FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 26, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11
Astoria wants elevators at renovated N/W stations
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
Two subway stations in Astoria offi -
cially closed on Monday morning for an
eight-month overhaul, but some believe
the renovations are lacking a major component:
elevators.
Th e 30th Avenue and 36th Avenue
stations on the N/W line will be closed
until June for renovations that were
announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo
last January. Upgrades will include structural
repairs; new and rehabilitated station
entrances; improved mezzanines
and platforms; and other amenities like
USB ports, digital screens and countdown
clocks.
In total, 30 stations across the city will
be overhauled and some overhauls have
been completed such as the Bay Ridge
Avenue R station. Brooklyn residents
also complained about the lack of accessibility
at the new station.
Councilmen Jimmy Van Bramer and
Costa Constantinides, along with state
Senator Michael Gianaris, held a press
conference in front of the 36th Ave station
to call on the MTA to rethink their
overhaul plans.
Gianaris, who has been a vocal critic
of the MTA, said Cuomo’s focus on station
enhancements instead of addressing
issues with subway service is an example
of “misplaced priorities.”
“At a time when we face a crisis of subway
reliability and accessibility, the MTA
chooses to spend hundreds of millions of
precious dollars on cosmetic improvements
that will do nothing to improve
subway service or accessibility,” he said
in a statement. “Even worse, the MTA
recently diverted over $1 billion dollars
from signal fi xes and new subway cars
to pay for this initiative. While it will be
more pleasant for subway riders to stare
at more beautiful stations while they wait
longer and longer for delayed trains, the
MTA’s inattention to the larger problem
is bordering on scandalous.”
According to TransitCenter, a foundation
that advocates for urban mobility,
only 23 percent of the subway’s 472 stations
are accessible under the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.
On average, there are 25 elevator
outages throughout the system per day.
By TransitCenter’s estimates, it will
take 70 years for the MTA to become
fully ADA accessible if it continues its
construction pace. Members from the
foundation were at the press conference
and taped a fl yer to the construction
notice letting people know about the
lack of access.
“Th e Astoria stations that were closed
for eight months starting this morning
and are being renovated without
adding elevators are just the latest evidence
that the MTA has no strategy
or plan for achieving greater accessibility
throughout the subway system,”
said TransitCenter spokesperson Hayley
Richardson.
MTA offi cials pointed out that the
2015-19 Capital Program includes $427
million to replace 42 elevators and 32
escalators and funding to make an additional
19 stations accessible. Some stations,
they argued, are impossible to
make ADA-compliant without complete
reconstruction and track re-alignment.
“Increasing accessibility is a priority
for the MTA and elevators are being
added where possible, through the “Key
Stations” plan to make 100 major stations
accessible by 2020, as well as additional
non-Key stations being made accessible
in the next few years via the MTA capital
plan,” said MTA spokesperson Shams
Tarek. “In Astoria, new elevators will
be added to the Astoria Boulevard station,
and the MTA’s fully accessible bus
fl eet provides strong service across the
neighborhood – including connections
to accessible stations nearby.”
The Old Astoria Neighborhood
Association said the MTA should immediately
introduce additional elements to
the upgrade like improvements to trains,
tracks, switches and ADA accessibility.
“At present, none of the stations on the
N/W subway line in Astoria meets the
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
Standards for Accessible Design,” the
nonprofi t wrote in a statement. “Even
with the planned installation of elevators
at the Astoria Blvd station (the only station
set to receive elevators), people with
mobility issues will be forced to use alternative
methods to get there or to Queens
or Queensboro Plazas.”
Photo via Twitter/TransitCenter
Astoria offi cials and residents are calling on the MTA to install elevators to stations undergoing an
eight-month renovation.
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