Tomorrow afternoon, the long-awaited Bleecker Street transfer will finally open. Fifty-five years after the station's downtown transfer opened, straphangers will be able to transfer from the uptown 6 train to the B, D, F, and M trains. In keeping with the MTA's track record, the project is months delayed and millions over budget, but the connection, with its color-changing honeycomb of lights, fixes the subway system's only incomplete transfer station. One rider told the Times, "It's the last kink. It's like you're smoothing out the wallpaper and the last little bubble is pressed out."
The downtown transfer between the IRT and IND lines was built in 1957, and no one really seems to know why the uptown transfer was not built at the same time. An MTA spokesperson told the Times that there's "no real documentation" about the issue. Second Avenue Sagas gives several theories: the streets weren't wide enough for two platforms, real estate costs, the curvature of the streets, or politics. On another note, SAS also points out a few other spots in the system that would greatly benefit from a new transfer.
· Vexing Flaw in the Subway Is Finally Fixed [NYT]
· After Bleecker St., Other Missing Transfer Points [SAS]
· Blinged Out Bleecker Street Station Has Color-Changing Lights [Curbed]
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