34th Street–Penn Station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line was opened on June 3, 1917, as part of an extension of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the dominant subway in Manhattan at the time, from Times Square–42nd Street to South Ferry. It was served by a shuttle train to Times Square until the rest of the extension opened a year later on July 1, 1918. This meant that the subway would be expanded down the Lower West Side to neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village and the western portion of the Financial District. As part of this and the northern IRT Lexington Avenue Line extension, the IRT network would be radically changed from an S-shaped line connecting the eastern side of Lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side to an H-shaped network with two parallel lines, the East and West Side Lines, and a shuttle at 42nd Street connecting them. On August 23, 1985, the MTA awarded a $2.24 million contract to rebuild the station and to double the width of the passageway to Penn Station. The project was scheduled to be completed in spring 1987. Under the 2015–2019 MTA Capital Plan, the station, along with thirty-two other New York City Subway stations, underwent a complete overhaul as part of the Enhanced Station Initiative. Updates included cellular service, Wi-Fi, charging stations, improved signage, and improved station lighting. Unlike other stations that were renovated under the initiative, 34th Street–Penn Station was not completely closed during construction. In January 2018, the NYCT and Bus Committee recommended that Judlau Contracting receive the $125 million contract for the renovations of 57th and 23rd Streets on the IND Sixth Avenue Line; 28th Street on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, and 34th Street–Penn Station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and IND Eighth Avenue Line. However, the MTA Board temporarily deferred the vote for these packages after city representatives refused to vote to award the contracts. The contract was put back for a vote in February, where it was ultimately approved. These improvements were substantially completed by May 2019.
Station layout
Like 34th Street–Penn Station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line and Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line, this station has two side platforms for local service and a center island platform for express service. This is due to the expected increase in ridership and to encourage riders to switch at the next stop northbound, Times Square–42nd Street, as it is set up in the usual island platform manner for cross-platform interchanges. There is no free transfer between this station and the station of the same name on the IND Eighth Avenue Line, despite the fact that both connect to Penn Station. The nearest transfer location is at Times Square–42nd Street with a free transfer to 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Exits
34th Street–Penn Station spans three streets with a set of entrances/exits at all of these streets. For the purposes of this article, entrance and exit are interchangeable.
34th Street: There are four entrances directly from the intersection of 34th Street and Seventh Avenue. On the local platforms the turnstiles for these exits are at platform level; passengers wishing to use the express platforms must use a passageway beneath the platforms and tracks. These entrances utilize the northern portions of the platforms. There is also a supplementary and handicapped-accessible entrance to the Penn Station complex in general from 34th Street.
33rd Street: There are three direct entrances from the street at 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue. As a replacement for the southwestern corner's lack of an entrance, there is an underground entrance directly connecting the station with the Long Island Rail Road concourse in the Penn Station complex. The turnstiles for this entrance are located below the track level and utilize the central portions of the platforms.
32nd Street: The main entrance to the Penn Station complex is located on the western end of 32nd Street. From there, passengers may go through the New Jersey Transit and Long Island Rail Road concourses and use the entrance to this station at the end of the latter's concourse. There is also a smaller exit from the station at the southern ends of the platforms that connects with the end of the New Jersey Transit concourse where it meets the Long Island Rail Road underneath the main corridor in the station that connects New Jersey Transit and Amtrak. There is also an entrance on the north side of 32nd Street between Seventh and Sixth Avenues.
Ridership
34th Street–Penn Station on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line is continually ranked as one of the busiest stations in the subway system. In 2016, it was the fifth-busiest subway station, with 27,741,367 riders as recorded by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. By comparison, its sister station on the Eighth Avenue Line is ranked sixth-busiest, with 25,183,869 passengers. When the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line station was a shuttle stop before the rest of the South Ferry extension opened, ridership was quite low; in its first year of operation, only 78,121 boardings were recorded.
