It is the only such terminal station in the subway system, creating an inefficient design in which passengers must know which track a train is departing from before going to the platform.

As part of Contract 4, the IRT agreed to build a subway line along Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.

[4][5][6] The construction of the subway along Nostrand Avenue spurred real estate development in the surrounding areas.

It was built with two side platforms and two tracks to allow for a planned but ultimately unbuilt extension of the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line.

[14]In 1968, as part of the Program for Action, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) gave consideration to extending the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) beyond the station to provide room for turnaround facilities.

[20] An elevator was installed, and the 1920s-style "Flatbush Avenue" name tablets, containing red backgrounds with blue borders, were restored on both platforms.

[20][23] In December 2020, the MTA announced that it would commission artwork in honor of subway operator Garrett Goble, who died on March 27, 2020, during an arson at the Central Park North–110th Street station.

[27][28] Plans for the Interborough Express, a light rail line using the Bay Ridge Branch right of way, were announced in 2023.

[30][31] This station has two side platforms, which are connected at the south end just past the bumper blocks, forming a "U" shape.

The presence of the connection at the southern end mitigates what is otherwise an inefficient terminal design, in which passengers must know which track a train is departing from before going to one of the two platforms.

Prior to the construction of the exit at the south end of the station, there was only a temporary wooden ramp connecting the platforms and the tunnels were actually visible to passengers.

[44] Two street stairs from each eastern corner of Nostrand and Flatbush Avenues lead to where the full-time token booth and two separate banks of turnstiles are.