The MTA is months behind schedule on the installation of platform barriers designed to protect subway riders, the authority quietly disclosed Monday, just days after another straphanger fell victim to a random pushing attack.
The contract to install test barriers at three stations — which was rolled out in response to the fatal 2022 push of Michelle Go — now won’t be awarded until December at the earliest due to unknown delays.
“Time is of the essence,” said Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president. “It’s undeniable that the number of people either being injured or killed is increasing and this is a solution that works around the world.”
Officials had hoped to award the $254 million contract in August to install the automatic doors at the No. 7 line’s Times Square platform; the Third Avenue stop on the L line; and the E line’s platforms at Sutphin Boulevard/Archer Avenue.
Word of the delay comes just days after a woman was shoved into a moving train at the Fifth Avenue-53rd Street station.
The man arrested, Sabir Jones, has a long history of mental illness and encounters with law enforcement, police sources say.
6 Eileen Donahue 29, was pushed onto the subway tracks allegedly by Sabir Jones, 39, a suspect with known prior attacks. Stephen Yang for NY Post
6 Donohue was pushed onto the tracks at the Fifth Avenue-53rd Street station. Stephen Yang for NY Post
Advocates have long demanded the MTA install the doors as a way to prevent people from falling onto the tracks by accident or getting shoved by an attacker.
London and Paris have embraced platform doors on their subway systems and have begun including them on new transit projects, like the Brits’ new Elizabeth line, and adding them to some existing lines as part of modernization projects.
But, the agency resisted for years and even released a 3,000 page report that detailed the various logistical and feasibility challenges across the system.
MTA chairman Janno Lieber reversed course in February 2022 after intense political pressure from elected leaders in Manhattan following Go’s death, which stunned the city.
6 A commuter waits behind the platform doors for a train on London’s new Elizabeth Line in November 2022. AFP via Getty Images
6 A subway track barrier is shown in France. REUTERS
The man who shoved her in front of the train in Times Square, Martial Simon, was deemed unfit for trial.
The MTA declined to comment on the reasons for the delay and would only say the agency was still seeking bids.
“There is a Request for Proposals out for platform screen doors, which are part of what congestion pricing would fund,” said the agency’s top spokesman, Tim Minton.
The platform door delays were quietly noted in a report filed with the committee that oversees major projects at the MTA — and appear to be part of a broader slowdown in getting that work out the door for the city subways and buses.
6 Michelle Go
There’s a six month delay in awarding the contract to replace the ancient and breakdown prone stop-light signal system on the Fulton Street subway — that serves the A and C lines through Brooklyn — with the MTA’s new computerized system, which officials say will boost reliability and require less maintenance.
However, the expected price tag has been reduced by almost $400 million, from nearly $1.7 billion down to $1.3 billion.
Officials now expect a five month delay in getting the contracts out to overhaul and refit the Broadway Junction subway hub — which serves the A/C, J/Z and L lines — with elevators and other improvements to make it accessible for the disabled and people using strollers.
6 Protestors fill Times Square following the death of Michelle Go.
That price tag has been slightly trimmed too, dropping from $427 million to $394 million.
“The MTA’s needs are massive and meeting those needs requires promptness at every step of the process,” said Danny Pearlstein, the top spokesman of Riders Alliance.