Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street Eastside Entrance Opens After 40 Years

The first step was made towards the completion of the Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street F and G subway station on Thursday with the opening of the east side stationhouse entrance after being shuttered for 40 years.

Now straphangers who live, work or play between Seventh and Fourth avenues do not have to cross six lanes of traffic to get to their destination. But the new entrance is not just a new entrance, but, rather a sign of progress for the restoration of Fourth Avenue, which is a .

“This is the down payment for the restoration of Fourth Avenue, this is the first step for the ,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz after the ribbon was cut off the brand new turnstiles at the east side entrance on Thursday. “The entire restoration will not happen on my watch, but at least we took the first step today.”

As he looked at the artist rendering of what the arch over Fourth Avenue will look like once it is completed hanging in the new stationhouse, he said: “This was my motivation to allocate money for the project. When I saw the picture I said, ‘Oh, my God, how could we not have this restored?’”

Markowitz gave $2 million dollars to the MTA to help fund the station’s rehabilitation project and Assemblywoman Joan Millman gave $800,000.

The event was hosted by Thomas Prendergast, who is the president of the MTA NYC Transit.

The new stationhouse, which closed in the 1970s, has been completely restored with brand new turnstiles, floors, lights and repainted walls.

According to the MTA, Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street serves about 11,400 riders on an average workday, but the station was not meeting the needs of its users. 

“For too many years, people coming out of the train station took their chances running across six lanes of traffic,” Assemblywoman Joan Millman said in the new stationhouse in front of the crowd of elected officials, city agency heads, community organization members and the MTA workers who built the new entrance. “I called Marty and said that I don’t have a lot, but maybe we can pool our money together and get this done. And now this is the first piece of the new Fourth Avenue.”

However, there is still a lot of work to be done at this particular station. The set of doors leading to and from Fourth Avenue will be completed later this year and other major repairs and restorations include: all new exterior tower stone and brickwork, platforms, canopies and platform windows.

They will repaint under the viaduct over Fourth Avenue and replace the lights (which will double the current illumination), restore all four entrance globes and all storefront windows on the avenue and 10th Street, add six stores in the new retail space by 2013 and a new PA system will be installed on the platforms.

But the biggest change will be the restoration of the historic arch spanning Fourth Avenue, which will open the station with more light and bring it back to its “original glory,” Markowitz said. 

The project is part of the , which will cost $575 million and is expected to be complete by 2013. Other stations that will be improved are 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway, where . Smith-Ninth Street station has been closed completely and is expected to be open this summer.

But the opening of the entrance on the east side of Fourth Avenue is still a big deal.

Councilmember Brad Lander, who lives in Park Slope with his wife and two kids, was happy to swipe his Metro card at the entrance on Thursday with the other elected officials.

“This is my subway station, so what this means to me is that my 8-year-old and 12-year-old, who are not far from taking public transit alone, don’t have to cross six lanes of traffic to get to their subway station,” Lander said. “That means the same for thousands and thousands and thousands of Park Slope families. I think this means that we are going to save lives and save serious injuries in the result of doing this." 

He also said that the corner of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street is the location of other forward-thinking public transportation progress.

“This corner outside is the first place to have a in the borough of Brooklyn a year and a half ago,” he said. “A block away from here was the first bus in the city to have Real-Time, the B63.… We are moving forward here.”

Harping on that same sentiment, Markowitz said that the with the new entrance.

“The potential of Fourth Avenue is right before us. It can become, and I know it will become, the most wonderful, most beautiful boulevard in the entire City of New York,” Markowitz said. “This is the first step for the transformation of Fourth Avenue.”

What do you think? Will the new east side entrance save you time on your commute and make you feel safer? Make sure to vote in the poll below!

If you have other suggestions on what needs to be fixed at the Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street station tell us in the comments.