The Jamaica–179th Street station is an express terminal station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located under Hillside Avenue at 179th Street in Jamaica, Queens, it is served by the F train at all times, the <F> train during rush hours in the reverse peak direction, and a few rush-hour E trains. The station has 15 entrances, including two at Midland Parkway in Jamaica Estates.

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Jamaica–179 Street
New York City Subway station (rapid transit)
Manhattan-bound platform. An R160 F train is visible on the Manhattan-bound local track.
Station statistics
Address	179th Street & Hillside Avenue Queens, NY 11432
Borough	Queens
Locale	Jamaica, Jamaica Estates
Coordinates	40.712459°N 73.78448°W / 40.712459; -73.78448
Division	B (IND)[1]
Line	IND Queens Boulevard Line
Services	E  (limited rush-hour service) ​   F  (all times) <F>  (two rush hour trains, peak direction)
Transit	NYCT Bus: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q17, Q36, Q43, Q76, Q77, X68 MTA Bus: Q110 NICE Bus: n1, n6, n6X, n22, n22X, n24, n26
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 island platforms
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	December 11, 1950 (73 years ago) (1950-12-11)[2][3]
Accessible	ADA-accessible
Opposite- direction transfer	N/A
Traffic
2022	3,723,038[4]  23.1%
Rank	68 out of 423[4]
Services Preceding station New York City Subway Following station Parsons Boulevard E  express Local Terminus 169th Street F  <F> toward Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York
Track layout Legend Upper level End of upper level tracks Upper level relay tracks to lower level relay tracks to 169th Street to Parsons Boulevard Lower level (east of station) End of lower level tracks to local tracks in station
Street map
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times Stops rush hours only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only (limited service)

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Jamaica–179th Street was opened on December 11, 1950, although a station had been planned at 178th Street as early as 1928. At the time, the Queens Boulevard Line was part of the Independent Subway System (IND), but the original IND plans did not provide for constructing the 178th Street station until the line was extended even further to Queens Village. The line opened to 169th Street, the next station west, in 1937. Various changes in plans, as well as material shortages due to the Great Depression and World War II, delayed the project until 1946. Jamaica–179th Street became among Queens' busiest upon its 1950 opening. After a period of deterioration, the station was renovated in the 1980s and again in the 2000s. As a result of planning for a never-built expansion to Queens Village, the station has eight storage tracks to its east, giving it the highest peak capacity of any New York City Subway station.

The 179th Street station (drawn up as 178th Street) had been planned along with the rest of the IND Queens Boulevard Line as its original terminus as early as 1928.^[5][6][7][8] In December 1930,^[8] however, it was planned to construct stations only up to 169th Street, with tail tracks and switches installed up to the foot of the station at 178th Street, along with a provision for the station. The tracks ended at bumper blocks, and the tunnel at a bulkhead.^[6][9] Under these plans, the 178th Street station would be built during a further eastward extension.^[10] The Queens Boulevard Line was extended up to 169th Street on April 24, 1937, with the tail tracks and switches used to store and reverse trains. The 169th Street station provided an unsatisfactory terminal setup for a four-track line: there were no storage facilities provided at the 169th Street station, and since 169th Street was a local station, trains on the outer local tracks had to cross over to the inner express tracks to reverse direction.^[11][12][13]

Calls from the local community to build a new station at 178th Street occurred as early as 1932; several of these requests came from the Jamaica Estates Association.^[8][10][14] In June 1936, the association petitioned Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia for the extension.^[14][15] As early as 1936, the New York City Board of Transportation (predecessor to the New York City Transit Authority and the MTA) was evaluating construction of the station along with further eastward extensions of the line, with the board's 1940 budget allocating funding for the station.^[16][17][18] Under the 1940 plans, construction of the station was set to take place between 1941 and 1945.^[19]

In January 1941, city councilman James A. Burke proposed extending the line to 178th Street, in order to relieve congestion at 169th Street. Burke believed that a station could be built within the existing tunnel and trackage and cost only $100,000, while engineers from the Board of Transportation stated it would require additional tunneling and new relay tracks extending to 184th Street.^[20] In July 1941, the Board of Transportation requested funding for a new express terminal station to replace 169th Street.^[21] Construction was delayed, however, due to material shortages caused by the Great Depression, and further delayed due to the onset of World War II.^[2][22]

