Subway to be 95% accessible
MTA settles suits, will build elevators, ramps in plan running to 2055
MTA officials on Tuesday announced a decadeslong commitment to make 95% of the city’s subway system accessible to New Yorkers with disabilities, who are all but shut out from the vast majority of the city’s aging subway system.
Just 126 — or about 27% of 472 subway stations are currently wheelchair-accessible, and regular breakdowns of elevators make the system even more difficult to navigate for those with mobility issues.
The commitment to build more ramps and elevators comes through a settlement to a pair of lawsuits filed by disability advocates against the transit agency that claim officials continue to violate state and federal law by running a subway system that locks out wheelchair users.
The agreement requires the MTA to ink contracts to build ramps and elevators at 81 stations on the subway and Staten Island Railway by 2025; another 85 by 2035; 90 more by 2045 and another 90 by 2055. It’s unclear how long it will take to construct all of the accessibility features after the contracts are issued.
“This is a great day, but reality check — taking the New York subway today is still difficult and even dangerous for so many who need safe, stair-free access,” said accessibility advocate Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, who has used a wheelchair since he was paralyzed from the waist down by a falling Central Park tree branch in 2009. “There’s still a lot to do.”
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said during a news conference that provisions in the settlement make it difficult for the agency to fail to make good on the timeline.
Lieber noted the accessibility push could fall through if the feds do not approve the city’s planned congestion pricing program, which would toll motorists who drive south of 60th St. in Manhattan and use the proceeds to finance MTA construction projects.
MTA officials said they’ll be required to set aside at least 14.7% of the funding in each of NYC Transit’s future five-year capital plans for accessibility projects.
The current 2020-2024 capital plan commits $5.2 billion to make 66 stations accessible.
The deal ends a yearslong legal battle fought by disability advocates in court over the MTA’s historically sluggish approach to accessibility.
“Today is huge,” Lieber said. “This is a legal settlement, but it really wasn’t the result of what goes on in the courtroom or between lawyers at all. The settlement was made possible because in the last few years we at the MTA have come to the same place as our partners in the advocacy community.”
Officials on Tuesday did not have a list of stations that will be made accessible under the agreement.
One of the lawsuits settled this week claims the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is in violation of New York City’s Human Rights Law by not having enough accessible stations. Another argues the agency regularly violates the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991 by doing construction at stations without also building ramps and elevators.
The MTA still faces a federal lawsuit filed by advocates in 2017 surrounding the maintenance and reliability of subway elevators, which regularly break down or close for repairs with little notice to riders who rely on them.
Transit officials on Tuesday said that litigation was still pending, but indicated they are looking to find a settlement on the issue.