4-foot tall steel fences to be installed at 100 subway stations to protect riders
The new platform barriers coming to 100 New York City subway stations will be a low-tech and cheaper alternative to screen door systems, such as the one on the AirTrain to Kennedy Airport and in international cities, transit officials said Wednesday.
The barriers will be steel fences a little more than 4 feet tall that leave openings where subways doors open and will be installed at subway stations along the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, L and M lines by the end of 2025.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the barriers in her State of the State on Tuesday, along with a partnership with the NYPD to increase patrols on subways, with a uniformed officer on board every train between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. for the next six months.
"No one should be in fear that they’ll be a victim of crime as they commute to work, go to school or enjoy a night out," said Hochul, who also announced additions to "safe options support" teams that remove homeless people from the system and installation of modern fare gates at 20 stations.
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Gov. Kathy Hochul announced new platform barriers are coming to 100 New York City subway stations in 2025.
The barriers will be steel fences a little more than 4 feet tall that leave openings where subways doors open and will be installed at subway stations along the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, L and M lines.
The MTA says the barriers will make people feel protected from being shoved onto the tracks, although the barriers will not prevent people from intentionally entering the tracks.
Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for the Riders Alliance transit advocacy group, called the barriers "a common sense safety initiative" that will "reduce the chances that people will end up on the tracks."
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority did not respond to Newsday's inquiry Wednesday about how much the barriers would cost.
Barriers build on pilot program
MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said the new barriers will give riders a sense of security.
Riders can "position themselves in an area where they would have a really high level of confidence that no random act of violence [like] pushing them could happen," he said. "We've tried it out ... and it has made a difference."
Around a dozen stations — including at 191st Street in Washington Heights, Aquarium station at Coney Island and Clark Street station in downtown Brooklyn — already have similar barriers that were installed last year.
However, the barriers will not prevent people from intentionally entering the tracks.
Of the 40 people killed by trains during the first four months of 2022, one was shoved onto the tracks, according to an MTA study. Two others slipped and fell, while other cases involved suicide (11 cases), persons "on track area for no apparent reason" (21 cases), attempting to retrieve objects from the tracks (two cases), intoxication (two cases), and mental illness (one case).
The announced barriers are different from platform screen door systems, such as the one on the AirTrain and subway systems in London and Paris, which open only when trains arrive and are more effective at stopping trespassers.
Installing full-fledged screen doors would be infeasible at roughly three-quarters of subway stations due to structural and other concerns, a 2020 study commissioned by the MTA found. Where technically feasible, installation would be very expensive — costing over $50 million per station.
Despite their cost, the MTA announced a pilot program in 2022 to install more expensive full screen doors at three stations. It did not respond to Newsday’s inquiry Wednesday about the progress of that program.
Sam Schwartz, CEO of Sam Schwartz Pedestrian Traffic Management Service and a former New York City traffic commissioner, said barriers were used effectively at New York subway stations in the early 20th century.
"It certainly gives a lot of people a degree of safety," he said. "Why not [install barriers] at 300 stations? But 100 is a big improvement."
More police on subways
Hochul’s announcement of a police officer on every train comes after city leaders assigned 200 more officers to the subway system last week. Hochul has also stationed National Guard troops at subway entrances since March, but they are not on the platforms or in trains.
Pearlstein of the Riders’ Alliance commended the additional police presence, but said housing and health care solutions are also needed for homeless people.
"We can’t ask police officers to solve every problem underground," he said.
There have been some high profile subway crimes recently — including a woman who was killed after being set on fire in December.
According to the NYPD, major felonies on subways decreased slightly during the first 11 months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. While these levels are slightly lower than pre-pandemic, ridership is also down, and the number of felony assaults in 2023 and 2024 were higher than any other years since at least 1997.
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