NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will test platform barriers at three subway stations — including parts of its busy Times Square station — after incidents including one that saw a woman killed when she was shoved in front of an oncoming train.
MTA CEO Janno Lieber said the program will cost more than $100 million, with the barriers not likely to be in place before 2024 “assuming we can resolve the financial issues” and technical problems, the New York Times reports.
The test will include the No. 7 line platform at Times Square, the E line platform at the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue-JFK Airport station in Queens, and the L line Third Avenue station in Manhattan.
Some New York politicians recently renewed calls for the barriers, known as platform gates or platform screen doors, in the wake of shoving incidents at stations, including one on Jan. 15 that saw 40-year-old Michelle Go killed when pushed in front of a train at the Times Square station [see “Politicians call for subway platform gates …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 25, 2022].
Many newer subway and transit systems have the barriers, which separate the platform from the right-of-way and have doors or gates that open only when a train has arrived. But the design and close clearances of many New York subway stations — some of which date to 1904 — means that only 128 of the system’s 482 stations are suitable for the barriers, according to a 2019 MTA, study. The cost of installing them at those station was estimated at more thn $7 billion.
The website amNY.com reports an MTA working group on platform safety will present more details of the plan to the MTA board at a meeting today (Thursday, Feb. 24).
