Where the f*ck is this thing?

Thanks to popular stops running toward Times Square, the Main Street subway station in Queens is now the 10^th busiest among the M.T.A.’s routes.

Any travelers on this route wishing to avoid the hordes of tourists, however, are out of luck. The No. 7 line is your only option at the Flushing, Queens, station, which might suit those who work near Bryant Park, Times Square or Grand Central Terminal.

And although this stop ranked as one of the 10 busiest on the subway, those complaining about the crowded commute on the 7 should really try taking a trip on the N train. Seriously. We do. Often. (And the N trains tend to be those narrower, get-to-know-your-neighbor-real-well models, not the spacious, spread-out contraptions common along the 7.)

The N goes to most of the necessary stops for those working near midtown, meaning New Yorkers each morning must bear the crowds running from just north of Coney Island all the way through the city's main commercial hubs. The N travels to almost half of the 10 busiest stops on M.T.A.’s route, so there is little rest for the weary along runs that can take up to an hour, especially now that it has stopped running express in Manhattan.

Other stations that placed high on the list of the subway’s busiest are, predictably, Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, Herald Square, Union Square and Penn Station. The Main Street station in Queens saw more than 18.6 million passengers during 2010; by comparison, Times Square came in at a staggering 58.4 million passengers.

pengel@observer.com

Yet it turns out there was one tiny piece of Times Square remaining to be redone--waiting 20 years, in fact. That is how long the Times Square Theatre has been shuttered, after being one of the Great White Ways premier venues. And then, in the '80s, it was a kung fu theater. Now, Steve Cuozzo
reports, the Times Square Theatre will become another blinged out attraction.

Sources said that if all goes according to plan, the multi-level, 30,000 square-foot space will be home to an entertainment spectacular called Broadway 4D -- "a kind of Las Vegas version of Broadway past and present," as an insider described it, drawing on live talent as well as multi-media effects.

Just what Broadway needs, a little more Vegas. (Really, that's probably backwards--everything Vegas ever learned, it learned from us.)

Still, it is good to see this space, on the north side of 42nd Street between 7th and 8th avenues, finally being redeveloped, as well as being up for landmarking, according to Cuozzo. Most recently, the theater was set to become a Marc Ecko superstore, a plan that dragged out from 2004 to 2009. And before that? "Nearly every kind of retail and entertainment use has been proposed for the site -- including one by Warner LeRoy to create a Venetian restaurant fantasy complete with canals."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo