3rd Ave. is a station on the L line, at the intersection of 14th St. and, well, 3rd Ave. Let’s look.
The station is pretty standard with the BMT tiling lining the walls (as this is an ex-BMT station), benches, wastebaskets, a station agent outside the paid area, and OMNY machines, as well as the usual countdown clocks and whatnot. At street level, though, you have a stop for various buses on both 14th St., 3rd Ave., and southbound only, 2nd Avenue. In fact, it’s also been proposed that when the 2nd Ave. subway line gets built down here in the Year of our LORD 2167, this (rather than 1st Ave.) would be the transfer station. Overall, though, it’s normal with nothing special to remark other than the platform “screen doors”
The good: It serves the area to the southeast of Union Square (Google Maps says the East Village and Gramercy Park). Furthermore, the area is pretty well built-up. It’s also close to a housing development, but 1st Ave. is right next to it. There’s also several bus connections.
The bad: The big stinker is the lack of accessibility. Take the M14 to Union?
Nearby points of interest: The Gramercy neighborhood is kinda quiet. Not really much in this particular station’s walkshed that’s unique to this station, though.
Transit connections:
BMT Canarsie (L)
MTA bus (M14A-SBS, M14D-SBS, M101, M102, M103)
Overall, it’s not a bad station, but it does suck slightly more than the other L line stops in Manhattan due to the lack of accessibility.
Rating: 6/10
