A question about the South Ferry subway station...?

When the station was built back in 1905, local trains were only 4 or 5 cars long so it was the correct length for the time. The same applied to all local stations along the original route opened in 1904.

In later years when other stations were being lengthened to 10 cars it was determined that for various reasons extending the South Ferry platform was not practical.

Some reasons:

To extend the platform meant they had to dig up the main area of Battery Park. That idea was not well received by the City of NY (the subway was City owned by privately built and operated).

Because of all the extra work that would have to be done the cost was way too much.

At the time platforms were growing the 7th Av line (opened in 1918) was in operation. There would have been even more work to be done in the area (moving switches etc).

It was decided to just leave it as it was even though it was always considered something that would have to be done eventually.

It wasn't until the tragic events of 9/11/01 that the Federal gov't provided the money for rebuild downtown Manhattan. The City and State of NY took advantage of this to build a whole new South Ferry station underneath the current one. This station is a regular 2 track terminal which will allow 2 trains of 10 cars to use the station (vs 1 train of 10 cars of which only 5 can be opened).

This new station did involve some digging up of parts of Battery Park but the inconvenience was minor vs what would have had to be done back in the early part of the 20th century.

To just add to the other answers, the train conductor has to make announcements for people who want to get off at South Ferry to move up to the 1st 5 cars. The train stays at the previous stop (Rector St) for an extra minute or so to allow people to do this via the platform rather than walking from car to car (which is illegal these days). This causes delays as a minute here and there adds up. The new station will take care of these issues.

The new station will probably be opened in February 2009 and will include a short connection passageway to the R & W train's Whitehall St station which is quite close.

BTW - I helped write/edit that article in wikipedia.

You simply can't get onto the platform from those 5 cars.

Some people who find themselves in a back car when the train enters South Ferry will run up through the train using emergency exit doors to move between cars and get to the front where they can exit, but this is technically illegal, and sometimes the doors are locked.

If you just stay in a back car and don't move, you will continue to ride in the train until the next stop, which is generally Rector St. again after the train reverses direction...if the train were going out of service, an MTA employee would walk through and clear out the straggling people (see above about walking from car to car within the train).

you have to be in the first 5 cars to get off at South Ferry. They announce it several times and there are signs in each car on the 1 train.

I'm not sure if they check the last 5 cars on Southbound trains at Rector St., but I'd assume if you get "stuck" in one of them, you just have to wait until the train heads back the other way, get off at Rector St. and switch directions.

The only other station with this "problem" (er, um... charm?) is the 145th St. station on the 3 train.