Seniors Need Shuttle During Uptown Subway Elevator Fixes: Pols

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — If the MTA does not run shuttle bus service while it conducts year-long projects to replace elevators at several Uptown subway stations, neighborhood seniors will be forced to walk up long staircases and navigate the area's steep terrain, politicians said during a Wednesday afternoon rally.

Elected officials from Washington Heights and Inwood were joined by seniors who attend the Moriah Senior Center Wednesday as they marched from the center's Bennett Avenue location to the nearby 181st Street A train station. The MTA is planning to shut down the station's West 184th Street and Ft. Washington Avenue on Saturday in order to replace deteriorating elevators at the station. The entrance currently serves as a passageway for seniors to easily navigate the hill that separates Fort Washington Avenue from Broadway and access the A train.

"The community will effectively be divided into two. Seniors will be isolated from crucial services including nutrition, socialization, benefits and case management," Shuli Gutmann, Director of the Moriah Senior Center, said in a statement.

Elected officials said Wednesday that the MTA has told them that the agency does not have the funding to run shuttles while elevators at five Upper Manhattan stations are replaced. Ydanis Rodriguez, the local city council representative and chair of the council's transportation committee, described the MTA's positions as "unacceptable."

"The uptown community resides in an area with a very difficult topography. Getting shuttle buses during the time of the elevator renovations has to be done," Rodriguez said.

"These elevator repairs are necessary, but it does not have to come at the unnecessary expense of our local communities' safety and wellbeing," the city councilmember added.

Subway stations in Washington Heights and Inwood are some of the deepest underground in the city's transit system, which means the lack of elevator access will prevent many train riders from using the subway, elected officials wrote in a petition launched this month on Change.org. More than 1,500 people have signed onto the petition as of this writing.

Every elected officials that represents the uptown neighborhoods is united in calling for free shuttle bus service at the stations where elevator replacement is planned. The MTA has already started to replace elevators at the 168th Street, 181st Street and 191st Street 1 train stations and the 181st Street and 190th Street A train stations, but the plan does not include some sort of alternate transit option for users of the stations. Replacement projects will be conducted on a staggered schedule to reduce inconvenience for train riders.

The petition is backed by State Senator Robert Jackson, State Assemblymembers Carmen De La Rosa and Al Taylor, City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, Congressman Adriano Espaillat and Borough President Gale Brewer — most of whom attended Wednesday's rally.

MTA New York City Transit President Andy Byford announced in December that the transit agency would replace elevators at the five Upper Manhattan stations, saying the projects were "long overdue." In addition to replacing elevators, the MTA will upgrade communications, security and fire alarm systems at the stations.

The 168th Street and 181st street 1 train stations will be entirely shut down during construction, but the other three stations will remain open at non-elevator entrances, according to the MTA.

Construction is expected to take between 11 and 12 months at each station due to the age of the elevator equipment and years of water damage and decay and the depth of the stations, transit officials said.