Feds providing $343M to make subways accessible for those with disabilities
Subway station open this morning to commuters following yesterdays shooter scene where a number of people shot and four undetonated devices discovered in subway station at 36 street and Fourth ave in Sunset park., Brooklyn. April 13th, 2022 Credit: John Roca
WASHINGTON — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will soon be eligible for millions in federal funding aimed at making aging subway stations accessible to passengers with disabilities, the Biden administration announced on Tuesday.
The federal government is releasing $343 million in grant funding aimed at helping transit systems in cities including New York, Boston and Chicago comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, a 32-year-old law that in part requires transit agencies to provide equal access to transportation for people with disabilities.
MTA officials told Newsday on Tuesday the agency will be looking to apply for at least half of the money being made available, noting that New York City has the largest proportion of aging stations eligible for the program. Nearly one-third of the more than 900 aging stations nationwide identified by the Department of Transportation as not complying with the ADA law are from New York City, according to the National Transit Database.
Only 27% of New York City’s 472 stations are accessible to those with disabilities, according to MTA figures.
“For many people who use a wheelchair or are blind or low vision, or just have a bad knee or are coming out of the surgery, or older folks who have trouble getting up and down stairs, this often means that affordable public transportation by rail is not an option," said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a conference call with reporters announcing the funding. “That is not right, it is not fair.”
Buttigieg said the funding to upgrade stations also will benefit “parents with kids in strollers … anybody negotiating luggage, anybody with a temporary injury, and the rest of us who will one day age into disability if we're not a member of the disability community today.”
The funding announced Tuesday is the first tranche of $1.75 billion that will be spent over the next five years to make stations nationwide more accessible. The money was allocated under the bipartisan infrastructure law passed by Congress last year and signed into law by President Joe Biden.
The money is geared toward so-called legacy stations that were built before the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990.
Last month the MTA reached a legal settlement with disability advocates who filed a lawsuit against the agency. Under the agreement, the MTA has said it will make 95% of its stations accessible to those with disabilities by 2055.
MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan said in a statement to Newsday: “Accessibility upgrades are a key priority of the MTA” and noted the agency previously “proposed to amend the 2020-24 capital program to accelerate accessibility upgrades at eight LIRR stations."
"With the MTA carrying approximately 50% of the nation’s riders, we are optimistic the MTA will get an equitable share of the available funds," Donovan said of the funding announced Tuesday.
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.
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