# Questions about the NYC Subway **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2015, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-nyc-subway/712752 "2015-02-15T22:21:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-nyc-subway/712752/1 "2015-02-15T22:21:01Z")
- why isn’t 59 st/Columbus Circle an express stop for the 2,3 trains? A real PITA when transferring to the ABCD - this is a major station. Strange that you are forced to switch to the local train at 72st to make this transfer. - why isn’t there a station for the United Nations Building? The 7 train passes right underneath it. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-nyc-subway/712752/2 "2015-02-15T22:28:20Z")
> [@K364](#): > > - why isn’t there a station for the United Nations Building? The 7 train passes right underneath it. So a train stops directly under the UN and someone aboard presses a detonator. Seems pretty obvious to me. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-nyc-subway/712752/3 "2015-02-15T22:57:32Z")
> [@K364](#): > > - why isn’t 59 st/Columbus Circle an express stop for the 2,3 trains? A real PITA when transferring to the ABCD - this is a major station. Strange that you are forced to switch to the local train at 72st to make this transfer. When the Eighth Avenue Line was built in 1932, the IRT Broadway—Seventh Avenue Line (known today as the 1, 2, and 3) had already been operating for 28 years. When the IRT built 59th St in 1904, it just happened to be a local stop with side platforms. So for express trains to service 59th St, one of two things would have to happen. Either the NYCTA would have to be convinced to switch express trains to the local tracks before 59th St, which would generally gum up the works and isn’t a very popular idea. Or, they could rebuild 59th St as an express station with island platforms, which is one of those ideas that makes dollar signs appear in the eyes of construction companies—and the MTA isn’t exactly flush with cash for such projects, although it may someday happen. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-nyc-subway/712752/4 "2015-02-15T23:01:18Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > So a train stops directly under the UN and someone aboard presses a detonator. Seems pretty obvious to me. A facetious answer, but… if it isn’t… there are 30 stations where you should protect against the terrorist with the detonator: e.g. Grand Central, Rockefeller Center, Penn Station, Wall Street, World Trade Center, etc. etc. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-nyc-subway/712752/5 "2015-02-16T00:09:51Z")
> [@K364](#): > > A facetious answer, but… if it isn’t… there are 30 stations where you should protect against the terrorist with the detonator: e.g. Grand Central, Rockefeller Center, Penn Station, Wall Street, World Trade Center, etc. etc. The real answer is that the Flushing Line (7) was built nearly a century ago and at First Ave it’s already very far underground on the approach to the Steinway Tunnel. And everybody in New York hates the UN anyway. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-nyc-subway/712752/6 "2015-02-16T00:28:22Z")
> [@K364](#): > > - why isn’t there a station for the United Nations Building? The 7 train passes right underneath it. It could be UN doesn’t want a subway stop at the UN? But really, it so happens that [above 14th street _no_ crosstown line in the East Side has stops closer to the river than 3rd Avenue](http://web.mta.info/maps/submap.html). As\*\* friedo\*\* points out, trains that cross the East River have to kind of start “diving” before the last couple of blocks. Immediately below and to the south of the UN complex there’s a whole mess of tunnelling infrastructure including the both the 7’s Steinway tunnel (already OVER 100 years old, and the IRT line will be 100 years old this summer) and Queens-Midtown Tunnel, that were there \*before \*the UN and are kinda hard to move. And it’s not as if it’s such a huge schlep between Grand Central Terminal and UN Plaza (and even back then I can imagine they’d at least want the entry and exit to one, if it existed, to be outside their perimeter – so you’d lose at least one block anyway). ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-nyc-subway/712752/7 "2015-02-16T01:54:16Z")
Of course, if the 2nd Ave subway ever gets built, it will have a 42nd St. stop and maybe a connection to the 7. The first stop in Queens on the 7 is also pretty deep. Soon after it becomes an el. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-nyc-subway/712752/8 "2015-02-16T01:57:58Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Of course, if the 2nd Ave subway ever gets built, it will have a 42nd St. stop and maybe a connection to the 7. The first stop in Queens on the 7 is also pretty deep. Soon after it becomes an el. They’re building it. But not down to 42nd St. yet.