Tompkinsville
St. George Station (as the entrance signs say) is the most intermodal transit center in New York City. The station connects the Staten Island Railway and 13 (of the just 19 total) local Staten Island Bus Routes (and 9 out of 12 limited routes) with the free Staten Island Ferry for passengers to connect to Manhattan. Staten Island Railway trains are even timed to connect with the ferry, with railroad frequency basically dictated by the ferry schedule. Base SIR service runs every half-hour leaving 5 to 10 minutes after the ferries arrive (trains will even wait for a late ferry). During rush hours service is expanded to every 15 minutes with two trains meeting rush hour ferries and running on a zone-based express/local schedule. Express trains run non-stop to Great Kills, catching up nearly to the previous local train that terminates at Great Kills, with the local train to Great Kills leaving just after the express train.
With the full introduction of free transfers with MetroCard Gold on the Staten Island Railway on July 4, 1997; St. George became the only place where turnstiles were installed and passengers paid fares with travel completely free along the rest of the line. Passengers must pay to both enter and exit the railway with multiple banks of turnstiles facing opposite directions (no special can pay in both directions turnstiles) and MVMs on both sides of the fare payment barrier. Previously passengers boarding at St. George paid their fares at turnstiles (with MetroCard accepted only for outbound trips at St. George since March 31, 1994) with outbound passengers at other stations, and all St. George-bound passengers, paying their fares – in cash or a subway token – to the conductor directly who roamed the train like an LIRR or Metro-North Conductor.
Today, St. George isn’t the only station where fares are collected with a new station house and fares collection beginning on January 20, 2010, at the first stop south, Tompkinsville, a half-mile 10 minute walk away due to a perception of passengers getting off at Tompkinsville and then walking to the ferry to get a completely free ride.
Today, passengers using MetroCard and OMNY even get free transfers between the Staten Island Railway in St. George and the NYC subway after they arrive in Manhattan at either South Ferry, Bowling Green or any NYC subway station within 2 hours. There is even a double-free transfer opportunity where passengers going to Manhattan can take a feeder bus to the Staten Island Railway, pay for their fare at St. George and then get on a subway or local bus in lower Manhattan to continue their subway journey, all for just one $2.90 fare.
The station itself for railroad passengers is the only stop on the SIR that feels quasi-underground, it isn’t underground, but the combined ferry terminal and four bus ramps are built directly above most of the platforms with the bus ramps making the platforms covered except at their southern ends where simple grey canopy structures cover the full length of each platform. Signage is minimal with just a few St. George signs on some of the grey painted columns. For trains there are a whopping 6 island platforms for 12 tracks, although trains only currently depart from tracks 1 through 6.
Tracks 7 through 10 do have switches with the existing line south, but tracks 11 and 12, lead to the stub-end Y-junction with the former North Shore Line which ceased passenger service in 1953. A tiny portion of this this line was reopened for building of the Ballpark Station on June 24, 2001. The ballpark station was a special event only station that saw one special train running to the ballpark (bypassing St. George) from Tottenville before Staten Island Yankee Games, and a special trip back from the ballpark that left 10 minutes after the game or fireworks ended. This special train was flashed on the scoreboard at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark flashing a message about postgame train service. There were also two pre-game shuttle trains between St. George and the ballpark that were the last trains to use these high numbered tracks.
The ballpark service was discontinued in September 2009 after the baseball season ended due to low ridership. The stadium is 800 feet away from the ferry terminal (a less than 10 minute walk). The Staten Island Yankees used to advertise to come see the future of the New York Yankees “just steps from the Staten Island Ferry.” The Staten Island Yankees team folded in 2020 due to the contraction of Major League team affiliated Minor League Baseball into about half the number of teams compared to today and the Staten Island Yankees were not chosen to survive. A new unaffiliated team, the Staten Island FerryHawks now plays in the independent Atlantic League.
The current unified railroad and with the bus bays above the rail platforms were built between 1948 and 1951 with the current terminal opening on June 8, 1951. This was because of 1946 fire that destroyed the original terminal. This building with lots of brick walls (including by the platform entrances) was rebuilt around 2005.
