16 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 14, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Photos: Mark Hallum/THE COURIER
THINGS FALL APART
Woodside station a rusting symbol of MTA neglect
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Nothing draws to mind the MTA’s
myriad systemic problems — or the darker
days of New York City’s bankrupt past
— like the Woodside-61st Street Station,
where the 7 train and the Long Island Rail
Road intersect in a towering multilevel
hub of decaying steel.
And the declining state of the station
and the trestle on each side are not lost on
the people who depend on the foot traffi c
through the area most: the street vendors.
One man on the northeast corner of
Roosevelt Avenue and 61st Street shook
his head on a recent morning as he indicated
toward the most dilapidated parts of
the station. He claimed it is not uncommon
to see objects falling down to street
level.
A woman working a Mexican food cart
underneath the railroad tracks told QNS
she is cautious of the lead paint she knows
could be showering down on her workspace
throughout the day.
Th ere are likely dozens of halal and taco
carts along the entire length of the train as
well as open-air markets, restaurants and
residences.
Early on Monday morning, March 11,
New York City Transit and LIRR crews
were seen working to ensure the tracks
are safe aft er two recent incidents where
debris broke off causing signifi cant damage
to cars passing by underneath.
One vehicle in late February was pierced
through the windshield by a wooden
beam on the east side of the station – up
above are more slats – and an incident on
March 6 in which a piece of rusted metal
dropped onto the roof of another car.
“Rubble from up there fell and hit a little
red car crashing all the glass from the
windshield. Two people who were inside,
a lady and a gentleman came out and
called the police from the sidewalk and
made the report. Th ey began to arrive,
those people from the MTA. Th ey went
up to see what fell and then came back
down and entered the store with the gentleman
and the police that arrived,” said
Anibal Bravo, a worker at a hardware
store located on Roosevelt Avenue and
61st Street.
True to its word, the MTA was conducting
inspections and a crew preoccupied
with the tracks above told QNS they
were surveying the entire length of the
tracks. A Long Island Rail Road crew said
they addressing issues with age as they
sawed at a section of the overpass on 61st
Street dating back to 1913.
“It’s mostly just old,” one of the crewmen
said when asked what the specifi c
problem with the concrete structure was.
While the LIRR has served Queens and
Long Island since the 19th century, the 7
train came through the borough in 1917
aft er the county was consolidated into the
city to attract developers east to the mostly
agrarian towns and relieve congestion
in Manhattan.
According to Larry Penner, who
spent 30 years with the federal Transit
Administration, the LIRR portion of the
station underwent renovations in the
1990s, but the subway portion is long
overdue. Th e Woodside station got off to
rough start too, he said, with the structure
originally having fl ooding issues aft er the
Flushing line’s construction by the IRT
was contracted by the city.
Inside the station is not much better
looking with pigeons having free reign
through the mezzanine where people
make the transfer from the subway to the
LIRR or the bus.
In the waiting area near the LIRR ticketing
offi ce are a few rows of benches,
though people rarely sit down on them;
there too is mineral built-up from water
dripping through the ceiling which also
sports peeling chips of paint that resembles
mud drying in a desert.
One of the most prominent signs of
decay at the station, however, is rust.
But peeling paint is not just a cosmetic
issue, according to Penner, who said that
the fi rst indication of deeper issues with
stations and tracks is almost always peeling
paint, rust and debris.
Such symptoms can be seen on almost
The rusting entrance to the Woodside-61st Street station
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