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Congestion pricing dollars at work: MTA says new Bryant Park subway station elevators and other upgrades paid for with Manhattan tolls

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Congestion pricing dollars at work: MTA says new Bryant Park subway station elevators and other upgrades paid for with Manhattan tolls📷 amNewYork Metro
Civic10/15 18:00· amNewYork Metro6 reads
📰 Original English Reporting · Synced from amNewYork Metro

Congestion pricing dollars at work: MTA says new Bryant Park subway station elevators and other upgrades paid for with Manhattan tolls

Four new elevators are coming to bustling 42 St-Bryant Park/5 Av subway station — and the MTA wants straphangers to know it is because of congestion pricing.

Four new elevators are coming to bustling 42 St-Bryant Park/5 Av subway station — and the MTA wants straphangers to know it is because of congestion pricing .

Agency leaders and elected officials gathered at the B, D, F, M, and 7 train station on Thursday to break ground on the project, which will make it fully accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and includes a slew of other upgrades. The work is funded by revenue raised from the state's congestion pricing program — a $9 base toll drivers must pay in order to enter Manhattan in their vehicles below 60th Street.

"New Yorkers have already been feeling the benefits of less traffic, safer streets, and cleaner air thanks to congestion pricing; now we take the benefits to the next level as we unleash billions in investment to improve our transit system,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement.

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said they will be making that fact clear to riders through signage posted throughout the construction process that will say the coming benefits are "made possible by congestion pricing."

" We're kicking off our biggest project yet enabled by congestion pricing," Lieber said. " Folks are going to see signs that say 'A b etter Bryant Park … m ade possible by congestion pricing.' We want to make sure that everybody understands the benefits of the revenues that are coming from congestion pricing."

The signage is the latest example of how Hochul and the MTA have sought to highlight the benefits of congestion pricing after it faced years of setbacks, including an ongoing attempt by President Trump's administration to shut the program down.

The four new elevators include three mezzanine-to-platform lifts inside the 42 St-Bryant Park B, D, F, and M train portion of the station and a fourth that goes between the mezzanine and street level of the 5 Av 7 train area. One of the three mezzanine-to-platform elevators will connect a pedestrian pathway that links to the Times Square Shuttle to the northbound 42 St-Bryant Park platform.

The four new elevators will add to the station's three existing lifts, all of which go between the mezzanine and street level. Even with those three elevators, the station had not been fully compliant because none of them went between the platforms and the mezzanine.

The MTA board approved the multi-million contrac t for the accessibility project late last year. MTA President of Construction and Development Jamie Torres-Springer said the reason it took so long to finish the accessability project was because the agency had struggled to find the space to put all of the equipment that supports elevator operations. He said they found the space on a decommissioned track that became available after the MTA converted the 42 St Shuttle from four tracks to two in 2021.

"I t's the kind of engineering feat that we're pulling off across all our 472 stations to make them ADA accessible at a record-breaking pace," Torres-Springer said.

The agency will also build a new accessible passage between the 42 St-Bryant Park and 5 Av platforms, which will allow those with mobility issues to move between the two portions of the station without having to traverse any stairs. Currently, riders must go up and down two sets of stairs to get from one area to another.

In addition to the accessibility upgrades, the MTA will also outfit the station with reconstructed platforms, modern ADA-compliant fare gates and men's and women's bathrooms, upgraded staircases, and state-of-good-repair work inside the 5 Av portion of the station.

Along with 42 St-Bryant Park/5 Av, the MTA is using congestion pricing revenue to fund ADA upgrades at five other stations: the Kingsbridge Rd 4, 167 St B and D, Gates Av J, Briarwood F, and Parsons Blvd F stations.

Those are among at least 23 stations that are set to receive accessibility enhancements funded by $2 billion of the $15 billion in congestion pricing revenue going toward the agency's current capital plan.

Ethan Stark-Miller is amNewYork's Transit Editor. He covers the MTA (including the subways and buses), the city Department of Transportation, and all other forms of getting around in the Big Apple. He previously covered politics for amNY.

Read Full Original Reporting on amNewYork Metro
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