3 UWS Subway Stations To Shut Down For Up To 6 Months: Reports

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Three Upper West Side subway stations will be shut down for up to six months this year as the Metropolitan Transit Authority conducts aesthetic fixes and installs new technology, the West Side Rag first reported.

The stations targeted for closing are located along Central Park West at West 110th, 86th and 72nd streets on the B/C lines, the West Side Rag reported. The West 110th Street station will close in April and re-open by September and the West 86th and 72nd streets will close in June and May and re-open in October, according to an MTA presentation acquired by the West Side Rag.

The stations will close as part of the MTA's Enhanced Station Initiative to rehabilitate stations with aesthetic improvements and install new technology such as countdown clocks and LED illuminated handrails, the West Side Rag reported.

"This is a program that allows us to do essential work to preserve these stations for the next generation," an MTA spokesperson told the West Side Rag. "This will allow us to get in and get out, doing work more quickly over the course of months instead of years."

One station in Washington Heights will also be closed for the Enhanced Station Initiative work.

The MTA did not immediately respond to Patch's messages.

The MTA recently postponed allocating nearly $213 million to the Enhanced Station Initiative in order to conduct repairs and fixes at eight subway stations. Among these eight stations included two of the city's busiest, the stops at 34th Street-Penn Station on the A/C/E and 1/2/3 lines.

The board voted to table two contracts for the work to give Andy Byford, the new president of New York City Transit, more time to review them. The Enhanced Station Initiative is among $2.5 billion worth of station repairs in the MTA's 2015-2019 Capital Program, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said.

Read the full West Side Rag story here.

Photo by Google Maps street view