Reconstruction of the Times Square Station is an integral part of the 42nd Street Development Project. The new development, planned for the sites above and adjacent to the subway station, creates the opportunity for complete reconstruction of the station. An analysis of pedestrian flows within the station was conducted to assist in selecting the design concept. The movement analysis task takes on a special significance because of the size, the number of possible entrance and exit points, and the number of alternative paths available to get from place to place within the station. The complexity of the station area is such that it precludes the use of existing station area models, including the UMTA Transit Station Simulation (USS) program. Highway network and assignment techniques were adapted and the Urban Transportation Planning System (UTPS) was used to simulate pedestrian networks and to project pedestrian volumes on discrete station elements. UTPS has proved to be valuable for analyzing al ternatives and for providing pedestrian flow data that are needed to refine the design concepts. Information generated by UTPS helped to evaluate the overall performance of the alternatives with respect to each other and the existing station. It also pinpointed the location of the problem areas within each alternative.

Times Square Station, one of the three largest subway stations in New York City, was built over the three decades between 1900 and 1930 by three different private transit companies. This complex is currently the major interchange of four subway lines: the 7th Avenue Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), the Broadway Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT), the Flushing IRT, and the 42nd Street Shuttle. The station contains an upper and lower mezzanine, the lower one stacked between the Flushing and 7th Avenue IRT lines, and is also connected to the 8th Avenue line and the Port Authority Bus Terminal through the 4lst Street pedestrian tunnel. The station platforms are connected by a maze of concourses, stairs, ramps, escalators, passageways, and entrances. Reconstruction of the Times Square Station is an integral part of the 42nd Street Development Project. The new development, planned for the sites above and adjacent to the subway station, creates an unprecedented opportunity for the reconstruction of the station. The design of the modernization is being prepared under the direction of the New York City Public Development Corporation (PDC) in cooperation with the project steering committee.