Oh goody, another station complex! Well, we’re on the southern tip of Manhattan for this one. Unfortunately, this one tends to be a little cursed in the 21st century, in that there’s been several catastrophic disruptions to service here. Well, with that out of the way, let’s get into things.
At the end of line #1 and line W, South Ferry and Whitehall St. (technically two stations, but physically the same station) is the southernmost station in Manhattan, serving the Whitehall St. ferry terminal and the Battery, and the southernmost bits of the Financial District. The stations themselves are pretty modern, with decent amounts of lighting. You also have countdown clocks that actually work, benches, wastebaskets, fare machines, and the usual. There’s also allegedly an in-station connection to each other (I fully believe it exists) but I haven’t seen it anywhere when I was here. Easy to miss? Possibly. Line #1 has big mean mother bumpers at the end of the track (likely because you cannot build tail tracks here – the ocean is 3 feet south!), while line W utilizes a middle pocket track to turn around. On street level, it’s pretty lively overall, with vendors everywhere and modern headhouses that remind me of Hudson Yards – and overall, look nice. And, yes, this is accessible! YAY! There is also a busway here as well, neat!
Right, getting back to “this station is cursed”. I say that for one reason: there’s been two catastrophic events that killed service here this century already! First off was the 9/11 attacks. Now, we all know what happened with the September 11th incident and the 3000 or so lives lost between here, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, and I’m not even going to get into anything about imperialism (this is a transit blog – not “Chelsea’s Political Ramblings”. But if anyone wants to see my political ramblings, let me know!), but between this and the resulting conflicts, there were millions of civilian fatalities. One of the byproducts of the towers falling on that morning was the fact it severed line #1 between Chambers St. and here (Chambers St. was the last turnaround point heading southbound). It also led to service on the Broadway lines to be killed for a while as well, with service beyond being an extension of lines J and M (at the time, line M used the Nassau St. tunnel) into the Montague St. tunnel and towards Bay Ridge and Coney Island. Line #1 would instead be re-routed to New Lots, and these changes would persist for a bit. About a decade later would be Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy would wreck havoc all over NYC, flooding a decent amount of the city and, unfortunately, South Ferry Station. The salt in the wound here, was that they rebuilt the station in a slightly different location, and that station was completely wrecked. So, with that, they had to reactivate the old station (which was a balloon loop ala Heath St.). This was among the many problems caused by Sandy, among those caused in Queens and Brooklyn. Unfortunately, though, I can’t talk about them as much because there isn’t as much info readily available. But, nevertheless, this station is cursed, and it wouldn’t be opened again until 2017.
The good: It’s a nice station, it’s modern in design, and it’s well-lit! Furthermore, it’s on the southern tip of Manhattan and has an on-foot connection to the Whitehall St. ferry terminal (stay tuned) for Staten Island ferry service. There’s also a busway and it’s accessible!
The bad: I can’t help but think this station is cursed. In all seriousness though, I don’t have a lot against it. Maybe a better-signed transfer to line #1?
Nearby points of interest: The Financial District, the Battery, and the Statue of Liberty!
Transit connections:
7th Ave. Line (1)
Broadway Line (R, W)
MTA bus (M15, M15 SBS, M20, M55, BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, QM7, QM8, QM11, QM25, SIM5, SIM15, SIM35)
Staten Island Ferry (at Whitehall St. Terminal)
Overall, it’s a nice and useful station, and I’d say it’s a favorite of mine so far on the system. But, not as much as 33rd-Rawson. Yeah, sorry. But it’s still good.
Rating: 8/10
