[10] The change was made at the insistence of Brooklynites who wanted an express station in the Theater District of Manhattan.

[15][16] In September 1967, city transportation administrator Arthur E. Palmer Jr. announced that the 49th Street station would be renovated and would receive experimental amenities, maps, and signs[17] as part of a pilot project to measure how effective improvements in station environments were on rider attitudes to transit service.

Devices to melt snow would be constructed into stairways, entrances would receive brighter lighting, new fixtures would be installed in bathrooms, and token booths would be relocated to allow clerks to have unobstructed views of the entire platform.

[18] The city government applied for a grant from the United States Department of Transportation,[19] and was awarded $1.023 million on September 30, 1968.

The red glazed brick was installed over the original BMT-style tiled walls as part of the 1973 renovation,[21] as were ceiling noise-dampening panels[25] and terrazzo flooring.

Additional false brick tiles were added some time after the 1973 renovation, indicating the presence of a station facility.

This is due to Broadway and Seventh Avenue intersecting at the narrow point of Times Square under 45th Street.

An elevator was constructed in conjunction with a new office tower at the northeast corner of West 49th Street and Seventh Avenue.

The elevator conceals an out-of-system underground passageway leading to Rockefeller Center and the 47th–50th Streets station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line.