$1.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 () was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. The northbound platform at the 116th Street station was extended to the south, while the southbound platform was not lengthened. Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910, and ten-car express trains began running on the West Side Line on January 24, 1911. Subsequently, the station could accommodate six-car local trains, but ten-car trains could not open some of their doors. In conjunction with the platform lengthening, a new entrance was constructed to the northbound platform in 1912. An entrance kiosk for the new staircase was taken from the 23rd Street and Fourth Avenue station and was installed in July 1913. The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. Platforms at IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line stations between and , including those at 116th Street, were lengthened to between 1946 and 1948, allowing full ten-car express trains to stop at these stations. A contract for the platform extensions at 116th Street and eight other stations on the line was awarded to Spencer, White & Prentis Inc. in October 1946. The platform extensions at these stations were opened in stages. On April 6, 1948, the platform extension at 116th Street opened. Simultaneously, the IRT routes were given numbered designations with the introduction of "R-type" rolling stock, which contained rollsigns with numbered designations for each service. The route to 242nd Street became known as the 1. In 1959, all 1 trains became local. Columbia University first requested the demolition of the station's original entrance in Broadway's median in 1954, ahead of the Columbia University Bicentennial. The university brought up the issue again at a meeting of the New York City Board of Estimate in 1963, after a student was killed while crossing the street. The kiosk was seen as a safety hazard, with two deaths and several accidents occurring at the kiosk from 1962 to 1964. Sixty-eight hundred students and faculty members signed a petition to remove the kiosk in February 1964. On March 13, 1964, the New York City Board of Estimate voted to allocate $600,000 () to demolish the entrance and replace it with two new sidewalk entrances as part of the 1964–1965 City budget. The New York City Department of Highways had