New York’s Shortest Subway Platform*

3:54 absolutely perfect timing

3:54 not the dude skipping the gateline💀

The Franklin Ave Shuttle is quite the most fascinating line! Besides Park Place, another station only served by it used to exist called Dean Street but it closed in 1995 due to mostly low ridership (which they stated extensive fare evasion at that station didn't help with as well as close proximity to Franklin Ave). It was the second time Dean Street closed, as it closed the first time in 1899 due to low ridership as well. There's still a remnant of Dean Street where a lamppost has a smaller lamp for the former staircase to the station house. The line in general was very dilapidated in the 1980s and 1990s and the MTA considered abandoning it altogether! Thankfully, community leaders stepped up to oppose it and they got the NY State Assembly to force the MTA to rebuild the line, which is why it was rebuilt in 1999 like you mentioned. Unfortunately, the section of the line between Botanic Garden and Prospect Park was home to the deadliest crash in NYC subway history called the Malbone Street wreck, as over 90 people lost their lives because a speeding train derailed in a sharply curved tunnel. This crash is what led to the BRT to phase out wooden cars. What led to this crash was a labor strike against the BRT and the BRT tried to keep service running with non-striking personnel, and decided to use Antonio Edward Luciano, a crew dispatcher with NO experience operating the line.

Park Place used to be an island platform with two tracks. It was redesigned to its current form around two decades ago.

Oddly, the place that the video started at on the other side of prospect park station is the very place where the NYC subways worst ever crash occurred where nearly 100 people died. The Malbourne street crash. They even renamed most of the street to empire blvd because of the stigma. Train operators went on strike and managers drove the trains.

I honestly like the woodsy feel of the line by Park Place! It's part of the line's charm! Staten Island used to have two stations where you could only get off using ONE door on the last car, Nassau and Atlantic! Both were opened to serve factories (a smelting factory at Nassau and a terra cotta factory at Atlantic), and Nassau had a four car-long platform (extended from the original platform by the smelting factory) but the extension was walled-off. Nassau and Atlantic closed in 2017 for Arthur Kill. The two-car length of the train reminds me of the Greenport Branch section of the LIRR's Ronkonkoma Branch. The Ronkonkoma Branch is mostly electrified, however beyond Ronkonkoma, it's diesel territory and there's a small train nicknamed the Greenport Scoot that takes the nearly 50 miles to Greenport from Ronkonkoma. The reason the LIRR goes to Greenport is because this was the Main Line of the LIRR. Originally service to Greenport was envisioned as a vital link in the rail-boat-rail connection between NYC and Boston. They thought the hills of New England were impassible for a rail line, and so Long Island was the solution. For this link, the LIRR briefly had steamboats going to Stonington and Allyn's Point in Ledward. This link to Greenport opened in 1844, but that spirit was short-lived, however, as it was in 1848 that the New York & New Haven Railroad was opened across southern Connecticut! Thus, they turned their attention to serving the people of Long Island and competing with the other railroads on the island, eventually leading to the LIRR network we have today.

Brilliant video, loved the turnstile jumper in the background the first time you where in the station house lol. Will you be doing Dean Street next, the abandoned station on the shuttle?

The line originally had two tracks until just north of the now demolished Dean Street station. When the line was rebuilt in the 1990s it was single tracked from just south of the Park Place station to the end of the line. In effect the tracks through Botanic Garden station are a passing loop so the two trains which operate on weekdays can pass each other.

At 4:54, it would seem that those turnstiles are superfluous given the event at 3:54.

As a transit buff, I must say I truly enjoyed your videos thanks for the excellent work

love your energy

That Fallout Shelter sign is probably leftover from the 1950/60s when the US was convinced Russia would nuke us. As a further edit, I remember seeing them all over the place back then. Former Brooklynite here! Nice video BTW

A more interesting note: this subway line is so unimportant that a fire caused it to be shut down for decades because it wasn’t worth the funds to fix 🙃

Nathan, sempre nos transmitindo informações preciosas! Belo vídeo!

ALMIGHTY FRANKLIN AV SHUTTLE

I really enjoy your videos, please keep them coming 😃

Nice Video 👍👍👍👍. The way how the Franklin Avenue shuttle is set up at Prospect Park Station when you have to walk and go up stairs then back down reminds me of when I was a messenger back in the late 70's and down at the Bowling Green Station and I would look over to see the shuttle train to the south ferry . By the way, you had a turnstile jumper at the 3:53 m

When a tiny subway station has a better station building than the New Brunswick station

Been riding the subway system since 1992 and I never knew about this station until watching your video. Thanks, I'll be subscribing for more content, great job.

Before that line was torn down and rebuilt, It was a surviving remnant of the Fulton street EL before it was torn down in 1941.