53Woodside (61st Street Station)Rockaway Park (Beach 116th Street Station)Q59Queens BoulevardWilliamsburg, BrooklynRego Park (63rd Drive Station)Grand Street and Grand Avenue, Queens BoulevardQ60East Midtown, ManhattanSouth JamaicaQueensboro Bridge, Queens Boulevard, Sutphin BoulevardQ8892nd Street and 59th Avenue92nd StreetQueens Village (Queens Village LIRR Station)Horace Harding Expressway, 188th Street, 73rd Avenue, Springfield BoulevardExpress Bus RoutesQM10Woodhaven Boulevard (near Hoffman Drive)Midtown ManhattanRego Park / Elmhurst Loop (Drop off Only)3rd or 6th AvenueQM11Downtown ManhattanDowntown Loop