MTA fixed up & now pretties up station at Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center isn’t the only thing that glows at W. 66th St. and Broadway. The subway station has a bit of shine, too.
The No. 1 train stop is the latest to receive a makeover in an MTA program dedicated to cleaning up subway stations closed during major track work.
NYC Transit president Richard Davey said the program started after he asked himself this question about weekend subway repairs:
“When we shut down stations to do track work and signal work — when we reopen those on Monday morning — what do our customers see?”
“The answer was, ‘Not much.’ ” Since then, MTA work crews have done light renovation on 63 stations that were closed on nights or weekends during track or signal system repairs.
The program — Davey calls it “Re-new-vation” — typically sees stations get a deep clean, refinished benches, LED lighting, improved signage, and repairs to subway tiles.
Leaks or cracks are also repaired. When the 66th St. station was closed the first weekend of January, crews made modifications to improve drainage in the underpass connecting the uptown and downtown platforms, Davey said.
Workers scrubbed calcium deposits off station walls, repainted the ceilings and cleaned out the station’s drainage pipes.
The structural columns along the platform and between the local and express tracks got a fresh coat of paint as well. David Soliman, NYC Transit’s vice president of facilities, called their color “dark shadow gray.”
The work to improve 63 stations has cost roughly $30 million to date, Davey told the Daily News.
That money comes out of the subway action plan, the transit boss said, a source of funding replenished by surcharges paid by taxi and car service passengers.