The Times Square–42nd Street station on the BMT Broadway Line is an express station, with four tracks and two island platforms. the R stops here except at night, and the W stops here only on weekdays during the day. The local tracks are used by N, R and W trains, while the express tracks are used by Q trains during the day as well as limited N trains during rush hours. During the night, the Q uses the local tracks. The next station to the north is 49th Street for local trains and 57th Street–Seventh Avenue for express trains, while the next station to the south is 34th Street–Herald Square for all service. The 1, 2, and 3 trains stop here at all times. The 1 always makes local stops and the 3 always makes express stops. The 2 makes express stops during the day and local stops during the night. The next station to the north is 50th Street for local trains and 72nd Street for express trains. The next station to the south is 34th Street–Penn Station for all service.
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The Times Square–42nd Street station on the IRT Flushing Line is a local station, and has one island platform and two tracks, located deep below West 41st Street. The 7 train stops here at all times, and the <7> train stops here during rush hours in the peak direction. The station is between 34th Street–Hudson Yards to the west and Fifth Avenue to the east. The closed lower-level platform on the IND Eighth Avenue Line was blocking the line but since removed.
Artwork
Original artwork
George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge were the first commissioned architects of the IRT. They designed the original Times Square Station, which was located at the current Grand Central Shuttle stop. In many of their stations, Heins and LaFarge used symbolic imagery to honor a neighborhood or its namesake. When Squire Vickers took over as chief designer and architect of the IRT in 1906, he continued this tradition of using symbolism to speak to a station's history.
The colored tile trim of the IRT portions of the station closely resembles the Confederate flag. Scholars believe that Vickers and his colleagues unmistakably reference the symbol of the South to pay homage to New York Times owner Adolph S. Ochs. The Times had built a new headquarters directly above part of the subway station in 1904. After a 2010s movement in which Confederate monuments nationwide were removed, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced in August 2017 that these tiles would be replaced; the tiles were subsequently covered with stickers.
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File:Times_Square_Confederate_Mosaic_-_Original.jpg|Original colored tile trim, before the station renovation of the late 1990s
File:Times_Square_Confederate_Mosaic_-_Modern_Version.jpg|Replica of the original trim, installed in 1998
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Commissioned artwork
The station complex contains several artworks commissioned as part of the MTA Arts & Design program. In 1991, Norman B. Colp created The Commuter's Lament or A Close Shave, a series of signs attached to the roof of the 41st Street passageway between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, inspired by classic Burma-Shave ads. The last panel is a picture of a bed. which is located in the 41st Street passageway. The MTA commissioned a second mural from Beal in 2005, The Onset of Winter. They present the classical myth of Persephone set against the backdrop of the subway.
Jacob Lawrence created a mosaic mural called New York in Transit, which was installed in 2001 above the BMT mezzanine, and depicts several topics related to New York City. New York in Transit was Lawrence's last public work before his 2000 death. Near the BMT mezzanine's connection with the shuttle platform, Roy Lichtenstein created Times Square Mural, which was installed in 2002. Lichtenstein died in 1997 before the mural could be installed; he had completed Times Square Mural in 1994, but installation was delayed until after the station complex's renovation. The mezzanine between 41st and 42nd Street contains the artwork Times Square Times: 35 Times by Toby Buonagurio, which was installed in 2005. The artwork consists of tiles depicting fashion, performing arts, or streetlife, which are embedded in a glass-brick wall. The mezzanine under the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line at 41st Street contains a mosaic artwork by Jane Dickson, Revelers. The mosaics depict about 70 life-size people who are moving around in groups.
The shuttle station contains the artworks Each One, Every One and Equal All, all installed in 2021 and designed by Nick Cave. Every One (2021), in the passageway between the Times Square and 42nd Street–Bryant Park stations, consists of a mosaic flanking 11 digital screens; one side of the mosaic measures long and the other measures long. The mosaic and screens both depict figures in "Soundsuits", sculptural costumes made in a variety of materials. The two other artworks are Each One at the new shuttle entrance and Equal All on the island platform.