This station is one of three express stations to have side platforms for local services and a center island platform for express services, the other two being the 34th Street–Penn Station stops on the IND Eighth Avenue Line and the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line respectively. The reason for this is that the Atlantic Avenue station was originally planned as a two-track station with only the island (express) platform; the side (local) platforms were added to the plans when construction was already underway. However, this layout helps to reduce overcrowding because the station is connected to Atlantic Terminal, and the next station west from Atlantic Avenue, Nevins Street, is also an express station with the more common two-island-platform configuration. This limits overcrowding by preventing cross-platform interchanges between local and express services.