The MTA Will Install Subway Platform Doors In New Safety Effort

In an interview this morning with NY1, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber shared that the transit authority will install platform doors at select stations to help prevent people from jumping or being pushed onto the subway tracks (a tragedy happened just last month resulting in the heartbreaking death of New Yorker Michelle Go) .

The pilot program would take place at Times Square (7 line), Third Avenue (L line), and Sutphin Boulevard (E line) in Queens. These were selected because the “engineering works” there, ie: the infrastructure of other stations doesn’t lend itself to building viable barriers on the platforms (“It just doesn’t work in a lot of places,” he explained).

In addition to the platform doors, the MTA will also be trying out new technology that “detect[s] track incursion using thermal technology, using laser technology, so [they] can know quicker when people get on the tracks and hopefully, interdict that kind of behavior.”

He didn’t share a timeline, but did state that it would “take a while” and that the organization had to “put the money together, which is a little complicated.” Either way, New Yorkers will be seeing platform doors appear at these three stations in the future. Time will tell if it will be a substantial safety measure.

UPDATE: Lieber later told the New York Times the project will cost over $100 million and will not be completed until 2024.

In the meantime, the MTA is also working with the NYU Psychiatry Department at NYU Medical Center to find viable ways to deter people from harming themselves by jumping onto the tracks.