Harlem-125th Street (Metro-North)

Harlem-125th Street

View from inbound train.

Station statistics

Address

101 E. 125th Street & 1818 Park Avenue,
New York City, NY 10035

Coordinates

40°48′21″N 73°56′21″W / 40.805949, -73.939147

Lines

Metro-North Railroad:

Danbury Branch Harlem Line Hudson Line New Canaan Branch

New Haven Line

Connections

MTA New York City Bus:
Bx15, M35, M60 to LaGuardia Airport, M100, M101
New York City Subway:

at 125th Street

Other information

Opened

1896

Accessible

Owned by

Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Fare zone

Services

Preceding station	Metro-North Railroad	Following station
Grand Central Terminus	Danbury Branch	Stamford (limited) toward Danbury
	Harlem Line	Melrose toward Wassaic
	Hudson Line	Yankee Stadium (opens in 2009, local) toward Poughkeepsie
	Hudson Line	Marble Hill (express) toward Poughkeepsie
	New Canaan Branch	Stamford (limited) toward New Canaan
	New Haven Line	Fordham toward New Haven-State Street

The Harlem-125th Street Metro-North Railroad station serves residents of the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York and commuters who work in Harlem via the Hudson Line, Harlem Line and New Haven Line. It is the only station besides Grand Central Terminal that serves all three lines east of the Hudson River. Trains leave for Grand Central Terminal, the Bronx and the northern suburbs regularly. Harlem-125th Street is seldom used for travel to and from Grand Central. However, it remains possible to do so. On a related note, the station is within the boundaries of the CityTicket program. It is 4.19 miles (6.7 km) from Grand Central, and travel time is approximately ten minutes. One block to the east is 125th Street on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (4 5 6 <6>) of the New York City Subway. From Harlem, riders can also take the M60 bus to LaGuardia Airport.

1 History
2 Use
3 Platform and track configuration
4 Appearances in film and on TV
5 Gallery
6 External links

History

The current Harlem-125th Street Station was built in 1896-97 and was designed by Morgan O'Brien, New York Central and Hudson River Railroad principal architect. It replaced an earlier one that was built in 1874, when the New York Central and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, the ancestors of today's Metro-North, moved the tracks from an open cut, to the present-day elevated viaduct. The original station on the site was built in 1844, when the trains ran at grade-level on what is now Park Avenue. That station was demolished to make way for the open cut.

A recent mid-1990s renovation of the 1897 structure has cleared out a century's worth of neglect and deterioration. The entire Park Avenue viaduct was replaced piece by piece without disturbing Metro-North service for the duration of the renovation. The renovation is considered a replication, rather than renovation, of the original 1930s version of the station being that none of the original structure is visible to the public.

Use

Travel between East Harlem and Midtown Manhattan is more frequent and less expensive via the nearby and parallel 4, 5 and 6 trains of the Lexington Avenue Subway. Therefore, this station is used primarily for travel to and from the New York City's northern suburbs and the Bronx (rather than travel to and from Grand Central Terminal). Most northbound trains stop at the station only to receive passengers, and most southbound trains stop only to discharge passengers. However, most local trains on the Harlem and Hudson lines do permit passengers to exit a northbound train or enter a southbound train.

Platform and track configuration

There are two high-level island platforms, each serving two tracks. During middays, evenings, and weekends, there is generally one platform assigned for northbound trains and one for southbound trains. Passengers wait on the eastern platform for trains departing from Tracks 1 and 3, and exit on the western platform from trains arriving at Tracks 2 and 4. This configuration is not in place during rush hours, when there are typically three tracks assigned to the peak direction (southbound in the morning, northbound in the evening).

Appearances in film and on TV

Harlem-125th Street Station has often been used as a setting for film and TV, where it usually stands in for an elevated MTA or similar rapid transit station.