Accessibility of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority


The physical accessibility of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority 's public transit network, serving the New York metropolitan area, is incomplete. Although all buses are wheelchair-accessible in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, much of the MTA's rail system was built before wheelchair access was a requirement under the ADA. This includes the MTA's rapid transit systems, the New York City Subway and Staten Island Railway, and its commuter rail services, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. Consequently, most stations were not designed to be accessible to people with disabilities, and many MTA facilities lack accessible announcements, signs, tactile components, and other features.
A city law, the New York City Human Rights Law, prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. Since 1990, elevators have been built in newly constructed stations to comply with the ADA, with most grade-level stations requiring little modification to meet ADA standards. The MTA identified 100 "key stations", high-traffic and/or geographically important stations on the subway system, which have been or are being renovated to comply with the ADA. One of the key tenets of the 2018 Fast Forward Plan to rescue the subway system is to drastically increase the number of ADA-accessible subway stations, adding accessible facilities to 70 stations by 2024. In 2022, the MTA agreed in a settlement to make 95 percent of subway and Staten Island Railway stations accessible by 2055.

Background

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been gradually adding disabled access to its key stations since the 1980s, though large portions of the MTA's transit system are still inaccessible. According to the MTA:
According to the MTA, fully accessible stations have:
  • elevators or ramps
  • handrails on ramps and stairs
  • large-print and tactile-Braille signs
  • audio and visual information systems, including Help Points or Public Address Customer Information Screens
  • accessible station booth windows with sills located no more than above the ground
  • accessible OMNY Vending Machines
  • accessible service entry gates
  • platform-edge warning strips
  • platform gap modifications or bridge plates to reduce or eliminate the gap between trains and platforms where it is greater than vertically or horizontally
  • telephones at an accessible height with volume control, and text telephones
  • accessible restrooms at stations with restrooms, if a 24-hour public toilet is in operation
  • *Note: not all station buildings have restrooms.
Major bus stops are also required to have bus stop announcements under the ADA. The MTA is required to maintain these components under the ADA law; for instance, buses with malfunctioning lifts will be taken out of service.

History

1970s and 1980s

In 1973, the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was signed into law. One provision of it, Section 504, was initially interpreted to require all public transit systems to become equally accessible to disabled people or risk losing federal funding. The MTA resisted this interpretation, arguing that making the required improvements would cost more than $1.5 billion. MTA Chairman Harold Fisher argued in favor of a separate transportation system for disabled people since it would be too expensive to make the regular system accessible. In 1980, the MTA Board voted to ignore the rule in spite of threats from the federal government that the agency would forfeit federal funding.
In September 1979, the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court that sought to block subway modernization projects from proceeding unless elevators were installed in stations, as per a state law that required that access for disabled riders be provided. This was the first lawsuit in New York challenging a state agency for not being in compliance with the Public Buildings Law, and the first lawsuit to argue state laws required public transit systems to add wheelchair lifts on buses and elevators in train and subway stations. The lawsuit also charged that the MTA was in defiance of New York's Human Rights Law, which outlaws discrimination, for denying people with disabilities from using public transit facilities. The EPVA decided to go ahead with the lawsuit despite the existence of the federal regulations because it feared a lawsuit by the American Public Transportation Association, which sought to overturn the rules as being financially burdensome, might be successful.
In 1981, the Reagan administration reinterpreted Section 504, requiring that transit agencies demonstrate that they were making their best efforts to provide adequate transportation for people in wheelchairs. As a result, the MTA agreed to purchase more than 2,000 buses with wheelchair lifts, which would make 50% of its bus fleet accessible. In 1983, less than a third of the system's 3,600 buses were equipped with these lifts.
In December 1982, the New York State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the EPVA, and on January 4, 1983, the Court judge officially signed an order that barred 10 station renovation projects in the MTA's first Capital Program from proceeding until an agreement was reached regarding accessibility in the New York City transit system, which the MTA appealed. The judge based the ruling on a state law that required wheelchair access to projects that were renovated using state funds. The MTA had argued that it had already provide a transportation option for people with disabilities by ordering buses with wheelchair lifts, and that the state law in question, the public buildings law, did not apply to subway stations, and that the planned projects were repairs, not renovations.
Work at ten station renovation projects underway were placed on hold, and work at 78 others were shelved by the MTA, which feared that work would again be halted by the courts. Following the decision, the MTA asked the New York State Legislature to exempt the agency from the law requiring transportation be accessible to people with disabilities. MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch said that "the costs of station accessibility are enormous and the benefits illusory", arguing that few people would use the elevators, and noting that it would cost $1 million to make each station accessible, and the high cost of maintenance and security requirements. The MTA had offered the EPVA to set up an on-request paratransit service, which the group rejected, while the EPVA offered to make 27 key stations accessible, including,, Atlantic Avenue,, and, which was rejected by the MTA.
In December 1983, State Senate Minority Leader Manfred Ohrenstein proposed legislation that would make 27 key stations accessible and provide funding for a paratransit service, allowing renovations at the 88 stations to commence. Following the announcement, the MTA entertained installing elevators at a limited number of stations being renovated for the first time. Senator Ohrenstein estimated that it would cost $25 to 35 million to make the 27 stations accessible, and cost $55 million per year for the paratransit service. $30 million of the cost for paratransit service would be borne by Transit Authority revenues, $7 million would come from fares, and the remainder would come from third party payments like Medicare and Medicaid. The proposed legislation listed ten stations in Manhattan, four in The Bronx, seven in Brooklyn, and six in Queens. The bill also would have required half of buses to be equipped with wheelchair lifts, and created a 15-member Handicapped Transportation Board to oversee the paratransit system.
In March 1984, the MTA, the office of Governor Mario Cuomo, and advocates for disabled people began working on an agreement to permit the agency to begin work on it subway station modernization program. On June 21, 1984, Mayor Ed Koch blocked an agreement that had been reached in principle to resolve the impasse. The agreement would have required the MTA to spend $5 million a year over eight years to make about 40 stations accessible and equipped every bus on the system with wheelchair lifts within fifteen years. He opposed making stations accessible, writing, "I have concluded that it is simply wrong to spend $50 million in the next eight years—and ultimately more—in putting elevators in the subways."
In June 1984, Governor Cuomo and the leaders of the State Assembly and State Senate reached a settlement agreement in spite of Mayor Koch's objections. The agreement amended the New York State Transportation and Building Laws to require the MTA to install elevators in 54 stations, of which 38 were designated in the legislation, while eight were to be chosen by the MTA, with the remaining eight to be chosen by a new 11-member New York City Transportation Disabled Committee. The MTA would be required to spend $5 million a year over eight years to make station accessible and to equip 65 percent of buses wheelchair lifts. At least eight stations had to become accessible within five years of when the legislation took effect. The New York City Transportation Disabled Committee would develop a plan for a pilot paratransit service within 210 days. The service would have a $5 million annual budget. The legislation was signed into law by Governor Cuomo on July 23, 1984, and the MTA Board approved a resolution in agreement with the legislation on July 25, 1984. A settlement agreement was approved on September 24, 1984, allowing the MTA to start work renovating 88 subway stations.
As late as 1988, prior to the opening of the Archer Avenue lines, there were still only four wheelchair-accessible stations in the subway system. Three of them were ground-level stations at Canarsie–Rockaway Parkway, Middle Village–Metropolitan Avenue, and Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street; the other was the World Trade Center station in Lower Manhattan.