Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Early Addition
We were admiring this shot of the JMZ station at Chambers Street on Travis Ruse's site, and it got us thinking: is there any other station in the system that tops this in terms of sheer craptasticosity? Behold the layers of rust, chipped paint, and rat droppings on the disused platforms. Admire the Jacob's Ladder style staircases that lead to nowhere. We defy you to find a station that is worse off than this one.
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haha, i find it funny that it takes a photograph of a station to trigger thought in your mind. you can't just think of shitty stations on your own?
Thanks for posting this.
I was at this station a few years ago because I was wandering around downtown and when I went in -I could not believe it. It was the nastiest station I have been in and couldn't believe that it was a working station.
Later when I was describing it to friends, I couldn't remember which station it was - until now.
I was just at the Smith-9th St. stop for the G and F trains and it looked pretty disgusting and run-down to me. And does anybody remember the old Franklin Shuttle in Brooklyn???
Correction: this is worst station in Manhattan - believe me, there are worse ones in other parts of town.
The entrance/stairs to the Seventh Avenue trains on the Southeast corner of 33rd and 7th is filthy. There is always garbage, food, newspapers and sometimes human waste. The area seems to never get cleaned.
I think the G has the nastiest stations, can't think of a particular one, though.
It's huge, dirty, disgusting, and so vast that even with lots of people waiting, it feels empty. The abandoned platforms look post-apocalyptic, or at least pre-Giuliani. But as long as it's structurally sound, I love its decrepit glory.
The unused platforms at Hoyt-Schermerhorn are plenty crusty - but most of the rust stalagtite ridden, unremodeled stations in the boroughs that aren't Manhattan are foul.
'And does anybody remember the old Franklin Shuttle in Brooklyn???'
Ah, but have you been there lately? The NEW Franklin shuttle in brooklyn is actually quite lovely.
I second the comment about it being the worst in Manhattan. For most of the outer outer borough subways this is about the average. I took some great shots of interesting stalactites and (eww) stalagmites on the L train.
Has the Bowery JMZ stop been cleaned up in the last few years, because I recall that being even more demoralizing (although the sunlight through holes in the roof added a certain ambience)?
Canal St. is pretty bad. Slime runs down the stairs and drips all over your clothes no matter what platform you are on, but particularly on both directions of the Q&N.
Canal Street station is disgusting. Particularly on the staircase leading down to the Bklyn-bound Q,N platform from the R,W and on the staircases leading from Q,N platform up to the J,M,Z.
There is raw sewage seeping down along the walls and dripping from the ceilings. A putrid smell of an overly abused bathroom toilet and rotten cheese permeates throughout.
Is there any way to complain about stuff like this? It's seriously a hazard.
That reminds me of the bad old days in the 70's and 80's when even operating subway stations looked like that. They may not be immaculate today, but they have certainly come a looooooong way since then.
I like to call this "The Train Station Time Forgot"
Speaking of nasty stations, the 205th st station at the end of the D line in the BX is freakin' fugly.
You people are a bunch of babies. Once upon a time MANY MORE stations looked like this.
The movie "The Warriors" have great scenes of how NY subway stations looked back in the late 70's, Union Square actually had an arcade!
It's smells like pee in the entire station too. If you're on the train coming from Fulton Street or Broad Street, the doors open and in come the people and the pee smells.
Admittedly, I haven’t been at the Bowery JMZ station recently. Maybe it has cleaned up its act. But when I moved here in the ‘90s, the first time I stepped off the train into that station I was genuinely freaked out by the filthy old-timey flavor (plus, I’d never seen anyone get on or off at that stop). I was half-convinced that I’d tunneled through time and that ragamuffins playing stickball and Model Ts were roaming around above me. Unfortunately, I didn’t run into any newsies, after all.
CW got it right. The 205th station at the end of the D is like a dirty version of Chambers Street.
The 168th Street stop on the 1/A train is the most disgusting station I've ever seen. Not only does it have everything the Chamber station has, but there's a constant, weird haze in the air that calls to mind a disaster zone, and a shitty set of elevators people are forced to cram into just to get out ... it's like hell.
True Bickle, things were different in the old days...I remember having to salt my meat before refrigeration, and wearing old rags before the invention of sanitary napkins with belts. I don't know what these people are complaining about. But then again, my nasal lining has been permanently chemically burned by the stench in the Fulton St. G tunnel many times.
Jane, that's double true.. that tunnel is so sick. I can never tell exactly what it smells like - it's always some mix of feces, vomit, mildew, and rotting vegetable matter, plus bleach once in a while when they attempt to clean it.
please fix the 205th station..it has stink drips..and little stalagamites..however you spell it..and its hit or miss if the escalator is on..which needs a scrubbing big time..205th is in need of a huge overhall..
hi igor, stalactites are the ones that hang from the ceiling, and stalagmites rise from the ground. In case you care... :)
Fulton and Essex had nice makeovers. But to think that Bowery, Canal, & Chambers once looked like this...sigh.
Privatize it.
(Photo of Canal Street courtesy of Abandoned Stations)
Another vote for 168th street, the 1 train platform. It's always steaming hot down there, which is why it's a veritable homeless shelter. Pools of weird white drainage on the floor next to trash and urine. It's positively disgusting on it's own. Add to that the hit-or-miss elevators and I think you've got a contender for worst subway station in Manhattan.
I can't believe nobody's mentioned the 21st St. stop on the G line in Long Island City. This is truly the seventh circle of hell.
Fulton and Essex have had nice facelifts, however it's sad to think that Bowery, Canal, and Chambers once looked like this...sigh.
Privatize it.
this station is AWESOME. I am so sad they are entombing half of it. The high ceilings and view down on the old, crappy cars used on the JMZ is spine-tingling good.
The F/V line through midtown has HUGE rats on the platform all the damn time. That's worse.
"Privatize it."
Never. Its shitty, yes... but it runs. You privatize the subway and they'll raise fares, shut down stations AND minimize, maybe shut down service all together at nights after a certain time.
The last thing this city needs is a for profit company that runs the subway.
Keep in mind one reason why the subways are shitty is that WE NEW YORKERS ARE SHITTY.
In General of course.
Another thing is that no subway system comparable to ours in size is profitable, except the systems in Japan.
And for various reasons, we can not duplicate their success.
Um... the BMT and IRT subways were built by private companies. They weren't owned by the city until 1940.
Lots of things have changed in 66 years man...
I'm not saying its impossible...
I just wouldnt trust this City's transportation system in private hands at this point.
I can't believe that you idiots are complaining about dirty subway stations. I will say it one more time : MOVE BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM.
I personally wouldn't trust this City's transportation system in a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy's hand anymore.
Quick note: Chambers is shitty, but the lower levels of Canal Street smell like 30 day-old rotting corpse.
(Sorry, 6/NRQW Canal)
Amen, Gurple.
gurple: you sound like a redneck
Canal Street IRT/BMT has improved.
Check out this pic from the 1990s:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triborough/107394011/in/set-72057594074272555/
im looking for stalagmites in subway stations! i know the ones in canal street (jmz/q,n)
in what other stations can i find stalagmites?