These Midtown Subway Stops Could Have Platform Barriers: MTA

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Only a fraction of Midtown's many subway stations could accommodate protective platform doors, according to a newly released study by the MTA.

The MTA shared the enormous, nearly 4,000-page study on Wednesday, as pressure mounts on the agency to consider installing protective barriers after the Jan. 15 shoving attack at Times Square that killed 40-year-old Michelle Go.

Prepared in 2019, the study examined every single one of New York's 472 subway stations. It found that only about a quarter could accommodate the sliding doors, due to constraints like disability access and columns that stand too close to the platform edge.

Critics are skeptical, noting that cities around the world have platform doors in their subway systems, and arguing that the MTA often exaggerates the difficulty of projects it does not want to undertake.

Patch combed through the study to pick out the findings for each Midtown subway station. According to the MTA, just nine Midtown stations have a platform that could accommodate barriers, while 18 could not.

Here's the breakdown:

Could accommodate platform doors:

• Lexington Avenue-59th Street: 6 train
• 5th Avenue-59th Street: N/R/W trains
• 51st Street: 6 train
• 50th Street: A/C/E trains
• 49th Street: N/Q/R/W trains
• 7th Avenue: B/D, E trains
• 42nd Street-Times Square: 7, S trains
• 34th Street-Hudson Yards: 7 train
• 34th Street-Penn Station: C/E trains

Could not accommodate platform doors:

• 59th Street-Columbus Circle: 1, A/C, B/D trains
• Lexington Avenue-59th Street: 4/5, N/R/W trains
• 57th Street: F train
• 57th Street-7th Avenue: N/Q/R/W trains
• Lexington Avenue-53rd Street: M, E trains
• 5th Avenue-53rd Street: M, E trains
• 50th Street: 1 train
• 47-50th Streets, Rockefeller Center: B/D/F/M trains
• 42nd Street-Times Square: 1/2/3, N/Q/R/W trains
• 42nd Street-Port Authority: A/C/E trains
• 42nd Street-Bryant Park: B/D/F/M trains
• 42nd Street-Grand Central: 4/5/6, S trains
• 5th Avenue-Bryant Park: 7 train
• 34th Street-Herald Square: N/Q/R/W, D/F/M trains
• 34th Street-Penn Station: 1/2/3, A trains
• 33rd Street: 4/6 trains
• 28th Street: 4/6, N/W/R trains
• 28th Street: 1 train

Notably, even the 42nd Street N/Q/R/W platform where the Jan. 15 attack took place could not accommodate barriers, according to the MTA.

The study was released amid a brewing battle between the MTA and local politicians over the issue. Thursday morning, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine gathered in Times Square with several City Council members to demand that the MTA install barriers — only for the MTA's CEO to throw water on the idea hours later.

From Paris to Tokyo, São Paolo to Barcelona, other cities around the world have installed platform screen doors in their subways to protect riders.

Standing today in Times Sq with my colleagues to say it’s time for the MTA to start catching up. pic.twitter.com/xhYZBks3OE
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) January 27, 2022

"I ask the politicians not to try to make hay out of this issue, but to work with the MTA for real solutions based on engineering reality," CEO Janno Lieber said in an interview on WNYC.

In a letter to Lieber earlier this week, Levine and other officials called for the MTA to test platform doors at Manhattan subway stations before a wider rollout. They acknowledged challenges to building platform doors, but argued those aren't "insurmountable."

"In particular, the MTA's Enhanced Station Initiative, which sunk around $936 million into mostly cosmetic station improvements, has proven the agency can find needs funds for initiatives when they are deemed a priority," the letter states. "Platform screen doors must be given the priority they deserved, studied, and funded for installation."

Lieber said he'd be open to exploring a platform pilot program for stations where officials deemed them "possible."

But he also called himself "disappointed" in Levine, the City Council's former health committee chair. Mentally ill people in the subway system are a potential safety issue too, he said.

"What was going on when they spend billions of dollars on mental health that left us with the conditions we're seeing in the system," he said.

Related coverage:

• Pols Say Platform Doors Answer To Subway Crisis; MTA Adds Cops
• Accused Times Square Subway Shover Held Without Bai