11 Of The Worst Smelling Subway Stations In New York City

Which subway stations smell the worst?

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image – Flickr / Young Sok Yun 윤영석

Okay, let’s all agree that all NYC subway stations don’t particularly smell good. But there are some that smell absolutely horrible. I asked a bunch of people where they thought were the worst smelling stations and came up with this list. These are in no particular order.

image - Flickr / Tyler Wilson
image – Flickr / Tyler Wilson

1. Union Square 4/5/6, L, N/Q/R

  • It smells horrible. I hate it. Especially the long tunnel bit.
  • It’s hot, it smells, it’s crowded. Fucking awful.
  • Don’t they powerwash the platforms? Body odor AND piss. Wow.
  • 4/5/6 uptown platform in Union Square by the 3rd car from the back, a fan blows a smell down from a vent in the sidewalk that can only be likened to a burning corpse bathing in feces.
image - Flickr / Barney Wrightson
image – Flickr / Barney Wrightson

2. 49th Street, N/Q/R

  • A corner there always stinks like piss.
image - Flickr / Diego Torres Silvestre
image – Flickr / Diego Torres Silvestre

3. 125th Street

  • The downtown platform makes me GAG.
image - Flickr / Scott Beale
image – Flickr / Scott Beale

4. 42nd Street, B/D/F/M

  • The air there is so stuffy and oh my god, the smell. Unbelieveable.
  • I saw some girl throw up on the tracks the other day. Only in NY.
image - Flickr / Kevin Dooley
image – Flickr / Kevin Dooley

5. 59th Street, 4/5/6

  • Why does it smell like stale soy sauce all the time there?
  • Yeah, specifically the express platforms!
  • It smells like every restaurant in the city slow cooked their garbage for a week and hid it in those tunnels.

6. 6th Avenue, L

  • The 6th avenue L train platform used to so consistently and pungently smell like piss that I kept a scarf in my bag to cover my nose. I do think it’s getting better though.
image - Flickr / Young Sok Yun 윤영석
image – Flickr / Young Sok Yun 윤영석

7. 34th Street, B/D/F/M, N/Q/R

  • Herald Square 34st is my number 1. There was a HUGE (like cat-size) decomposing rat on the tracks yesterday.
  • The amount of trash stewing in the water never ceases to amaze me. That smell is unbelievable.
image - Flickr / Peter Cigliano
image – Flickr / Peter Cigliano

8. 34th Street, A/C/E

  • When you go under the tracks to get to the express platform, it smells like someone peed on the ceiling, the walls, the floors and rubbed your nose in it.
  • OH man, the 34th St. tunnel to get to the express… that smell is unforgettable. And I want to forget.

9. Spring Street, C/E

  • When I used to work around SoHo, I got off at the Spring Street location. There’s a tunnel that you use to get to uptown or downtown side. That tunnel, I nicknamed the Piss Hall, because no matter what season or time of day, it smelled like stanky piss.
  • The tunnel. It smells. Don’t go there.
  • I remember taking my parents around SoHo and when we decided to go home, we got on the uptown side by mistake, so we walked down the tunnel to get to the downtown platform. Oh my GOD it smelled. My mom said she felt faint from how dense the smell of pee was.
image - Flickr / The All-Nite Images
image – Flickr / The All-Nite Images

10. 53rd Street, E/M

  • The 6 under pass at 53rd and Lex smells like a portajohn after a month of constant use.
  • There’s one corner that also smells strongly of mold, and yet there’s none visible. It makes me really curious about what it must look like behind the tile. I have morbid curiosity when it comes to grossness.
image - Flickr / Rob Blatt
image – Flickr / Rob Blatt

11. Nostrand Avenue, A/C

  • It smells like piss every time the C comes through and blows the pee-soaked air right into your nose.
  • Ugh, THIS. It smells so bad, I hold my breath while I run up the stairs.
  • I really love that feeling of clammy subway air that mingles with the pee particles and you can feel it sticking to your body. It’s really great. Thought Catalog Logo Mark