Nearly 10% of Metropolitan Transportation Authority elevators are out of service at any given time, according to a new report from the City Council.
The report, from the Council’s Policy Task Force, found that on average, 34 of the MTA’s 353 subway elevators — imperative infrastructure for people with disabilities to access mass transit — are out of service at any given time, according to an analysis of the MTA’s elevator performance dashboard. That totals 9.6% of all the MTA’s elevators — which are already only present at about a quarter of stations, leaving most of the system inaccessible as is.
Escalators fare even worse: 33 out of 297 escalators, or 11.1%, of them systemwide are out of service on average at a given time.
“Subway riders deserve to have their commutes be as seamless as possible,” said Council Majority Leader Keith Powers, a Manhattan Democrat who co-authored the report with Bronx lawmaker Pierina Sanchez. “With such few stations in the subway system equipped with elevators and escalators, we must focus on ensuring they are performing well and that riders have sufficient notice of outages.”