MTA Will Test Subway Platform Doors After Safety Outcry

NEW YORK CITY — A long-sought safety feature is coming to New York City's subway platforms, the MTA's top honcho announced.

Subway platform doors will be tested at three stations, MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber told NY1 on Wednesday.

Lieber said the pilot program will install platform screen doors at following stations:

• Times Square (7 train)
• 3rd Avenue (L train)
• Sutphin Boulevard (E train)

But Lieber also made clear straphangers shouldn't expect the doors soon.

"It’s going to take a while," he said. "We’re going to put the money together, which is a little complicated. But our goal is to try out these technologies, at different places in the system, including three stations, trying out platform doors."

Still, the announcement was hailed by advocates and elected officials and advocates who pressed for the safety doors amid a growing spate of platform falls and shoves— including that of Michelle Go, the 42-year-old woman pushed in front of an oncoming R train.

The doors could help stop both accidental and intentional falls onto the tracks, advocates argued.

But MTA officials have long balked at the prospect. Amid the renewed uproar, they released a years-old, 4,000-page study on the feasibility of safety doors — and the tome only deemed them practical at 128 of 472 stations.

The reasons came down to cost, space on platforms and Americans with Disabilities Act rules.

Advocates, for their part, argued MTA officials overstated challenges to building platform doors. And, as a Patch analysis showed, many stations where New Yorkers were recently either pushed or fell onto the tracks could have feasibly had platform doors installed.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and other elected officials in January penned a widely circulated letter to Lieber over the doors after Go's death. They argued the challenges, while real, aren't "insurmountable."

Lieber, for his part, said he'd be open to platform pilot program. But he also lambasted Levine.

"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," Lieber said in an interview on WNYC.

But Lieber's announcement Wednesday — while not inconsistent with his past statements — was still seen as a victory by Levine and other officials.

Levine said the platform screen doors will not only help stop tragedies such as Michelle Go's murder, but also prevent other incidents like people falling on the tracks, suicide attempts and track fires. He tweeted the pilot will be a "huge win for safety & efficiency."

"Truly a milestone in the history of NYC’s subways," he tweeted. "Congrats to all who fought for this."

Related Coverage:

Platform Safety Screens Coming To Busy East Village Train Station

Patch writer Gus Saltonstall contributed to this report.