Op-ed | MTA Chair: ADA for 70% of riders coming soon

MTA’s greatest expansion of the last few years has been the vertical kind thanks to our ambitious subway accessibility agenda. July is Disability Pride Month, but at the MTA accessibility is a year-round priority. And with the latest announcement of additional ADA stations targeted for upgrades, we’re on track to make more than half of the subway system fully accessible at stations serving 70% of riders.

Look out for projects coming soon at:

53 St (R) in Brooklyn

63 Dr-Rego Park (M/R) in Queens

190 St (A) in Manhattan

Bedford-Nostrand Avs. (G) in Brooklyn

Botanic Garden (S) in the Bronx

Cathedral Pkwy-110 St (1) in Manhattan

Eastchester-Dyre Av (5) in the Bronx

Fordham Rd (B/D) in the Bronx

Franklin Av-Medgar Evers College (2/3/4/5) in Brooklyn

Grand Army Plaza (2/3) in Brooklyn

Grand Av-Newtown (M/R) in Queens

Woodlawn (4) in the Bronx

They’ll be funded as part of the 2025-29 MTA Capital Plan, which includes ADA upgrades at more than 60 stations in total, as well as 45 elevator replacements. We’re investing almost $7 billion overall to build on the incredible progress we’ve made over the last few years.

The MTA is adding new accessible stations to the map five times faster than previous leadership, and we are proud of the numbers. Since 2020, new elevators have been installed at 36 stations — double the number of ADA stations completed in just the prior six years. Another 35 are currently under construction, and congestion pricing revenues will fund upgrades at still another 25 locations. By the time we finish the 2025-29 Capital Plan, we’ll be looking at 271+ fully accessible stations systemwide. That’s 236% of what existed right before the COVID pandemic!

And we have no intention of slowing down. Accessibility is a right, and it serves some of the most economically challenged populations in our city – seniors, many living on fixed incomes; parents and caretakers with kids in strollers, who face struggles with the cost of living; and, most of all, people with disabilities.

These folks – like everybody! – deserve to take advantage of our great mass transit system. After all, public transportation is one of the few things that makes New York affordable, at just 15% the cost of owning a car. By expanding access to the subway, we’re really expanding opportunities across the entire metropolitan region for millions of people and their families.

Janno Lieber is MTA chair and CEO.