Pols Say Platform Doors Answer To Subway Crisis; MTA Adds Cops

NEW YORK, NY — Following this month's deadly attack at Times Square, all of Manhattan's elected officials have joined forces to ask the MTA to test out platform doors at subway stations — but the agency has responded mainly with a pledge to send more cops into the system.

During Monday's MTA board meeting, NYPD Chief of Transit Jason Wilcox said New Yorkers will see more police officers at subway stations in the coming weeks.

"They will be on the trains, they will be on the platforms," Wilcox said. "They will be moving around. Saturday night, Monday night — every night, every day you will see them."

Though that pledge may be welcomed by some officials, it does not answer the demands made in last week's letter to MTA CEO Janno Lieber, penned by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and each of the borough's 10 City Council members.

"We are writing to request that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) move as quickly as possible to begin a pilot installation of subway platform screen doors at a station in Manhattan, and to immediately launch a study to determine how a broader system-wide rollout could be implemented," they wrote.

In the days since Jan. 15, when 40-year-old Michelle Go was struck by an oncoming train when a man allegedly shoved her from the platform, calls have grown for the MTA to install sliding doors on its platforms to prevent people from falling to the tracks.

Such doors are in use in major cities across the world — and at JFK Airport AirTrain stations — but MTA officials have long resisted the notion of installing them in the subway, citing high costs and logistical difficulties.

But the Manhattan officials say those challenges are "not insurmountable," noting that the MTA recently spent nearly $1 billion on surface-level renovations to dozens of stations — showing that "the agency can find needed funds for initiatives when they are deemed a priority."

Levine explained the demand to the New York Post, which first reported on the letter, arguing that Manhattan is especially vulnerable to track-related accidents due to "the density and crowding of subways here."

Go's death was only the latest in the hundreds of track accidents that plague the subway system each year — most of them accidents, falls or suicide attempts. Besides deaths and injuries, the crashes also lead to frequent subway delays.

Internal MTA studies have estimated that it would cost more than $7 billion to install gates at roughly a quarter of the city's stations, according to NY1 — though critics say the MTA often exaggerates the cost of projects it does not want to undertake.

Lieber said on Sunday that adding barriers was "not a matter of cost."

"There are some physical constraints that are real," he said in an interview on ABC7, "that putting those kinds of platform doors up also would affect our ability to maintain ADA accessibility. Literally, the structure of our very old 100-year-old stations don't accommodate it."

Officials have responded to the Times Square tragedy mostly by promising to increase police presence in the subways — though some critics have questioned the impact that will have, pointing out that two NYPD officers were present on the platform when Go was shoved.

Related coverage:

• Accused Times Square Subway Shover Held Without Bail
• Asian Woman Pushed In Front Of Subway, Killed At Times Square