Since June 2010, both the F and the M operate local along the Sixth Avenue Line north of the Delancey Street/Essex Street station.

[3] In 2017, the MTA installed train-arrival "countdown clocks" across the New York City Subway system, which show how much time will elapse until the next train arrives on each respective platform.

[4] The MTA announced in 2019 that the Delancey Street/Essex Street station would become ADA-accessible as part of the agency's 2020–2024 Capital Program.

Next to the Brooklyn-bound local track is the closed Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal, which was built along with the subway station and opened several months earlier.

The terminal consisted of eight turning loops with low-level platforms which were used for trolley service from 1908 to 1948 that traveled over the Williamsburg Bridge to different parts of Brooklyn.

It also had an additional southern side platform adjacent to the trolley terminal, with the station organized in a Spanish solution.

[14] The New York City Board of Estimate approved funds for the project in July 1926,[15] and the extensions were completed in 1927, bringing the length of the platforms to 535 feet (163 m).

A potential expansion would have entailed the addition of a second side platform to the south of the southernmost track, abutting the trolley terminal.

[20] The vacant space was the proposed location of the LowLine, a planned underground park, but after fundraising proved unsuccessful, the project was indefinitely postponed in February 2020.

In a departure from the norm of recent restorations, northbound platform columns that don't have the station name plate feature a large "D" composed of four tiles.

In the late 19th century, shad were found along the Hudson River when new immigrants came to New York, many of whom settled on the Lower East Side.

Miniature versions appear along all staircases leading from the Delancey Street platforms to either fare control.Subway station: Trolley terminal: