FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 14, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
every piece of steel in the station — and
where rust is not visible, paint can be seen
turning from green to orange before peeling
away completely. Th e stairwell leading
to the north side of Roosevelt shows
the steps causing corrosion that has eaten
its way through the outer I beam.
Th e station has yet to get the fresh paint
job announced by New York City Transit
President Andy Byford in the summer
of 2018, in which he said a two-year,
$45 million eff ort would see the majority
of the 7 line stripped to bare metal and
repainted.
Th e project would start at 82nd Street
and work its way to Mets-Willets Point
before making remediations to the western
portion, an eff ort mostly to remove
lead paint from the trestle.
“Th is critical painting and structural
repair work will improve the commuting
experience for our riders in the nearterm,
as well as help ensure the longterm
safety and reliability of our system,”
Byford said in May.
A report published by the District 9
International Union of Painters and
Allied Trades in early 2017 showed the
paint on the No. 7 tracks contained
224,000 parts per million of lead paint,
more than 40 times the 5,000 parts per
million legal threshold and that paint
chips contaminate the street below.
Th e lead study soon became backed
by the late state Senator Jose Peralta and
Governor Andrew Cuomo who passed
a bill requiring the MTA to complete
remediations for the communities along
the 7 line.
Th e MTA agreed with Penner that the
state of paint and rust at any point on a
train like is an indication of wider issues.
However, they said that while the MTA is
repainting the whole length of the 7 train,
they are also addressing structural issues.
While the MTA may be in the process
of completing a new paint job for the
entire span, it is still unclear as to whether
or not there are any plans for a renovation
for the 61st Street station itself.
Penner said one reason why maintenance
has not come to the forefront for
people in charge is because most of the
attention from politicians and public fi gures
goes toward new projects, not eff orts
to revitalize.
“Maintenance is not a sexy issue,”
Penner said before turning to the matter
of debris falling from the trestle. “Are columns
rusting, are things falling? ... I can’t
remember the last time you had a major
incident like a wooden beam piercing
someone’s windshield.”
An MTA spokesman said the tracks are
walked twice a week, with inspections following
the two most recent incidents near
the station over 75 percent of the way to
completion.
Denise Keehan-Smith, Community
Board 2’s chair, said she remembers better
times for the station 20 years before
when the population was not what it is
now, and attributes much of the problems
to overuse.
“It’s very disappointed that nothing has
happened,” Keehan-Smith said regarding
MTA improvements. “I grew up in
Woodside and the station was better.
But then again there weren’t as many people.
population has grown tremendously
over the last 20 years and I don’t think the
MTA is keeping up with that.”
Keehan-Smith said two years ago, the
MTA sent a representative to address
CB2’s transportation committee claiming
the overhauls were slated for stations
from 52nd Street, which is also problematic
she claims, to 103rd Street and that
the design phase would be underway in
the fi rst quarter of 2019 with completion
more than a year down the road.
Th e MTA said there is currently a project
in the pipeline to replace the thruspans
in the subway portion of the station
and repair support beams and girders.
Th e agency will also be upgrading
the public address system and install customer
information screens. Th e spokesman
also said station renewal is also in
the works, but did not yet have details
available.
While she agrees that the station has
been in decline for years, the falling debris
is a recent development, Keehan-Smith
said.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer took
to social media immediately aft er the
vehicles were struck by falling debris in
February and March, but has been calling
on the MTA to take action at the station
from as early as January 2017, when two
months prior both the escalator and the
elevator went out of service leaving riders
with physical disabilities without any
options to access the station.
Keehan-Smith said the elevator was out
for about 8 months around this time and
accessibility issues form the majority of
complaints to her offi ce that are not train
service related.
Van Bramer released a letter sent to
Byford regarding the falling debris calling
for not only inspections but safety
netting.
“By some miracle, no one has been
physically injured during these incidents,”
van Bramer wrote. “We cannot wait until
someone is killed by our deteriorating
subway before action is taken to ensure
the 7 train line is safe. I demand that a full
inspection of the 7 train structure be conducted
expeditiously and emergency scaffolding,
netting or other protective equipment
must be placed immediately. Action
must be taken before a tragedy occurs.”
Th e 2015-2019 Capital Plan lists the
station as being in a state of good repair
with $34.8 million committed to diff erent
projects at station during those years
which included an “upgrade to central
electronics,” which also listed the station
as under a state of good repair.
However, in 2015, the 61st Street station
made a 2015 list by the Citizens
Budget Commission detailing subway
stops in the most deteriorated states placing
Woodside at a state of good repair
rate of 64 percent aft er citing data from
the MTA. But with 33 stations total making
the list, 61st Street was not the worst
or the best with Nevins Street in the
Bronx falling dead last and 52nd Street,
neighboring Woodside, come in at the
top of the list.
Th e CBC invoked the Greek myth of
Sisyphus when acknowledging the daunting
task of bringing even the worst of the
472 stations across the entire system back
into a state of good repair by mentioning
that the agency can only tackle so many
stations in one capital plan.
If you ask Governor Cuomo or any of
the top MTA brass, they would say that
the bottom line to systemwide deterioration
of the subways comes down to
money and procedure.
With Byford’s Fast Forward plan to
modernize the entire system project to
cost at most $40 billion, the state has
become desperate for money with the
attempt to include congestion pricing in
the 2020 executive budget with an April
deadline.
But the toll on vehicles entering
Manhattan below 60th Street has proved
unpopular for some elected offi cials in
Queens who believe any toll between the
two boroughs only further establishes
Manhattan as the destination for the city’s
elite. And while Mayor Bill de Blasio has
fi nally given in to the concept of congestion
pricing, which could raise up to $15
billion for the MTA’s next capital plan,
and set aside his millionaire tax proposal.
Cuomo has recently ordered the MTA
to restructure itself in order to cut costs
and end bureaucracy that stands in the
way of relieving the constant delays experienced
by commuters and reinvent the
subways into a modern transportation
option worthy of one of the most extensive
public transit networks in the world.
Rust on a pillar holding up the 7 line
Peeling paint in the mezzanine
/WWW.QNS.COM
