Grand Street is a station on both the IND Second Avenue and Sixth Avenue Lines of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Grand Street and Chrystie Street in Chinatown and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, it is served by the D, T and U trains at all times and the B and Y on weekdays. Opened on November 26, 1967, this station was added as part of the Chrystie Street Connection project.
History
The station was built as part of the Chrystie Street Connection project between the Sixth Avenue Line and the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges. It was first proposed in 1947 as the southern end of the Second Avenue line, which would feed into the two bridges, allowing Sixth Avenue Line trains to access the BMT Jamaica Line, BMT Fourth Avenue Line and the BMT Brighton Line in Brooklyn. Construction started in 1962, and the first part of the connection, including this station, opened on November 26, 1967, when the link between the Sixth Avenue Line and the Manhattan Bridge north tracks opened. The project was fully completed on July 1, 1968 with the opening of the 57th Street, the opening of the connection between the Sixth Avenue Line and the Williamsburg Bridge, and the opening of the IND Christie Street line between Grand Street and Court Street. With the project completed, the most significant service changes ever carried out in the subway's history were introduced.
Upon this station's opening the routes of the B and D were rerouted via the new connection. BB trains were relabeled the B, and began to run to Coney Island via Chrystie Street, the Manhattan Bridge north tracks, Fourth Avenue Line express tracks, and the West End Line. D trains were rerouted from the Culver Line to run to Coney Island via the new Sixth Avenue express tracks, the Manhattan Bridge north tracks, and the Brighton Line. Two new lines were also introduced. They are the KK, which uses the Williamsburg Bridge connection rush hours, and the VV, which uses the Chrystie Street line at all times, stopping at Grand Street.
When the north Manhattan Bridge tracks were closed for repairs from 1986 to 1988, in 1995, and from 2001 to 2004, this station was served only by Second Avenue/Chrystie Street trains.
Station layout
| G | Street Level | Exit/ Entrance |
| M | Mezzanine | Fare control, station agent |
| Upper Level | Northbound 2 Av Local |
←U toward Throgs Neck (Houston Street) ←Y toward Jamaica–179th Street (Houston Street) ←T toward Broadway-125th Street (Houston Street) (late nights only) |
| Island platform, doors will open on the right, left | ||
| Northbound via Bridge |
← B toward Bedford Park Boulevard (Broadway–Lafayette Street) ← D toward Gun Hill Road (Broadway–Lafayette Street) | |
| Southbound via Bridge | → B toward Brighton Beach (DeKalb Avenue) → → D toward Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue (Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center all except nights; DeKalb Avenue late nights) → | |
| Southbound 2 Av Local |
→U toward Broad Street (Chambers Street) →Y toward Whitehall Street (Worth Street-Chatham Square) →T toward Rockaway Park (Worth Street-Chatham Square) (late nights only) | |
| Lower Level | Northbound 2 Av Express |
← T toward Broadway-125th Street (Houston Street) |
| Southbound 2 Av Express |
→ T toward Rockaway Park (Worth Street-Chatham Square) | |
The station is a four-track, two-island platform station, with a lower level holding an island platform. The Second Avenue Subway locals serves the outer tracks while the Sixth Avenue Line served the inner tracks, providing a cross-platform interchange between these two lines, although a lower level consisting of express trains was added on November 7th. There is a sole mezzanine at the center of the station which has two staircases to each platform, a turnstile bank, token booth, and access to the street exits.
On the Brooklyn-bound side, there is a small sign reading "Change Radio Channel to B1", indicating that train operators must change the channel on the route destination box from B2 (IND) to B1 (BMT) before crossing the Manhattan Bridge (B/D) or before operating under Canal Street to Chambers Street (U). Sixth Avenue trains leaving this station cross over the north side of the bridge and arrive at DeKalb Avenue or Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center (via the DeKalb Avenue bypass tracks). As the tracks curve onto the bridge, trackways from Canal Street on the Manhattan Bridge branch of the BMT Broadway Line are visible.
The Second Avenue main tracks continue south and curves into Bowery, where the local and express tracks eventually merge and create one uniform level for all operating trains.
Exits
There are three staircase exits: two going up to the northeastern corner of the intersection of Grand Street and Chrystie Street, and one going up to the northwestern corner. The station originally only had the two street stairs to the northeastern corner of the intersection, but due to growing ridership over the years—mainly by commuters from various Brooklyn neighborhoods to Manhattan's Chinatown—the third staircase to the northwestern corner was added in 1999.