These Crown Heights Subway Stops Could Have Platform Doors: MTA

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — As pressure mounts on the MTA to install doors on subway platforms to present track-related accidents, a study just released by the agency says that only a fraction of Crown and Prospect Heights' stations could accommodate the barriers.

The MTA shared the enormous, nearly 4,000-page study last week, days after the Jan. 15 shoving attack at Times Square that killed 40-year-old Michelle Go. Prepared in 2019, the study examined every single one of New York's 472 subway stations.

It found that only about a quarter could accommodate the life-saving sliding doors, due to constraints like disability access and columns that stand too close to the platform edge.

Critics are skeptical of that finding, noting that cities around the world have platform doors in their subway systems, and arguing that the MTA often exaggerates the difficulty of projects it does not want to undertake.

With pressure from elected officials mounting, MTA top brass have said they'd be open to exploring a platform pilot program for stations where officials deemed them "possible."

Patch combed through the study to pick out which stations in Crown and Prospect Heights are on that list.

According to the MTA, only a few neighborhood stops could accommodate the doors. The results varied even within each station — for example, three train line platforms at the Barclays Center station could accommodate barriers while six others cannot, including the Q platform where a man was fatally hit earlier this month.

Here's a look:

• Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center
  • 2 train platform: No
  • 3 train platform: No
  • 4 train platform: No
  • 5 train platform: No
  • B train platform: No
  • D train platform: Yes
  • N train platform: Yes
  • Q train platform: No
  • R train platform: Yes
• Bergen Street (2/3/4)
  • Yes on all platforms
• Seventh Avenue (B/Q)
  • No on all platforms
• Grand Army Plaza (2/3/4)
  • No on all platforms
• Franklin Avenue-Botanic Gardens (2/3/4)
  • No on all platforms
• Nostrand Avenue (2/3/4)
  • No on all platforms
• President Street (2/5)
  • No on all platforms
• Utica Avenue (2/3/4)
• No on all platforms

Stations along the A/C line near the Crown Heights border had more luck in the study. The only platform at the Franklin Avenue, Nostrand Avenue, Kingston-Throop Avenue, Utica Avenue and Ralph Avenue stations along that line that couldn't accommodate a barrier was the Nostrand C platform, according to the study.

Even if the barriers were implemented, the price tags would be staggering: standard platform screen doors, like those in place at the JFK Airport AirTrain, would cost upwards of $39 million apiece at several Brooklyn stations that could fit them, while shorter, chest-high gates would cost at least $30 million each, the MTA claims.

The platform doors study was released amid a brewing battle between the MTA and local politicians over the issue. On Thursday, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine gathered in Times Square with several City Council members to demand that the MTA install barriers — only for the MTA's CEO to throw water on the idea hours later.

"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," CEO Janno Lieber said in an interview on WNYC.

Related coverage:

• Pols Say Platform Doors Answer To Subway Crisis; MTA Adds Cops
• MTA Honcho Downplays Subway Platform Doors Amid Safety Outcry
• Accused Times Square Subway Shover Held Without Bail

Nick Garber contributed to this report.