Franklin Avenue on the IRT lines and the BMT shuttle’s Botanic Garden station may seem different on paper, but in practice it’s all one station. Why the different names for the different platforms in this day and age? I don’t know! Well, whatever. Here’s another stop on the Franklin shuttle and on the IRT lines. Welcome to …I guess, Franklin Ave.-Botanic Garden? I dunno.
The BMT section of the station is pretty normal, if short (owing to the shuttle’s rather anemically short consist). All the standard amenities you’d expect are present. As a fun aside, the tunnel heading north out of here is the oldest one in the entire subway system, dating back to the 1870s. Sweet! As for the IRT section of the station, it’s an express station with 2 islands/4 tracks, with the platforms having benches and all the amenities you’d expect. The mezzanine also has OMNY machines. Neat! Overall though, it’s standard and a mostly unremarkable station.
The good: It serves a few things nearby! I’ll talk about that a bit more below. This is also the last station before Rogers Junction and where the 2/5 split off from the 3/4, so it’s kinda important for the passengers that have to make the connection from points east to points south (e.g. Crown Heights to Brooklyn College). It’s also, obviously, a transfer point to the BMT shuttle and the fact it connects to the B, C, and Q lines. With that said…
The bad: It’s inaccessible, presently! There is work, however, to rectify this.
Nearby points of interest: Medgar Evers College, as named. There’s also the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. There’s also a few restaurants, particularly on Franklin Avenue. For the baseball history nerds reading this, Ebbets Field used to be around here too, so if you find a time machine, you can go back in time and enjoy a Dodgers game from before they moved to Los Angeles. Not that they were any good before the move vs. after. After all, the Dodgers are garbage regardless of where they reside. (disclosure, this is a bit closer to Prospect Park).
Transit connections:
MTA subway (Lines #s 2, 3, 4, 5, FAS)
MTA bus (B45, B48)
Overall, nothing offensive or special about it aside from that one tunnel.
Rating: 6/10
