62nd Street/New Utrecht Avenue station
62nd Street/New Utrecht Avenue is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the open-cut BMT Sea Beach Line and the elevated BMT West End Line. It is located at New Utrecht Avenue and 62nd Street in Borough Park and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and is served by the D and N trains at all times. During rush hours, several W and northbound Q trains also serve the station.[a]
Prior to the rebuilding of the two current subway lines at this location during the 1910s, this location was known as Bath Junction. Until then, there was a track connection between the lines, primarily to enable Sea Beach trains to and from Coney Island to access West End Line trackage to reach the Brooklyn Bridge and the Park Row Terminal in Lower Manhattan. From 2016 to 2019, the complex underwent an extensive renovation.
Bath Junction was located near the present site of the station. It took the name as a railroad junction of the New York & Sea Beach Railway (Sea Beach Line) with the Brooklyn, Bath Coney Island Railroad (West End Line). The NY&SB called the station at the junction Bath Junction, while the BB&CI called it Sea Beach Junction. Soon, however, they settled on the common name. Bath Junction was located at grade near the current intersection of New Utrecht Avenue and 62nd Street.
The junction included a switching track connecting the two lines, so that NY&SB trains might reach the Brooklyn Bridge via the BB&CI tracks. Both lines merged with the BMT Culver Line at Ninth Avenue and later the BMT Fifth Avenue Line and BMT Myrtle Avenue Line.
After both lines were rebuilt as rapid transit lines of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, the name "Bath Junction" was dropped. A connector was no longer necessary, as the West End Line was able to reach Manhattan on its own, and was not even realistic to plan, as one line dropped into a cut and the other became elevated. The multi-level station complex was created to allow passenger transfer between the two lines.
The West End Line platforms opened on June 24, 1916 along with the first portion of the BMT West End Line from 36th Street on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line to 18th Avenue station.[7][8] The line was originally a surface excursion railway to Coney Island, called the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad, which was established in 1862, but did not reach Coney Island until 1864.[9] Under the Dual Contracts of 1913, an elevated line was built over New Utrecht Avenue, 86th Street and Stillwell Avenue.[10][11][12]
