Jan. 10, 2016 By Christian Murray
Four rundown N/Q subway stations in Astoria are going to be upgraded as part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s transportation plan that he announced Friday.
Thirty stations—including the 30th Avenue, Broadway, 36th and 39th Avenue stations—are expected to be modernized by 2018, according to Cuomo. He said the stations will be cleaner, brighter and easier to navigate than at present.
The station revamps will be designed and built by one contractor as a means to reduce costs and increase accountability. There will be an emphasis on getting the job done quickly.
Each station will be closed while the work takes place. On average, the redevelopments should take between six and 12 months. Comparatively, under the previous piecemeal approach, station redevelopments would take two to three years to complete—with workers shutting down stations at night and on weekends.
The station revamps are part of a system-wide MTA upgrade.
Cuomo said that by the end of 2016, all 277 underground subway stations will have WiFi service. Currently more than 140 underground stations have service—including the 7 and R lines in western Queens.
Cell phone service will be available in all stations by the end of 2017.
The governor said that subway and bus riders will be able to pay for their commute via mobile phone or waving a bank card over a device in 2018.
Cuomo said that the MTA will begin installing Countdown clocks on the 7 line and the lettered subway lines this year.
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9 Comments
Be lucky you get a stairs in Astoria. Remember the closed, deadly staircase at Ditmars Boulevard?
Good Riddance! Fix it up and add more transit police and surveillance!
Those stations are pretty close together, so as long as they are only working on one station at a time, walking a couple of extra blocks every day for six months is going to be worth it. (especially if they add an elevator or escalators like they did at Court Square).
We need elevator or escalator so bad in astoria stations, instead of the hard time every morning.
Then astoria will be more crazy expensive . Lol
A) Who the heck wants cell phone service on the trains? Who asked for this? Who wants to be stuck in a train with someone yelling into their phone?
B) These stations are platforms with stairs attached to them. How can you make these stations “easier to navigate”?
C) Is the MTA concerned that the Astoria Blvd. station sways about 6 inches when trains come in?
Wow, I’m curious to see how the residents will get into Manhattan. The trains are already beyond overcrowded.
What about Astoria Blvd …How about an elevator???
There are plans for an elevator at astoria Blvd
Be thankful to get stairs. In Astoria, that’s not a given. Remember the dangerous, closed staircase at Ditmars?