AMNY Subway Tracker

The World Trade Center stop on the E will lose its elevator starting Friday due to construction. While no elevator means little or nothing to some riders, for others, like Michael Harris of the Disabled Riders Coalition, it's a major problem.

“It’s a very popular stop for tourists and for residents with disabilities who work in the downtown area,” Harris said.

The MTA has posted a listing of alternative routes to get to and from the World Trade Center area using ADA accessible stations.

--Matt Sweeney
Photo by alphaquam on flickr

A computerized system that monitors elevators and escalators is on its way to tracking breakdowns throughout the subway system.
The MTA transit committee approved a $1.3 million project to expand the system from a three-year test-pilot of 44 elevators. The system will track outages in a more complete and central way.
Outages would continue to be posted to the MTA's Web site. New York City Transit now relies on employees' and customers' phoned-in reports.
The plan goes before the full board for a vote on Wednesday.

(via flickr's gak)

Escalator steps in the Bowling Green subway station collapsed, injuring a woman and upsetting another straphanger yesterday, Transit officials said.
The woman was “slightly” injured, a New York City Transit spokesman said, and she asked for medical treatment. It was unclear how she was injured and what her injuries were.
EMS took her to New York Infirmary-Beekman Downtown Hospital. Another person was “very upset” but not injured, a spokeswoman said. The stairs gave way at 9:20 a.m., at the end of the morning rush.
Transit workers cordoned off the escalator, which runs from the No. 4 and 5 station mezzanine to street level on Broadway. Elevator and escalator workers are investigating why the stairs collapsed.
The police department said that two steps somehow became off-track and when they reached the end of the escalator, they threw two people off. Transit officials would not confirm that account.
--Marlene Naanes

(via flickr's metrocake)

If you need to know if a subway elevator or escalator is out before you head out, you'll be able to see outages on the MTA's Web site beginning tomorrow. The plan to do this was announced long ago and promised to be close to real time. The updates will progress to 24/7 in the coming months. For now, the Web site will be the on-line version of the Elevator and Escalator Hotline, which disability advocacy groups have claimed is unreliable and only updated four times a day.

--Marlene Naanes

(via Disabled Riders Coalition)

Transit president Howard Roberts accompanied the wheel-chair bound Disabled Riders Coaltion executive director during his commute Friday. Roberts and Michael Harris traveled from Harris' Sheepshead Bay home on a trip that Harris said took 2. 5 hours, a long walk, a bus ride and rides on five subway lines. According to a press release from Harris, Roberts said he took notes on the trip and would immediately look into fixing barriers Harris found along his way. State Assemblyman Micah Kellner (D-Upper East Side) was also along for the ride.

(via Disabled Riders Coalition)

The Disabled Riders Coalition is celebrating improvements to an Atlantic Avenue elevator tomorrow. The advocacy group says that three years and $100 million later, an elevator installed in 2004 is finally accessible to folks using wheelchairs or other mobility aids. The MTA widened a the passageway from the Eastern Parkway Express/Lexington Avenue line to the Brooklyn station's elevator. The area between a staircase and support posts was previously too narrow for wheelchairs to pass.

--Marlene Naanes

Michael Harris and Disabled Riders Coalition declare the "epidemic" of busted subway elevator is over,

While on Wednesday elevator outages remained in the double digits for the fourth straight day, as of 6 a.m . on Thursday the Transit Authority was only reporting three elevator outages.

"Unless something drastic changes during the course of the day, I believe that we can safely say that the epidemic of elevator outages is over. Today is a great day for all New York Straphangers and we praise the Transit Authority for acting expeditiously to resolve this major problem," declared Coalition campaign coordinator Michael A. Harris

Michael Harris and the Disabled Riders Coalition continue their protest over broken subway elevators – this time over one busted at 161st Street station in the Bronx. There’ll be a presser at the station at 3 p.m.

