NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is being referred to as upon to put in subway platform display screen doorways to forestall individuals from falling or being pushed on to the tracks.
However, as CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported Thursday, the top of the company says station and automobile irregularities make it possible in solely a handful of stations.
“Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Santiago, Chile; Hong Kong, Delhi, Rome, Paris,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine mentioned, referring to a number of the locations the place platform display screen doorways have been put in in mass transit techniques to forestall monitor accidents. “New York Metropolis is approach behind. This isn’t a brand new know-how.”
READ MORE: Exclusive: MTA CEO Janno Lieber Says Top Priority Is ‘Making A Safer Environment For Our Riders’
Levine and a gaggle of politicians are attempting to strain the MTA to spend the billions of {dollars} it could take to put in platform doorways, after 40-year-old Higher West Facet businesswoman Michelle Go was pushed to her death by a homeless man with a historical past of mental illness.
“Actually, we want options now,” MTA Appearing Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber mentioned.
(Photograph: Billy Florian Public Transport)
Lieber told Kramer in an exclusive interview that the MTA has been learning the thought of platform doorways for years. It did a 3,000-page research and it discovered that, “Proper now, there are most likely solely 40 station the place we may do it.”
That’s out of 472 stations.
In keeping with the report, there are lots of causes for this, together with platform width, misalignment, vehicles with a number of door opening positions, and gaps between platform edges and trains.
The Union Square station is among the many locations within the transit system the place it could be tough, if not inconceivable, to put in doorways. The prepare curves round and the explanation there are indicators that say “Stand away from the shifting platform” is as a result of the platform has to maneuver out to the prepare the place it curves, Kramer reported.
READ MORE: Police: Suspect Wanted For Pushing 62-Year-Old Man Onto Subway Tracks In Manhattan
Civil engineer Buzz Paaswell mentioned the thought is nice, however could be tough to hold out.
“New York is a really outdated system. It’s received outdated stations. They’ve curves in it. They’ve columns each place. They’ve platforms that aren’t even, and what you want, if you consider it, your establishing a flat display screen that’s initiated routinely,” Paaswell mentioned.
Throughout a radio interview, Lieber slammed Levine, who till final month was chair of the Metropolis Council Well being Committee coping with psychological well being points.
“What was happening once they spent billions of {dollars} on psychological well being that left us with the situation we’re seeing within the system?” Lieber mentioned.
READ MORE: Union Head Says Recent Subway Push Incidents Are ‘Traumatizing’ For Conductors
Kramer requested riders what would make them really feel safer.
“Extra police, extra police obtainable,” mentioned Lamar Denc of Bedford-Stuyvesant, including when requested in regards to the concept of putting in doorways on the tracks, “Putting in doorways on the tracks? That will assist, nevertheless it additionally might decelerate issues in terms of the trains.”
“Extra safety,” one other rider mentioned.
“They might put police on the tracks,” an individual mentioned.
“Extra surveillance and cops,” one other added.
And when Kramer rode the trains with Lieber he instructed her the short-term resolution is cops holding the mentally unwell off platforms.
Consultants say putting in platform doorways wouldn’t solely be tough, it could value billions, and it could drive the MTA to weigh a number of priorities.
