The Metropolitan Transportation Authority closed the Wall Street and City Hall subway stations at 4:30 a.m. Thursday for the New York Knicks championship parade. Trains kept stopping at nearby stations, but the agency also restricted some entrances and exits downtown as crowds gathered.
Wall Street and City Hall
The two stations were expected to reopen by about 5 p.m. Thursday. At the request of the NYPD, some entrances and exits were closed at Chambers Street, Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall, Park Place, Fulton Center and Bowling Green, while trains continued to stop there.
The parade forced a concentrated change in Lower Manhattan rather than a full subway shutdown. Riders heading into the area still had train service at nearby stations, but access points around the parade route were limited during the morning and afternoon.
Metro-North Parade Service
The MTA also added extra Metro-North trains for the parade. On the Harlem Line, an extra train left North White Plains at 7:32 a.m. and arrived at Grand Central Terminal at 8:19 a.m.; on the New Haven Line, an extra train left Stamford at 6:52 a.m. and arrived at Grand Central at 7:53 a.m.
Seven additional trains made extra stops between 5:47 a.m. and 7:46 a.m. to add capacity, and on the Hudson Line an extra train departed Greystone at 7:49 a.m. and arrived at Grand Central at 8:29 a.m. The MTA said it was prepared to add extra trains on unspecified subway lines after the parade if passenger volumes warranted it.
Rail Rules Thursday Night
Frequent Metro-North service was available until approximately 2 a.m. after the parade and celebrations. The MTA also imposed an alcohol ban on Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road trains and station platforms from 5 a.m. Thursday until 5 a.m. Friday.
Alcohol consumption and open containers are always prohibited throughout the subway system, so the new rule tightened conditions on commuter rail while leaving the subway baseline unchanged. For riders in Lower Manhattan, the immediate issue was not getting stranded — it was navigating the station closures, limited entrances and altered service around the parade route.
