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November 15^th, 2005

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Michael A. Harris

Campaign Coordinator

Disabled Riders Coalition

Telephone: (914) 490-0518

E-mail: mharris@disabledriders.org

Web: www.disabledriders.org

Disabled Riders Rail TA over Elevator Outages at Some of NYC’s Newest Accessible Subway Stations

Riders Coalition to TA: Installing new elevators is not enough, they must be adequately maintained.

(NEW YORK CITY) NOVEMBER 15^th, 2005-  According to New York City Transit’s Elevator Hotline, of 6am this morning elevators were out of service at six of the fifty-one accessible subway and SIR stations were out of service, including long-term outages at the City’s two newest subway stations, West 4^th Street (A, B, C, D, E, F, V) and Jamaica – 179^th Street (F), prompting harsh testimony from the Disabled Riders Coalition at today’s MTA Capital Project Oversight Committee…

The West 4^th Street station was just certified as ADA Accessible in May and the station at 179^th Street in Queens as recently as August, yet the Elevator hotline indicates that “due to essential elevator maintenance” the platforms at both stations “will not be accessible until November, 2005”.  According to the Coalition, both elevators have been out of service more than they have worked, calling into question whether the TA considers elevator maintenance a top priority.

“We are dealing with brand new elevators here, which begs the question of why they keep breaking down”, said Michael Harris, the Coalition’s campaign coordinator, “Clearly the TA has some very serious priorities when it comes to elevator maintenance”, he said.

The TA, in a statement last week regarding delays in getting elevators at Brooklyn’s Stillwell Avenue station blamed such delays on the Authority’s “rigorous inspection process”, leading the Coalition to further question the outages.

“If elevators are subject to such a rigorous inspection process, that only adds to our concern over the frequency with which they seem to break down”, said Harris, adding “It is wonderful that the TA is installing new elevators, but if they don’t function, what good are they?” 

The Coalition adds that it has also received numerous complaints regarding elevator outages at Brooklyn’s DeKalb Avenue subway station (B, Q, M, R), the systems third newest accessible station.  Last month they brought suit against the MTA and the New York City Transit Authority, alleging that the Authority fails to keep subway elevators in a state of good repair.

“It wasn’t something that we wanted to do”, said Harris, regarding the suit, “but it is simply inexcusable for brand new elevators to be out of service, particularly for months at a time.”

In his testimony, Harris urged the Committee to consider using different contractors and to take additional steps to ensure that as more stations become accessible, they remain that way.  “We commend the TA on moving forward with projects, such as the Fulton Street Complex, which will significantly increase access to the system, yet at the same we urge the TA to remember that these are our tax-payer dollars and we want to see them put to the best and most effective use, not going to pay to repair brand new elevators”, he said, adding “we want to work with you not against you, but at times your actions make that difficult.”

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