Fordham (Metro-North station)

Fordham

The station building in 2013.
Location 417 East Fordham Road (190th Street)
Fordham, Bronx, New York 10458
Coordinates 40°51′42″N 73°53′26″W / 40.861534°N 73.890561°W / 40.861534; -73.890561
Owned by Metro-North Railroad
Line(s)
  Harlem Line
  New Haven Line
Platforms 2 side platforms
Tracks 4
Connections NYCT Bus, MTA Bus and Bee-Line Bus (see Fordham Plaza Bus Terminal below)
Construction
Disabled access Yes
Other information
Fare zone 2
Electrified 700V (DC) third rail
Services
Preceding station   Metro-North Railroad   Following station
Harlem Line
toward Wassaic
  Limited  
New Haven Line
  Former services  
New York Central Railroad
183rd Street
Harlem Division
toward Chatham

The Fordham (also known as Fordham – East 190th Street) Metro-North Railroad station serves the residents of the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx, New York via the Harlem Line and New Haven Line. It is 8.9 miles (14.3 km) from Grand Central Terminal. The platforms are situated just below street level and feature two expanded side platforms that serve eight cars each, on the outer tracks. The station building sits above the tracks on the Fordham Road (East 190th Street) overpass, and still bears the name New York Central Railroad on its facade. This station is among the busiest in the Metro-North system.[1][2]

Service

Most service is provided to Grand Central Terminal by local Harlem Line trains from and to North White Plains. These trains run at least approximately every half-hour on weekdays and Saturdays, and hourly on Sundays. However, during the reverse peak (outbound from GCT mornings and inbound evenings) through trains to and from Southeast also serve this station. On early weekend mornings and late evenings, a few local trains direct to/from Southeast stop here as well.

The station is partially used by many off-peak New Haven Line trains coming to/from Stamford, and some peak trains. It is the only station in the Bronx that New Haven Line trains serve daily (New Haven Line trains do serve Yankee Stadium directly around the Mott Haven wye for some games). Grand Central-bound trains may stop at Fordham to discharge passengers; Stamford-bound trains may stop at Fordham to receive passengers. Travelers to/from Grand Central are required to take the Harlem Line instead. This is due to Metro-North's operating agreement with the Connecticut Department of Transportation.[3]

Neighborhood

This station is adjacent to the western end of the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University. It is part of the Fordham Plaza complex which is served by several Bronx and Westchester bus routes. The area is a commercial hub with many shops, especially along Fordham Road going west (known as "Fordham Center"). One Fordham Plaza, an office building with several shops, is located on the southeast corner of Fordham Road and Third Avenue, across from the bus terminal.[4][5]

This station is located in Zone 2.

History

The New York and Harlem Railroad laid tracks through Fordham as far back as 1842, and a station is known to have existed shortly afterwards.[6] The New York and Harlem was bought by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1864. A March 17, 1848 agreement gave the New York and New Haven Railroad trackage rights over the NY&H from Williamsbridge south into New York City. NY&NH was merged with the Hartford and New Haven Railroad to form the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1872, and the trackage rights along the Harlem Division remained intact. This aspect of the line would prove to be of little importance to the station until the next century. Throughout the late-19th Century, the Harlem Division was widened and rebuilt into an open cut line as part of a grade elimination project, and Fordham Station would be one of nearly several in the Bronx that would be rebuilt as a station house on a bridge over all four tracks, much like Melrose, the former Morrisania and Tremont stations, among others.[7][8] The reconstruction of the Harlem Line in this area lead to the creation of Fordham Plaza.[9]

Two major milestones of the early 20th Century brought an increase in ridership to the station. Interborough Rapid Transit extended the Third Avenue Elevated Line near Fordham Station, bringing a rapid transit connection on July 1, 1901. Pelham Avenue station was the northern terminus of the line until it was extended to Bronx Park Terminal over ten months later. As a result, the Third Avenue Railway also began to operate from Fordham Plaza converting it into the major transit hub that it is to this day. Due to the popularity of football games between the Fordham Rams and Yale Bulldogs in the 1920s, joint service between the New York Central Railroad and New York, New Haven and Hartford was moved from Woodlawn station to Fordham, where it has remained to this day.[10]

As with many NYCRR stations in the Bronx, the station became a Penn Central station once the NYC & Pennsylvania Railroads merged in 1968. Penn Central acquired the New Haven Railroad in 1969, thus transforming the station into a full Penn Central station. However the railroad's continuous financial despair throughout the 1970s forced them to turn over their commuter service to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. To make matters worse, the connection to the Fordham Road – 190th Street station as well as the rest of the IRT Third Avenue Line was eliminated in 1973, although the station still had a major mass transit connection in the form of Fordham Plaza. The station and the railroad were turned over to Conrail in 1976, and eventually became part of the MTA's Metro-North Railroad in 1983. Metro-North extended the platforms to handle longer trains in the 1990s, and removed the luncheonette and other local businesses that operated from the station.

Platform and track configuration

3 ■ Harlem Line for Grand Central
■ New Haven Line for Grand Central
1 ■ New Haven Line no stop
2 ■ New Haven Line no stop
4 ■ Harlem Line for Southeast, Wassaic
■ New Haven Line for New Haven – State Street

This station has two high-level side platforms each eight cars long. Both are accessible via stairways from the station building and from Fordham Plaza.

