MTA To Test Platform Doors At L Station In Manhattan

NEW YORK, NY — One L train station will get platform doors during the subway line's impending shutdown as the MTA tests the technology.

The MTA Board voted Wednesday to issue a request for proposals to install four-and-a-half-foot doors at the Lower East Side's Third Avenue L station in 2019.

The MTA wants to give a 20-month contract to a single firm that will design, build, install and maintain the gate-like structures, which aim to block passengers and debris from falling onto the tracks. Subway systems in Paris and London have installed platform doors to "create a safer and more comfortable station environment for passengers," an MTA Board resolution says.

The transit authority would not install the doors until at least 2019, when the L line is slated to shut down for 15 months for repairs on tunnels underneath the East River. Once the station reopens to customers, the MTA will evaluate how well the doors work before it considers expanding them to other stations.

It's not yet certain how much the pilot program will cost. The MTA will pay for it from its 2015-2019 capital budget, according to the board resolution.

In addition to building and installing the doors, the firm that wins the contract will have to train MTA employees on how to operate them, the resolution says.

The AirTrain to John F. Kennedy Airport has full-height platform doors at all its stations. MTA Board member Charles Moerdler pushed to install them in the subway system last year after a spate of incidents in which people fell onto the tracks, the New York Post reported.

(Lead image by Mark Osborne/Patch)