Jamaica Center subway hub now carries York College’s name

On Friday morning, Oct. 23, the MTA unveiled a new name for the Jamaica Center transit hub in Queens. The station, once called Jamaica Center, Parsons/Archer, is now Jamaica Center, York College. The change marks the CUNY college’s 60th anniversary and its long history in the neighborhood.

What changes at Jamaica Center, York College

Three subway lines run through the hub, the E, J and Z, and a number of bus routes stop there too. Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman, who carried the renaming bill in Albany with state Sen. Leroy Comrie, said about 30,000 people ride through the station every day.

MTA CEO Janno Lieber said at the unveiling that the agency seldom renames stations and does it only for places riders need to find. York College, he said, is the kind of destination people should see “as they look at a subway map.”

A long-requested name

Comrie said the college had asked for years to have its name on the station. He noted that the unveiling came one day after the school’s 60th anniversary gala. Hyndman said the college started with 471 students and 50 faculty members and now has more than 6,000 students and 1,000 faculty. Its sports teams were once called the Nomads, she said, because the school had no permanent home before it settled in Jamaica in 1986.

Hyndman also said the hub still needs the major upgrades listed in the Jamaica Neighborhood Plan before it can work as a modern station. The city’s Jamaica Neighborhood Plan puts the area south of Jamaica Station and the Jamaica Center subway station in its South Core, near transit, according to the Mayor’s Office. Council Member Nantasha Williams, whose district includes York College and Jamaica Center, called the school a vital anchor for southeast Queens.