“The outage in the elevator (NYCT Control# 131) from the IND mezzanine to the street at the busy 161 st – River Avenue, which ranks #1 on the Coalition's "serial offender" list it is particularly significant, as it is the only accessible Bronx station on the B or D lines with an elevator, thus forcing a disabled rider to have to turn around and go back to Manhattan just to get out of the system – and that assumes that the elevator from the platform is working. If it isn't, a disabled rider is literally stranded on the platform.

On Sunday, the Coalition formally declared a citywide epidemic of subway elevator outages and today the outages continued to remain in the double digits. Only 52 out of the City's 468 subway stations have elevators.

Outages today remain in the double digits and include such major stations as Borough Hall (Bk), DeKalb Avenue (Bk), Stilwell Avenue (Bk), 161st Street – River Avenue (Bx), (Manhattan) 14th Street – Union Square (Manhattan), 34th Street – Herald Square (Manhattan), 125th Street at Lexington Avenue (Manhattan), 61st Street – Woodside (Qns), Main Street (Qns), and Queens Plaza (Qns).”

Disabled activist Michael Harris and the Disabled Riders Coalition called an "urgent" press conference today to blast the MTA for what he called an "epidemic" of out of service subway elevators.

He said 15 elevators were out of service this Sunday alone.

Outages today count in the double digits and include Stilwell Avenue (Bk), 161st Street – River Avenue (Bx), 125th Street at Lexington Avenue (Manhattan), 34th Street – Herald Square , (Manhattan) 14th Street – Union Square (Manhattan), Canal Street (Manhattan ), 21st Street (Qns) and Jamaica - Van Wyck (Qns).

-- Chuck Bennett

Disabled transit activist Michael Harris has been on a roll these days.

Ove the past week he got the AP to cover his battle with the MTA to make more stations handicapped accessible. The story was picked up nationwide.

And last week, he ripped the MTA at a City Council hearing on Access-A-Ride.

He also seemed to win an ally in Councilman John Liu, chairman of the council transportation committee.

After the hearing Liu said:

While the MTA has responded to rider criticism by increasing service available, the number of contractors, and the variety of vehicles available, more can be done to improve the cost, efficiency,
and quality of service provided through Access-a-Ride. Based on their own customer satisfaction surveys, the MTA consistently earns a 'C+' for their operation of Access-a-Ride.

-- Chuck Bennett

The Disabled Riders Coalition says the tragic death of an 18-year-old woman at the Woodside LIRR station, who slipped through the 11-inch gap between the train and platform, last week may have been avoided if the MTA followed ADA guidelines

“ADA regulations require level boarding at commuter rail stations (49 CFR Part 37, Appendix A, §10.3.1(9)). Level boarding is defined by the United States Department of Transportation as involving a horizontal gap of no more than three inches and a vertical gap of no more than 5/8 inches ( 1.5 inches for existing vehicles operating in new stations). The only exception to this is if the railroad can demonstrate that it is technically infeasible to achieve such compliance, and even in such scenarios, lack of feasibility must be demonstrated on an individual, station, by station basis. We do not believe that the MTA has done so with every single station on all of its commuter rail lines and as such believe that they are in violation of the ADA. Compliance therewith would not only serve to benefit riders with disabilities, but could have saved a young lady's life.”

Meanwhile, Long Island Rail Road brass announced they install cameras at the Syosset station where there is a 15-inch gap, to give train conductors a panoramic view of passengers boarding and exiting. The cameras are a prototype with no timetable for expanding to other stations.

New recorded announcements will tell riders to “watch the gap.” It is also looking at “gap fillers” but said they would be impractical at some stations.

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

The Disabled Riders Coalition is helping to organize a rally Sunday to celebrate the 16th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. At noon disabled New Yorkers and their supporters will assemble on 5th Ave. between 49th and 50th Sts and then proceed to Columbus Circle for a rally.

Expect a lot of talk about the MTA and compliance with the ADA.

As, we’ve noted before, it ain’t easy getting around the subways in a wheelchair.

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com