Court Street Subway Station

Despite the bad reviews, I actually find this station quite convenient.
Sure, there are endless amount of stairs and transferring from one train to the next can be torturous at times because it can get ridiculously hot down there but once you learn the station, you won’t have a problem.
There are multiple entrances to this station and depending on what train you want to take (R, 2, 3, 4, 5), you can look for the closest entrance to that train instead of trudging around underground.
When you look pass all the cons, this is a pretty great station.

Why am I the only person who thinks this station is A-​OK? I take the R train back to Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights a few times a week, and now that the Montague Tubes are repaired, this is a very straightforward way back to Whitehall street.
I know, Manhattan service for the R train was interrupted because of work on the Montague tubes, but they appear to have completed that.
Actually, I gave it another star because – if you read my other reviews – you know I like stations with concrete platforms, yellow bannisters, and the original glass tiles on the walls. I’m not really cool with the elevator to the street, but it is prompt and offers another option for getting back to Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights.
(To get the 2,3 or 4,5 trains, there are numerous entrances on Court street that will make it more direct for you to get those trains; I’m saying that getting the R from the Montague street entrance is the most direct.)

Creepy old station with poor ventilation.
Crazy maze where the R currently begins/​ends due to Sandy, the ⁴⁄₅ to the East side and another set of tracks and the ²⁄₃ ti the West side on a different disconected set of tracks: Manhattan bound on one side ofbthe ⁴⁄₅ and Flatbush/​ENY bound on the opposite side. Transferring is a bitch and sometimes its ha4d to breathe in there.
How to not get lost inside:
For the R enter on Montague and either Court or Clinton sts. For the ²⁄₃ enter on Joralemon by starbucks and take tge escalators. For ⁴⁄₅ enter on Fulton by the Municipal building

The only other thong I can say about this station is you better take an armored guard with you.

This is one of the most deceptive stations in Brooklyn and the MTA in general. One of the worst in the whole system. Sure – up above – it appears hum-​drum, mundane, unimposing, innocuous. But below the sidewalk, it is a black, dank, chilling, nebulous, abyss.
Court Street is actually a tangled warren which extends far underneath the surrounding city blocks in every direction. Undetectable from above, it connects with numerous other stations under your feet; there are multiple train routes all heading every-​which-​way; and dozens of criss-​crossing platforms stacked upon each other like a madman’s Lego set.
To get to the one you desire, the unwary commuter faces an exhausting, foot-​wearying trudge –thousands of yards – in terms of total amount of walking required. What the MTA really ought to do is post large station diagrams at sidewalk level – at the entrances – so that people realize just what an Escher-​type maze they’re blithely entering. Just add a skull-​and-​crossbones on the sign, as well.
The first set of innocent-​looking passages doesn’t seem so bad. But then, you encounter one landing; then another. Then, another. Diversion. Detour. Chutes, shafts, tunnels. Channels, corridors, tubes… infinite in number, repetitive in sequence, monotonous in succession.
Within five minutes of embarking downward, you will find a vast, subterranean, complex filled with stairs, stairs, and still more stairs. They all seem to lead nowhere except to endless duplicates and copies of themselves. Terrifying and infernal. Meanwhile, the echo-​ey, narrow, ‘straightaway’ passages – which you initially encounter with some relief – soon disappoint, as well. They are as endless in their linear dimension as the staircases are, in the vertical.
The approaches to any actual train platform –confounding all reason – always intersect themselves; crossing and re-​crossing their own length many times over; rising and descending perversely through series of mystifying ramps; leading you around in enormous gyres rather than in a straight line. You find yourself ascending upwards in one area of your route – then futilely descending back downwards, farther on – but never any nearer to your train than you were before. You consider backtracking, defying the signs – but its no use.
This question will haunt you during your travail: is all this merely the result of accident and incompetence? Feckless engineering? That would be bad enough in itself. What’s worse, is the thought of a monstrosity like this being deliberately designed and built this way ‘on purpose’. As if they thought it was excellent.
Another oddity: just one elevator in the entire infrastructure. which is invariably broken. [Maybe that’s for the best – I wouldn’t trust it anyway.]
I once opted for a staircase specifically to avoid the elevator here – it was adjoining to the elevator; the only one in sight. No sign. Descending it, however, I realized it was probably used more by maintenance personnel. Cold; lit by bare bulbs; walls seeping with icy water. Truly an «old-​school stairwell» as you find in institutional or government buildings; you know the kind I mean.
Losing hope, I allowed it to take me down flight by flight; eight-​slippery-​concrete-​steps-​at-​a-​time. At least ten flights to get all the way down. And at the bottom what do I find? Egress? Escape? No! A pool! That’s right, a vast puddle of filthy black drainage water about ten feet across. Ankle deep, too. The very last, final circle of MTA hell.
Disturbing; demoralizing; spirit-​breaking. Good sweet Jesus, never enter the clutches of Court Street Station if you can help it.
P. S. filming location for the original ‘Pelham123’