You are reading

Platform Doors to be Tested on 7-Train Platform at Times Square and Two Other Stations

7 train pulling into station. The MTA plans to pilot barriers at three stations– including at the Times Square station on the 7-train platform (Photo: R38R40 CC BY-SA 4.0))

Feb. 23, 2022 By Christian Murray

The MTA plans to install barriers at three subway stations—including one on the 7-train platform in Times Square— that will block access to the tracks.

The barriers, also known as platform screen doors, will also be installed at the Sutphin Boulevard-JFK station on the E-line as well as at the Third Avenue station on the L line in Manhattan.

“We’re going to be piloting platform doors at three stations where the engineering does work,” said MTA chief Janno Lieber on NY1 Wednesday morning. However, given current engineering, he said they would not “work at a lot of places.”

The pilot program would create a barrier between the platform and the tracks as a means to protect riders from being pushed or falling in front of trains.

The announcement comes in response to calls for the barriers following a series of attacks where straphangers were pushed off the platforms in front of trains.

In January, Michelle Alyssa Go, 40, was fatally shoved in front of the train while standing on the R train platform in Times Square.

Advocates have called on the MTA to add the barriers, noting that they are prevalent in Europe and Asia.

The MTA has historically rejected the idea, saying it would be too costly and it would not work, given the age of the 104-year-old system and its size–with 472 stations and 665 miles of track.

However, a task force was created in December after Lieber said there was an increase in attacks.

“Months ago, I started seeing that the number of people getting on the tracks and in the tunnels was going up….So I created an interagency group at the MTA to study it,” he told NY1.

Lieber did not give an estimate of how much the platform doors would cost.

He said the agency will also be testing new technology to detect if there is a person on the tracks.

“We’re also going to be piloting new technologies to detect track incursion using thermal technology, using laser technology, so we can know quicker when people get on the tracks and hopefully, interdict that kind of behavior,” he said.

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Maspeth woman charged with DUI after slamming SUV into school crossing guard: NYPD

A Maspeth woman was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and other crimes after she slammed her SUV into a school crossing guard on Tuesday afternoon.

Police from the 104th Precinct responded to a 911 call of a motor vehicle collision involving a pedestrian at the intersection of Eliot Avenue and 71st Street at around 3 p.m. on Sept. 26. Upon their arrival, officers found the 63-year-old woman lying on the roadway with trauma to her head. EMS responded to the scene and rushed the crossing guard to Elmhurst Hospital in critical but stable condition, according to the NYPD.

MTA providing shuttle from 7 train to traveling Vietnam War Memorial replica in Flushing Meadows Corona Park

Sep. 26, 2023 By Bill Parry

The MTA is working with the NYC Department of Veterans’ Affairs to provide shuttle bus service between the Mets-Willets Point 7 train station and Flushing Meadows Corona Park for all those wishing to visit the “The Wall that Heals,” a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., that honors the more than three million Americans who served in the Armed Forces during the Vietnam conflict.