Lower East Side–Second Avenue (IND Sixth Avenue Line)

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Lower East Side–Second Avenue
New York City Subway station

Station information
Line	IND Sixth Avenue Line
Services	F (all times) V (weekdays until midnight)
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	4
Passengers (2006)	5.039 million ▲ 8%
Other
Borough	Manhattan
Opened	January 1, 1936
Next north	Broadway–Lafayette Street: F V
Next south	Delancey Street: F

Lower East Side–Second Avenue is a subway station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Second Avenue and Houston Street in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan.

The station has two island platforms and four tracks. The F trains run on the outer tracks while V trains terminate on the inner tracks. The wall tiling is purple with dark purple border and lacks name tablets; the columns are concrete, and there are especially large columns with built-in benches at the centers of the platforms. Despite the station's name, the exit and mezzanine at Second Avenue is only open part-time and is quite dim; a full-time booth is located at the First Avenue mezzanine. As part of the 1929 plans for the Second Avenue Subway—which would have run directly over Second Avenue station—room was left for the anticipated right-of-way above the Sixth Avenue trackways and between the two mezzanines. A large, open space is still visible over the tracks and platforms. When the Second Avenue Subway is built in Lower Manhattan, instead of using this space for its Houston Street station, it will be left unused. The new Houston Street station will be built below the existing Second Avenue station. ^[1]

West of Second Avenue, the center tracks are connected by a scissors crossover before merging with the local tracks; this allows the station to be used as a terminal station for short runs such as the current V service, as well as E service when it is rerouted along Sixth Avenue during construction. East of the station, the local tracks continue along Houston Street before curving south into Essex Street and continuing through Delancey Street station. The express tracks also continue along Houston but stub-end at about Avenue A, just before the turn into Essex; it was planned that these tracks would continue under the East River to the South Fourth Street Line, part of a never-built system expansion.

Second Avenue opened on January 1, 1936, as part of the Houston/Essex Streets subway—the portion of the Sixth Avenue Line between West Fourth Street–Washington Square and East Broadway. At that time, all four Sixth Avenue tracks ran continuously from West Fourth Street through Second Avenue, as the local tracks still do. The inner tracks were used a terminal for various services after opening. During the construction of the Chrystie Street Connection in the 1950s and 1960s, the express tracks at Broadway–Lafayette Street were severed from the express tracks at Second Avenue and rerouted to the Chrystie Street subway, running through Grand Street station to the north side of the Manhattan Bridge. The remaining express tracks at Second Avenue were then tied into the local tracks just west of the station, to continue to be available for terminal tracks. The express trackage east of the station was previously used for train storage but became an oft-frequented spot for the homeless. The tracks were cleared out in 1990, and false walls were installed at the east end of Second Avenue station to seal the tunnels.