BX Subway Gets Three New Elevators

By JOLIE BAYNES

The MTA announced on Thursday the completion of three new elevators now open on the B and D lines at Bedford Park Blvd in the Bronx.

The station upgrades used federal funding to make stations accessible in a 2020 to 2024 capital plan. 

“Adding ADA accessibility is a major priority for the MTA, and we’re

thrilled that this project has made transit even more accessible to the dynamic and diverse community around the Bedford Park Boulevard Station,” said MTA Construction & Development President Janno Lieber in a press release. “To deliver these important transit projects for our customers we have been working at an aggressive pace to accelerate work forward safely during the Covid crisis while ridership is low.”

“ It’s law that we have to do these things,” said an MTA spokesperson.  “Upgrading the MTA, even starting from elevators, and creating accessibility is a start to revamping the crippling MTA transit system. It’s often mentioned when rumors of rider fare increase the question often comes up, ‘Well, what am I getting for my money?’”

The plan is part of an historic $5.2 billion investment in station accessibility between 2020 and 2024, calling for many features compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act: elevators, raised boarding areas on each platform, to make it easier for those who use mobility devices to board and exit trains, relocation of four platform stairs for safe and easy movement of customers in wheelchairs, tactile platform edge warning strips to make the area safer for all customers, reconstruction of three street stairs to meet ADA standards, and reconfiguration of street and crosswalk features with the city Department of Transportation.