The plans for the station were approved after the war in 1946, in order to "provide a more satisfactory terminal" for the line.^[13][18][23] A groundbreaking ceremony was held on March 5, 1947, at 182nd Street and Hillside Avenue, with Mayor William O'Dwyer and now-borough president Burke in attendance.^[24] A bus terminal accompanying the station, similar to the 165th Street Bus Terminal, was initially planned for the station but never built.^[25][26] The station opened on December 11, 1950, at the cost of over $10 million; Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri and Queens Borough President Maurice A. FitzGerald attended the opening.^[2][25][27] It was the last subway station whose construction was funded by New York City, until the construction of the 34th Street–Hudson Yards station on the 7 Subway Extension beginning in 2008.^[28] Upon opening, the station became a major transit hub for passengers from south and east Queens and Nassau County, and led to increased development in Jamaica.^[22] By 1959, the station was the busiest in Queens.^[29]

In 1981, the MTA listed the 179th Street station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.^[30] Later in the 1980s, the station was renovated and modernized; as part of the renovation, the IND-style purple tile band was removed from the station walls, and a design with intertwining blue and orange stripes was added.^[31][32] In 2002, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced that elevators would be installed at the 179th Street station.^[33] Subsequently, elevators were installed in the station to make it ADA-accessible.^[34][35] The elevators were opened around 2005.^[36] Starting in August 2007, the MTA began installing decorative ventilation grates along Hillside Avenue above the station, and sealing other grates, both in order to combat flooding. At the time, the Hillside Avenue subway was considered the most flood-prone area in the subway system.^[37]

Ground	Street level	Exit/entrance
Mezzanine		Fare control, station agent Elevator at southeast corner of 179th Place and Hillside Avenue
Platform level	Track 1	← toward Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue (169th Street) ← toward World Trade Center (select weekday trips) (Parsons Boulevard)
	Island platform
	Track 3	← toward Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue (169th Street) ← toward World Trade Center (select weekday trips) (Parsons Boulevard)
	Track 4	→ termination track → → termination track (select weekday trips) →
	Island platform
	Track 2	→ termination track → → termination track (select weekday trips) →

This underground station is identical to a typical express station, with four tracks and two island platforms.^[49] F trains serve the station at all times,^[50] and infrequent rush hour E trains also serve the station.^[51] The station is the railroad north terminus of all service.^[52] To the west (railroad south), the next stop is 169th Street for local trains and Parsons Boulevard for express trains.^[53]

To the east is a large storage and relay yard consisting of two levels with four relay tracks each,^[54] extending approximately .25 miles (0.40 km)^[55] to around 184th Place.^{[lower-alpha 2][54][58]: 923, 1597} This total of eight storage tracks gives 179th Street the highest peak terminal capacity of any station in the New York City Subway: 63 trains per hour, or one train every 57 seconds, although the station currently operates at a far lower throughput (only 17–18 trains per hour during peak hours).^{[lower-alpha 3][59][60]} Terminating trains enter on one of the two northbound tracks, then relay to one of the two levels—the upper level if coming from the express track, or the lower level if coming from the local track.^[54] They then return on the corresponding track on the southbound side.^[53] Southbound trains may leave from either the local or express tracks, although F trains departing from the express track switch to the local track east of 169th Street.^[53] Outside of relay operations, the yard provides storage for four trains.^[56] It is estimated that the relay tracks east of the station can fit about 600 passenger automobiles.^[57]

The station has beige wall tiles with intertwining blue and orange stripes, representing the two colors of the New York City flag, and the colors of the IND Eighth Avenue and Sixth Avenue lines which serve the station.^[62] There are two fare control areas. The full-time area at the east end of the station, between 179th and 180th Streets, has a token booth and a bank of 12 turnstiles and two high-exit-only turnstiles.^[49] The part-time exit at 178th Street contains a nine-turnstile bank, two high exit entrance turnstiles (HEETs), and two high exit turnstiles.^[49] The two ends are connected by a full-length mezzanine,^[49][57] which features Our Spectrum of Support artwork by Reginald Polynice, a set of plywood cutout figures appearing to hold up the ceiling of the mezzanine.^[63] The station also features a control tower.^[2] The station is ADA-accessible via an elevator installed at 179th Place on the north side of Hillside Avenue.^[34][64]

The station lies about 3.25 miles (5.23 km) west of the city's border with Nassau County. Until the IND Rockaway Line was opened in 1956,^[65] and until the 1958 opening of the line's Far Rockaway–Mott Avenue terminal (which is about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from the city's border with Nassau County^[66]), 179th Street was the closest subway station to Nassau County.^[67] New York Magazine described the station's location as being in "a neighborhood so outer-borough it might as well be in another state"—namely, one of "hip-hop’s fertile crescents" where rappers 50 Cent and Ja Rule grew up.^[68]