Upgrade to LED lights will brighten up subway
For those with a dim view of subway safety, the MTA has a solution: LED lighting fixtures.
The 150,000 florescent light fixtures throughout the system will be upgraded to new, brighter LEDs by 2026, said NYC Transit Senior Vice President of Subways Demetrius Crichlow.
“This might seem like a small thing for some, however it is huge in terms of the message that we're trying to convey,” Crichlow said Tuesday under of a bank of glowing LEDs at the C train station at Lafayette Ave. in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
“Riders are going to see a difference. It will be brighter — your platforms, mezzanines and staircases will now be lighter and brighter,” he said.
The brighter stations are supposed to make riders feel safer underground, Crichlow said.
And because they will offer better illumination for the system's network of 15,000 security cameras, “not only will it feel safer, it will be safer,” he said.
The new fixtures are expected to put out between 2,500 and 4,500 lumens of light, an MTA spokesman told the Daily News. Typical florescent bulbs of the kind used by the MTA put out between 2,000 and 3,000 lumens. By those measures, the new lights will make the stations at least 25% brighter.
Not only will the LED lights be brighter, but they'll last longer and use less electricity. The MTA expects to save $5.9 million per year on electricity and light replacement costs once all 150,000 fixtures are converted.
The savings are a few years off. The existing station fixtures have to be rewired in order to accept LEDs, Crichlow said, so the job is not as simple as swapping bulbs.
Three of the MTA's 472 subway stations have been converted to LED lighting so far. All are in Brooklyn — besides the C train stop at Lafayette Ave., they include the the F and G line stops at Bergen St. in Boerum Hill, and at Carroll St. in Carroll Gardens.
Those stations had already been on a schedule for lighting fixture replacement. Going forward, Crichlow said, the MTA will try to prioritize stations where straphangers have reported concerns over dimly lit sections.
The system's newest rolling stock, the R211 cars in service on the A and C lines, is also lit by LED bulbs.