NYC's tallest subway station to get elevators after years-long push

CBS News

6 hours ago

Commuters in Brooklyn are celebrating an accessibility win after decades of advocacy.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says its historic $68 billion capital plan will include improvements at dozens of stations, including new elevators at the tallest subway station in the city, located at Smith and Ninth Street.
At more than 87 feet above ground, the station was once the tallest in the world, until just three years ago. It was originally built to accommodate large boats crossing under the Ninth Street Bridge on the Gowanus Canal.
A large renovation project at the station more than a decade ago did not include elevators. At the time, the MTA said the cost would be too high and could damage the station's structural integrity.
"For many of us who have mobility issues, it's not really an option ... We have no other choice but to go in the opposite direction to the accessible station of Jay Street-MetroTech," said Maria Nieto, a Red Hook resident. "Otherwise, there's no way for us to get up there."
Nieto said the lack of accessibility restricted her in an already transit-starved neighborhood. Commuters must take two long escalators and then two flights of stairs to reach the platform.
"I got hurt on my last previous job and I managed to take the escalators but when I got to the other floor, the stairs, I couldn't take it," said Betty Bernhart, coordinator for the Red Hook Initiative, a local nonprofit.
"This is also, you can say, the main entrance to the community, because it's close by, it's walking distance," she added.
Commuter Angel Rolden, who commutes to the station daily from Coney Island and uses a walking stick, says it takes him about 20 minutes to get up the stairs.
In a statement, an MTA officer said in part: "No station better demonstrates the need for accessibility." The agency says there are 36 ongoing station accessibility projects in Brooklyn alone, including upgrades funded by congestion pricing.
"The revenue that is being raised from congestion pricing, the billion dollars we estimate a year, just a little under that, is going to be bonded out," said State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Brooklyn Democrat who represents the area. "And then the money raised from those bonds are going to go to support the capital plan."
Gounardes said he has been speaking with the MTA about the project for years.
"Over the course of the last two years, I probably held about, I don't know, six or seven meetings with the MTA, pushing them to develop plans for Smith-Ninth Street, asking them if they had updates on those plans," he said.
"We're right across the river from downtown Manhattan. Try getting there by public transportation," Nieto said. "It's literally so close and yet so far."
While the elevator installations will take years to complete, city leaders say the upgrades will bring the subway system to 50% accessibility, opening a new chapter for thousands of riders.
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