2 Avenue

2 Avenue, formerly Lower East Side-2 Avenue is an express subway station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line. Originally from December 2001 to June 2010, V trains terminated on the express tracks until the MTA went under a financial crisis, leading to budget cuts. Under this cut, the V was discontinued and its originally line merged with the M into the orange M train. This station is served by the F train.

This station opened on January 1, 1936 as an extension of the IND Sixth Avenue Line. There are four tracks and two island platforms. The outer local tracks are still used in regular service while the center express terminating tracks are currently unused since 2010. The tile band is medium violet with a violet border and three tiles high. Wall tiles have "2 ND AVE" small white lettering in a black background. Most of the original mezzanine is currently walled off and split into two seperate mezzanines.

Originally in the 1930s, the city-owned IND planned for a mass expansion, one being the IND Second System. A station called Houston Street was to be built above 2 Avenue on the line. However, because of the Great Depression and World War II, these plans were scrapped. Today, evidence of the shell can be seen in the station platform with high elevation in the ceiling supported by heavier concrete beams at the middle. Also, many walled off portions of the mezzanine area houses the station shell. Currently, the MTA is planning to build the Second Avenue subway, one of the stations, Houston Street, would have a proposed transfer to the current 2 Avenue station under Phase III of the project.