MTA’s officials gave the press tours of the new South Ferry station that is expected to open next month.
Many reporters made comments about how clean it was, as it it were a hospital wing. The fancy new station cost about $500 million to build directly under the current South Ferry station.
What does this mean for straphangers? Once it opens, you’ll never hear a train conductor say that you have to be in one of the front five cars at South Ferry ever again. The new station allows all 10 cars to platform.
The current South Ferry station is a gem. It was opened just two years after the subway opened! However, the turn is so sharp and the platform so short that only five cars are able to pull up to it. So that meant riders would have to keep track what car they were in if they planned to get off. Otherwise, they’d have to walk forward to another car or be stuck.
The new station has elevators and escalators as well as one of the more sophisticated security systems in the entire subway.
SUBWAYblogger 
What will happen to the old station?
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Can’t wait to see the new station. But I’ve the same question like George.
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The old station will close. But it will *still be there* and in fact will still be connected to the system. It will be used for reversing trains on the East Side IRT (as it is now), for storing extra trains on the West Side IRT, and quite likely for interchanging trains between the East and West Side IRTs (this is the only Manhattan location where the tracks actually connect; otherwise you have to go north to the Bronx or south to Brooklyn).
I suspect it will host occasional tours, like City Hall station, and other than that, will be seen only by railworkers.
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I is gonna connect to The Whitehall R and W station. I was I Whitehall on Dec 11 and they are taking the wall down between the 2 stations. You can see the new Bowling Green Station. It looks nice. It will also be nice to connect from the W/R to the 1 and the Staten Island Ferry without going outdoors
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@George: It will end up being like the old City Hall station. Lost in time. Occasionally visited by workers and special tour groups.
Maybe they should dismantle it and sell off parts of it to collectors to raise money for the MTA budget crunch.
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I took some pictures from Whitehall looking into Southferry
http://picasaweb.google.com/RingRunner/Whitehall?authkey=OnapqYRoh8c#
or
Whitehall
I hope one of these works there is no preview or edit function
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How about a new hub for the transit museum?
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George,
It is too small to be the Transit Museum. The current site hold 20 train cars. The old South Ferry Station is only 5 cars long and not much of a mezzanine. But the city might do it, it seams they will do anything to put tourists in Lower Manhattan.
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