Ninth Avenue (BMT West End Line)

Ninth Avenue (BMT West End Line)

Ninth Avenue is a bi-level express station on the BMT West End Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Ninth Avenue and 39th Street in Brooklyn. Each level has three tracks and two island platforms. The upper level serves the BMT West End Line while the lower level formerly served the BMT Culver Line. Only the upper level is still in service and is served by the D train at all times. The center express track is not normally used.

The station house is at street level and there is a sealed entrance on the west side. The tablet grilles in the mezzanine are still intact and a newsstand once stood opposite the current location of the station agent booth. On the upper level, the Manhattan-bound platform is slightly wider than the Coney Island-bound platform. Towards the west end of the upper level platforms is an employee-only pedestrian bridge that leads to the entrance of the 36th–38th Street Yard via a high turnstile.

As the West End line rises from embankment to elevated east of this station, the BMT Culver right-of-way can be seen leaving the tunnel on the Manhattan-bound side. Only one track leaves the tunnel, dead-ending approximately 750 feet later before Fort Hamilton Parkway with no further connections. There is also a platform present. The platform was installed in the late 1980s for New York City Transit employees only and is not part of the right-of-way.

To the west of the station is a complicated track layout complete with track connections from the Fourth Avenue Line, ramps from the now-demolished Fifth Avenue El, and ramps from the 36th–38th Street Yard, combining together to form the six tracks and two levels of the station.

Beyond the ramps, as the line curves under the BMT Fourth Avenue Line, there are tracks that continue straight into the piers on the waterfront, which were once operated by the South Brooklyn Railway. In the tunnel approaching 36th Street station, there is an unused trackway that was supposed to connect to the South Brooklyn Railway. The tunnel connection was never built. This trackway merges to the southbound track and runs for a long distance before ending at a wall.

As of 2010, the Coney Island-bound platform has been renovated with new platform edges, a new dispatcher room and a new stairway that leads to the 36th Street Yard.