The western platform, adjacent to Track 4, is generally used by southbound trains. The eastern platform, adjacent to Track 3, is generally used by northbound trains.

Metro-North has four tracks at this location. The two inner tracks not adjacent to either platform are used only by express trains.

Fordham Plaza Bus Terminal

The nearby Fordham Bus Plaza at Fordham Metro-North station in 2011.

The following bus routes serve the Fordham Plaza area; the Bx1, Bx2, and Bx34 local buses and the BxM4 express bus stop on or near Grand Concourse several blocks west.

Route Stop location Terminal1 Terminal2 via notes
NYCT Bus
Grand Concourse and Fordham Road Mott Haven Riverdale 3rd Avenue, 138th Street,
Grand Concourse, Mosholu Parkway,
Sedgwick Avenue, 231st Street
Mott Haven Kingsbridge Heights 3rd Avenue, 149th Street, Grand Concourse,
Mosholu Parkway, Sedgwick Avenue
Fordham Road and Third Avenue Riverdale West Farms Broadway, Kingsbridge Road,
Fordham Road, Southern Boulevard		 Originally the Bronx and Van Cortlandt Parks Crosstown Line streetcars until January 24, 1948.
University Heights Pelham Bay or Orchard Beach Fordham Road, Pelham Parkway
  • Late nights, operates entire route between Inwood and Co-op City
  • Summers, operates to Orchard Beach
Inwood Co-Op City 207th Street, Fordham Road, Pelham Parkway
Fordham Plaza Bus Loop
to The Hub or Manhattanville
 125th Street, Willis Avenue, Third Avenue
Fordham Plaza (on Third Avenue)
to Port Morris/Mott Haven
 St. Ann's Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Crotona Avenue
Fordham Road and Third Avenue Castle Hill Bedford Park Castle Hill Avenue, Unionport Road,
White Plains Road, Fordham Road,
Kingsbridge Road, Goulden Avenue		 Midday and late evening service terminates at Valentine Avenue near the Fordham Road Subway station.
Valentine or Bainbridge Avenues and Fordham Road Valentine Avenue and Fordham Road Woodlawn Bainbridge Avenue, East 233rd Street
Webster Avenue and Fordham Road The Hub Williamsbridge Melrose Avenue, Webster Avenue Originally the Webster and White Plains Avenues Line streetcars until June 26, 1948.
The Hub Williamsbridge Melrose Avenue, Webster Avenue Began 2013. Replaced Bx55 (which replaced the IRT Third Avenue Line in 1973) north of Fordham Plaza.[13]
MTA Bus
Grand Concourse and Fordham Road Midtown Manhattan Woodlawn 5th & Madison Avenues, Grand Concourse, Bainbridge Avenue, Katonah Avenue Former Liberty Lines Express bus.
Bee-Line Bus
60
 East 189th Street and Third Avenue (southbound) or Fordham Road and Third Avenue (northbound)
White Plains TransCenter
 Boston Post Road, Palmer Avenue, Mamaroneck Avenue
61
Port Chester
 Boston Post Road, Fifth Avenue, Halstead Avenue U-Turns at NY-CT line
62
 Fordham Road and Third Avenue Fordham Road Subway station (at Valentine Avenue) White Plains TransCenter Boston Post Road, New England Thruway, Westchester Avenue Express to White Plains

References

  1. ↑ Miller, Stephen (August 28, 2014). "City Begins to Reclaim Space for Pedestrians at Fordham Plaza". Streetsblog. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  2. ↑ "INVENTORY OF DECKING OPPORTUNITIES OVER TRANSPORTATION PROPERTIES Final Report: 6.1: TRANSIT AND RAILROAD OPEN CUTS: BRONX B" (PDF). nyc.gov. New York City Department of City Planning. September 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Jaccarino, Mike (May 18, 2009). "Wait for train in vain: Fordham riders vent: Metro-North won't let them on New Haven line". Daily News (New York). Retrieved July 4, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Appendix A: Major Trip Generators in the Bronx and Queens" (PDF). nyc.gov. New York City Department of Transportation. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  5. ↑ Slattery, Denis (July 1, 2014). "Management company puts the grind on average Joe after Starbucks opens Bronx location: The owner of a newsstand inside One Fordham Plaza has been barred from selling java or tea since the corporate coffee chain opened in June, according to office workers.". Daily News (New York). Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  6. ↑ ["The traveler's guide to the Hudson river, Saratoga Springs, lake George, falls of Niagara and Thousand islands; Montreal, Quebec, and the Saguenay river; also, to the Green and White mountains, and other parts of New England; forming the fashionable northern tour through the United States and Canada," By John Disturnell (1864)]
  7. ↑ Tour of the Harlem Line - Melrose
  8. ↑ Melrose Station, in the late 1800′s
  9. ↑ Fordham Plaza, c. 1920 (Charles Warren's Third Avenue El Gallery)
  10. ↑ Station Reporter web-site: Harlem Line
  11. ↑ "The 3rd Avenue Corridor". The Bronx Journal. March 27, 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  12. ↑ "3d Avenue El Closes Saturday; Fleet of 60 Buses to Replace It". The New York Times. April 22, 1973. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  13. ↑ bx41 sbs starting in june 2013 in mta board meeting packet pages 7.6-7.16

External links

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