May 17, 2016 By Michael Florio
Renovations and tech upgrades are on track for a handful of Astoria subway stations.
The upgrades will come to six stations next year, according to Luke DePalma, Assistant Director for Government and Community Affairs with MTA/NYC Transit.
The six subway stations are: 39th Ave, 36th Ave, Broadway, 30th Ave, Astoria Blvd and Ditmars Blvd.
Renovations will include painting and structural repairs to the platforms and stairwells, DePalma said last Thursday at a town hall meeting hosted by Assembly Member Aravella Simotas and the United Community Civic Association.
Four select stations – 30th Ave, Broadway, 36th Ave, and 39th Ave – will receive additional enhancements, including WiFi hotspots and charging cords, DePalma said.
The Astoria Blvd station will also become ADA compliant with the installment of elevators.
“This is all to improve the rider experience,” DePalma said.
The MTA is currently in the design phase for all of these renovations. The agency expects to present its plans to the community board in the fall, with work slated to begin in 2017, according to DePalma.
“There will be a public outreach and presentation for these plans,” he said. “But we are not there yet. We are about 40 percent done with the design.”
The stations will have to close during construction.
However, DePalma stated that standard procedure is to close one side of the station at a time.
“We have no current plans to shut down any of these stations completely,” he said. “Riders would have to bike ride to a station in one direction.”
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10 Comments
Anything to help transport the homeless shelter residents faster to the bronx is a good thing!
Charging cords?
These stations certainly need refurbishment, they probably haven’t changed much in the last 50 years.
But I agree with Dan, charging cords? How long are they going to last? How many disgruntled passengers are there going to be with the cord hogs?
Same with WiFi. These stations are outdoors and get decent signals from any of the mobile phone providers.
Can we either save the money or spend it on something that is really useful?
same thing goes for the bus countdown clocks. they now have a service you can text that will shoot you a response to inform you of the buses progress towards your specific stop. what are these stupid clocks going to achieve?
They need to take a look at the crowding on the platforms when exiting. There should be an additional stairwell at the 30th & Broadway stations, and it would be great if it went all the way down to the street.
An elevator at Astoria Blvd is great. It would probably be too much to hope for elevators at the others.
They need to install wheel chair ramps for handicap and mothers with strollers
That should also have a ramp for dads with strollers.
Not practical.
ADA specifies a rise of 1 inch per 1 foot for a legally compliant ramp. To get to the subway platforms you need to go up I’m guessing 40 feet?
40 feet X 12 inches equals 480 inches high. This means you need 480 feet of ramp. This would either be more than 2 blocks long if straight or many feet wide if done as a zig-zag.
Just to add, probably cheaper to build an elevator.
they are adding an elevator at the astoria blvd stop… probably so those traveler s who are schlepping their luggage to and from the M60 bus, not for baby carriage or the handicapped…