title: Burke Avenue station
text: # Burke Avenue station
  
  The Burke Avenue station is a local station on the IRT White Plains Road Line of the New York City Subway. Located in the Bronx at the intersection of Burke Avenue and White Plains Road, it is served by the 2 train at all times and by the 5 train during rush hours in the peak direction.
  
  ## History
  
  This station was built under the Dual Contracts. It opened on March 3, 1917, as part of an extension of the IRT White Plains Road Line from East 177th Street–East Tremont Avenue to East 219th Street–White Plains Road, providing the Bronx communities of Williamsbridge and Wakefield with access to rapid transit service. Service on the new portion of the line was operated as a four-car shuttle from 177th Street due to the power conditions at the time. The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.
  
  It was renovated in 2004-2005 at a cost of approximately $12.48 million.
  
  ## Station layout
  
  | Platform level | Side platform | Side platform |
  | - | - | - |
  | Platform level | Northbound local | ← toward Wakefield–241st Street (Gun Hill Road) ← PM rush toward Nereid Avenue (Gun Hill Road) |
  | Platform level | Peak-direction express | ← does not stop here (select AM rush hour trips) |
  | Platform level | Southbound local | ← toward Flatbush Avenue–Brooklyn College via Seventh (Allerton Avenue) → ← AM rush toward Flatbush Avenue–Brooklyn College via Lexington (Allerton Avenue) → |
  | Side platform ||
  | Mezzanine | Mezzanine | Fare control, station agent, MetroCard machines |
  | Ground | Street level | Entrances/exits |
  
  This elevated station has three tracks and two side platforms. The center track is not normally used in revenue service.
  
  Both platforms have beige windscreens and red canopies with green outlines, frames, and support columns in the center and black, waist-high steel fences at either ends with lampposts at regular intervals. The windscreens have mesh fences at various points. The station signs are in the standard black name plates with white lettering.
  
  The 2006 artwork here is called Bronx Literature by Béatrice Coron. It consists of stained glass panels on the platform windscreens featuring scenes from various works of literature written by four authors, Sholom Aleichem, James Baldwin, Nicholasa Mohr, and Edgar Allan Poe, all of whom have lived in or wrote about the Bronx.
  
  ### Exits
  
  This station has one elevated station house beneath the center of the platforms and tracks. Two staircases from each platform go down to a waiting area. The back of the token booth faces this crossunder with a steel fences on either side. On the Wakefield-bound side, there are two exit only turnstiles. On the Manhattan-bound side, there is an emergency gate and a bank of three turnstiles. Outside fare control, two staircases go down to the northwest and southeast corners of Burke Avenue and White Plains Road. The station house has windows.
  
  