While the PATH station is considerably more-used than the MTA stations, there’s still a couple of MTA stations. Chambers St.-World Trade Center (& Park Place and Cortlandt St.) is one of those two stations – er, station complexes. Yep. This one’s a case of “four stations in a trenchcoat”. Buckle down, because this one’s gonna get messy.
Inside the Oculus, the signage only points to the E line – the R/W are elsewhere, although once you’re in there, you’ll see signage for the A and C lines, as well as the 2, 3, R, and W. Weirdly, though, I had a particular amount of trouble finding the 2 and 3 line’s platform. Despite this, it’s located directly underneath the bumper blocks on the E line’s tracks. As for the in-station connection to Cortlandt Street, it’s south of the A/C platforms. All together, everything’s connected by a series of passageways that can be quite tricky to navigate. Each set of platforms all have the same basic things: turnstiles, ticketing machines (some OMNY, some MetroCard), some entrances have station agents, they all have seating, some have countdown clocks, but not all platforms are accessible. Namely, the A/C and 2/3 platforms are very much not accessible. However, the E platform is accessible by way of ramps and the R/W have elevators, as is the nearby 7th Ave. express stop on Chambers Street. All this aside, other than the R/W being renovated recently (relatively), it’s all standard IND and IRT stuff.
The good: It serves the World Trade Center! Furthermore, it has an out-of-system connection to the Fulton Center. The BMT platforms’ artwork looks quite nice, too.
The bad: Accessibility is hit-or-miss. You have to be on the correct line to be able to use the accessibility features here (E, R, W only).
Nearby points of interest: The World Trade Center. Duh. Also, the Fulton Center.
Transit connections:
Broadway (R, W)
8th Ave. (E-terminus, A, C)
7th Ave. (2, 3)
MTA bus (M9, M20, M22, M55, BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, BxM18, QM7, QM8, QM11, QM25, SIM1, SIM1C, SIM2, SIM3, SIM3C, SIM4, SIM4C, SIM4X, SIM32, SIM34, X27, X28)
NJT bus (120)
Overall, it’s a messy station, with low ceilings, and it’s only half-accessible. Yeah, sorry, but PATH is objectively better here. (as is …the #1 line?)
Rating: 6/10
