In Transit newsletter: Celebrating access — unless you want to see a Mets game

The Fourth of July isn’t the only anniversary in our nation’s history that lands this month. The 26th of July is also pretty important for a group of Americans whose battle for independence is still being waged.

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, a historic document that sought to prohibit discrimination against people living with disabilities in many areas of public life, including transportation. Thanks to the ADA, every newly built transit station must be fully accessible to riders with disabilities, including by having elevators and/or ramps.

But, at 192 years old, the LIRR is older than most of states in the union, and most stations were built way before the establishment of the ADA. To its credit, the railroad — spurred in part by lawsuits filed disability rights advocates — has made strides in getting the vast majority of its stations compliant with the law.

Today, 95% of the LIRR’s 126 stations are accessible — a rate far higher than at MTA subway stations, where only about 35% are accessible. LIRR station upgrades undertaken in the last few years have made the entire Babylon line — which, until relatively recently, did not have elevators to bring riders to and from elevated platforms at many stations — fully accessible.

But six LIRR stations remain inaccessible to riders with mobility issues, including one particularly important to tourists and sports fans in New York: Mets-Willets Point.

The station, which serves Citi Field, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, lacks elevators or ramps linking platforms below to the boardwalk above.

For years, plans to make accessibility upgrades to the station have been dashed over disagreements over who should pay for them. The MTA once hoped they’d be funded through the Port Authority’s plans to build an AirTrain linking the station to LaGuardia Airport, but when that project was nixed in 2023, so too was the promise for accessibility.

Now the MTA is pinning hopes for accessibility upgrades at the Queens station to developers’ plans to build a casino and soccer stadium nearby.

"We think there’s a great opportunity for a partnership there to make the railroad station accessible," MTA capital construction president Jamie-Torres Springer said Thursday, when I asked him about the station at a news conference about the LIRR’s latest station accessibility upgrades at Locust Manor. "We have to prioritize the scarce capital dollars across the system. These projects are costly."

In other words, the MTA believes it should not solely be on the hook to fund improvements that will benefit multiple businesses in the area.

There has been some progress on this front, as the MTA in May approved spending $1.8 million to design some improvements at Mets-Willets Point that could include accessibility upgrades. But it will likely be years before a Mets fan using a wheelchair could ride to a game on the LIRR.

And the Mets could certainly use every bit of support they can get.

Transportation news

Suffolk County is moving ahead with an $80 million plan to bring a "bus rapid transit" line to Route 110 by 2031, with frequent departures and dedicated lanes.

The number of IOU invoices issued by LIRR conductors to riders who don't buy tickets has fallen by more than half since MTA Police started ejecting fare beaters who don’t carry ID.

The recent storms caused hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at area airports.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill to conserve a portion of the former Lawrence Aviation property as a state greenway, and hopes that part of the site could be transformed into an LIRR rail yard for its Port Jefferson line.

If you’re reading this on an LIRR train, there’s a good chance James Dermody signed the contract that purchased it. The 37th president of the LIRR recently died at the age of 85.

Travel watch

The westbound Long Island Expressway will be closed tonight, July 7, at Exit 62 from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for asphalt pavement repairs.

Because of planned accessibility improvements, there will be no eastbound midday weekday LIRR service this week at Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, or at Woodside for trains going through Jamaica.

Westbound trains on the Hempstead line are skipping Elmont-UBS Arena, Queens Village and Hollis stops during middays on weekdays through Juy 24.

The westbound Long Island Expressway will be closed tonight, July 7, at Exit 62 from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for asphalt pavement repairs.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.