Posted on February 18, 2018 at 4:38 pm by West Sider

Three subway stations — the 110th, 86th and 72nd Street stations on the B and C lines — will soon be closing for up to six months as part of the MTA’s plans to add more digital flourishes to stations in the city, including LED illuminated handrails and countdown clocks outside the station that tell people when trains are arriving. They’ll also be replacing concrete, repairing steel and wall tiles, and otherwise rehabbing the stations.

Update: A presentation we received shows that 110th will be the first station, then 72nd and then 86th. The plan was outlined at a recent Community Board 7 Transportation Committee meeting.

There is a B-C station at 81st Street and one at 103rd, which could potentially handle some of the overflow from the other stations. But there are currently no specific plans for where the thousands of passengers who use those stations every day will be diverted.

All told, ridership at the three stations exceeded 30,000 as of the most recent statistics. As of 2016, the 110th Street station served 12,926 people per day, the 86th Street station served 11,809 passengers, and the 72nd Street station served 9,448 passengers, MTA stats show.

“To the astonishment of many at the meeting, no mitigation whatsoever is planned,” Ken Coughlin, a member of the transportation committee, told West Side Rag.

An MTA rep said at the transportation committee meeting that he expects people will use buses or other subway lines. The MTA has no plans to increase service on the 1-2-3 lines, but will monitor bus congestion and could increase bus service if necessary. Those statements did not seem to satisfy some community board members, who noted that the 1 train is already very crowded — the 86th Street station in particular suffers from intense gridlock at rush hour.

Andrew Albert, the co-chair of Community Board 7’s Transportation Committee and an MTA board member, thinks “NYC Transit should be prepared, in case there’s a major shift to the Broadway subway.”

“The stations will look much nicer, but plans must be made to increase service on the 1, 2, 3 lines if it looks like riders from the closed stations are shifting to the Broadway line,” he told us.

Howard Yaruss, the other co-chair of the transportation committee, noted that the station upgrades do little to fix the underlying problem at the MTA — a rapid deterioration in service. Mayor de Blasio has likewise criticized the station upgrades as window dressing. Rehabbing these three Upper West Side stations will cost $83 million total.

“As someone whose primary subway station is being closed, I’m aware of how much inconvenience this will cause so many of us, especially in view of the lack of alternative plans for commuters,” he wrote to us. “While we all appreciate cosmetic station improvements, the real priority needs to be ensuring that local residents can reliably get to work on time. I’m frustrated that the MTA is spending so much time and money on cosmetic improvements while allowing service to continue to deteriorate.”

Others wondered why construction couldn’t be completed during off hours.

“I’m really confused about the closures,” said one community board member at the transportation committee meeting, adding “This is a major imposition. It couldn’t be done on the weekend?”

“That was our old way of doing business,” said Bill Montanile, program manager for the enhanced station initiative. “Can this be done on weekends? Without a doubt, but I’d be in your neighborhood for probably four years.”

“It does allow the contractor to get the work done as quickly and efficiently as possible,” he said.

In addition to the complete closures of the three stations, all B-C stations between 59th and 125th Streets will be closed on 18 weekends (9 weekends for the uptown stations and 9 for the downtown) and 40 weeknights (20 for the uptown and 20 for the downtown). People who need to go to stations between 59th and 125th can take trains going in the opposite direction (Say you need to go to 81st, and the uptown stations are closed. You can take the uptown to 125th and then transfer to the downtown to get to 81st).

The MTA reps said they plan to inform the public by putting vinyl signs in the affected stations two to three weeks before the closure.

No elected officials were at the community board meeting, according to people there, and we haven’t heard anything about this prior to this meeting. It’s not clear if the MTA, which is controlled by the state, has discussed this station closure with them. Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell’s office sent the following statement after we contacted him shortly before this article was published:

“At a time when we see the chronic neglect of our transit system’s infrastructure plunging the city into a transportation crisis, the idea that purely aesthetic modifications will close three important stations is an outrage. The MTA is 28 years overdue in complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act and it is shameful that LED lighting and futuristic looks have taken priority over our seniors and people with disabilities. What good is a countdown clock when the next train is 20 minutes away? I currently have a bill that would create a dedicated revenue stream to fix the MTA focusing on structural repairs and this situation serves as testament of why its passage is necessary.”

This article was updated to include the assembly member’s statement.