To leave the station, like at many railroad terminals, all access from the 6 high-level platforms is beyond the bumper blocks. Here silver doors lead directly in from each platform (at the same level, no steps or ramps required) into the station house in the basement of the ferry terminal. Above the silver doors out to each platform is a blue lightbox that uses lights to show the trains destination (today’s express service is simpler with many fewer variations than even 10 years ago), the track the train is leaving from, and whether the train is a local train or an express train. When trains are boarding “Now Boarding” illuminates from the top of the light board in Green with a green light flashing on top of the board. These lightboard signs were installed around 2005-2006 when the entire station was renovated, and modern tile replaced former brick walls in the station house. These lightboards replaced older flipboards (that weren’t in operation in a 2004 visit) and old-fashioned hand-cranked rolling signs to indicate the destination and if the train is local or express from each platform. The station around 2019 also received modern LCD screens that can show strip maps for SIR trains like subway stations in the other 4 boroughs. These also show service status for the entire subway and SIR system.
Inside the station house are blue and grey tiled walls, with a few benches for waiting passengers outside the doors to the tracks. Like at a railroad terminal passengers wait in the station until the doors are open on trains and they are ready for boarding. In the middle of the station building are four banks of conventional subway turnstiles facing both directions due to the fact that passengers must pay their fares both when entering and leaving the station. There are two banks of turnstiles for passengers for “Entry to the Staten Island Railway” and two banks facing the opposite direction for “Entry/Exit” – the signs say both – “Staten Island Ferry, Buses, and Paid Exit”. Signs say “No Exit Except in an emergency” above the turnstiles that are in the normal exit direction. These turnstiles all have their “No” “Red” – (instead of green with an arrow) circular lights on. A central token booth is between the two sets of entry and exit turnstiles. This booth has windows out to both sides. The booth is built into the station building and contains a similar tile pattern below the booth windows to the station walls. As of November 2023, it has received the new black customer service center black wrapping as token clerks on the rest of the subway system are leaving token booths and now asked to roam the station area. There are also MVMs along each side of the fare control area. There is also a second smaller booth area built into the wall of the station entry area by the doors to Tracks 5 and 6.
To leave the Staten Island Railroad two wide but short staircases leads up to the central and main corridor of the ferry terminal, there is also an elevator, making the station ADA accessible, this elevator stops at the Central Concourse of the ferry terminal before continuing up to the Richmond Terrace Roof Plaza. The Staten Island Railway entrance has a small, illuminated sign with a train logo that says SIR, with color countdown clocks on each side of this logo. These signs say whether a train is an EXP or LCL, the track number and the trains destination. These replaced older orange LED signs with more generic information. The SIR entrance is between the ramp up from the ferry terminal to bus ramp D (the bus ramps have fully canopies and brick walls, like an elevated subway station), and the ramp up to the Taxi Stand area that is on what would be Bus Ramp E.
Directly ahead of the SIR entrance is the entrance to the large Staten Island Ferry waiting room. I believe this could be the place with the most unique visitors on Staten Island, due to the number of tourists who simply want to ride the Staten Island Ferry round-trip. Since 9/11 “Passengers who want to make the return trip, must leave the ferry and enter the waiting room to await the next ferry.” This entrance had turnstiles until about 2010 (there was a 50-cent fare collected when leaving Staten Island until 1997). These turnstiles were replaced by Automatic Passenger counters to calculate ferry ridership with going through a turnstile no longer required.
To leave the station and go into the St. George neighborhood (and not make a multi-modal connection), there are exit doors from the Central Concourse of the ferry terminal (with some restaurants and shops) that lead to the west and the Empire State outlet mall (with a never built ferries wheel). Access to the east is via sidewalks along access roads (including one to the lower level where cars could enter to board ferries until 9/11) and there is also a passenger pick-up/kiss & ride area along this access road primarily designed for ferry passengers, but it could also be used by railroad passengers.
Photos 1: March 12, 2004; 2-5: June 20, 2008; 6-20: June 20, 2011; 21-29: June 22, 2015; 30-60: November 28, 2023;
