MTA Pushes Back Against Installing Doors On Subway Platforms, Says System’s Age Makes It Feasible At Limited Number Of Stations

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is being referred to as upon to put in subway platform display screen doorways to forestall folks from falling or being pushed on to the tracks.

However, as CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported Thursday, the pinnacle of the company says station and automobile irregularities make it possible in solely a handful of stations.

“Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Santiago, Chile; Hong Kong, Delhi, Rome, Paris,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine mentioned, referring to a number of the locations the place platform display screen doorways have been put in in mass transit methods to forestall monitor accidents. “New York Metropolis is method behind. This isn’t a brand new expertise.”

READ MORE: Unique: MTA CEO Janno Lieber Says Prime Precedence Is ‘Making A Safer Atmosphere For Our Riders’

Levine and a gaggle of politicians try to strain the MTA to spend the billions of {dollars} it could take to put in platform doorways, after 40-year-old Higher West Facet businesswoman Michelle Go was pushed to her loss of life by a homeless man with a historical past of psychological sickness.

“Truthfully, we want options now,” MTA Performing Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber mentioned.

Lieber instructed Kramer in an unique interview that the MTA has been finding out the thought of platform doorways for years. It did a 3,000-page examine and it discovered that, “Proper now, there are most likely solely 40 station the place we may do it.”

That’s out of 472 stations.

In response to the report, there are numerous causes for this, together with platform width, misalignment, automobiles with a number of door opening positions, and gaps between platform edges and trains.

The Union Sq. station is among the many locations within the transit system the place it could be tough, if not unimaginable, to put in doorways. The prepare curves round and the rationale there are indicators that say “Stand away from the shifting platform” is as a result of the platform has to maneuver out to the prepare the place it curves, Kramer reported.

READ MORE: Police: Suspect Wished For Pushing 62-12 months-Previous Man Onto Subway Tracks In Manhattan

Civil engineer Buzz Paaswell mentioned the thought is sweet, however could be tough to hold out.

“New York is a really previous system. It’s obtained previous stations. They’ve curves in it. They’ve columns each place. They’ve platforms that aren’t even, and what you want, if you concentrate on it, your setting up a flat display screen that’s initiated robotically,” Paaswell mentioned.

Throughout a radio interview, Lieber slammed Levine, who till final month was chair of the Metropolis Council Well being Committee coping with psychological well being points.

“What was happening once they spent billions of {dollars} on psychological well being that left us with the situation we’re seeing within the system?” Lieber mentioned.

READ MORE: Union Head Says Latest Subway Push Incidents Are ‘Traumatizing’ For Conductors

Kramer requested riders what would make them really feel safer.

“Extra police, extra police out there,” mentioned Lamar Denc of Bedford-Stuyvesant, including when requested concerning the concept of putting in doorways on the tracks, “Putting in doorways on the tracks? That will assist, however it additionally might decelerate issues relating to the trains.”

“Extra safety,” one other rider mentioned.

“They may put police on the tracks,” an individual mentioned.

“Extra surveillance and cops,” one other added.

READ MORE: Unique: Subway Push Sufferer Lenny Javier Says ‘I By no means Thought It Would Occur To Me’; Suspect Anthonia Egegbara Arrested

And when Kramer rode the trains with Lieber he instructed her the short-term resolution is cops holding the mentally sick off platforms.

Specialists say putting in platform doorways wouldn’t solely be tough, it could price billions, and it could drive the MTA to weigh a bunch of priorities.