“Plum Assignment” Handles 256 Riders A Day

The least-used subway station in the system is Beach 105th Street in the Rockaways:

Call it a tale of two turnstiles.

Each day, nearly 170,000 straphangers swipe their MetroCard at the city’s busiest subway station, Times Square.

Meanwhile, 26 stops away on the A line from that station is Beach 105th Street in the Rockaways, the city’s least-used stop.

To the mere 256 people who spin through its turnstiles each day, it’s like having their own private subway.

“Nothing really happens here,” Mike Lemonn, 25, said.

“I like that there are few people using these trains. The atmosphere gets me started on the right foot for work.”

. . .

In two years, it handles fewer customers than Times Square does in a single day.

“It’s so peaceful compared to the cattle-car stations in Midtown,” said Tina Schliss. “The only downside is that we’re the neglected stepchildren of the subway.”

One stairway has been closed for several years, passengers say, and the rotting wooden roof is riddled with holes and tends to stink after a rain. That’s not to mention the rumors that resurface every few years that the MTA plans to shut the station down.

The A train stops at the station only during rush hour, while the rest of the day, shuttle trains run back and forth to Broad Channel. “We do not shut stations down because of low ridership,” NYC Transit spokesman Charlie Seaton said.

. . .

With an ocean view from the station booth and little else to do but stare at the surf, transit workers say Beach 105th is among the subway’s most plum assignments, reserved for those only a few stops away from retirement.

“After 21 years, I earned this,” said station agent Charlie Hughes, 61, who is on a first-name basis with most of his customers. “It’s like a small town here. Most of the people live a block or two away, as do I.”

Hughes says he is spending the waning years of his transit career reading the newspapers cover to cover and listening to ballgames on his radio.

“About the only other excitement is watching the waves kick up when a storm front comes in,” he said.