Every morning when Sabela Avión steps off the 7 train and onto the platform at Grand Central, she heads toward the street exit by turning left and climbing up two short flights of stairs—19, 20, 21 steps total. After making it up the stairs and turning a corner, the dreaded question she’s been pondering most of her morning commute is answered: both sets of escalators are in motion.
“Sometimes you get here and they are not working,” Avión said. She has young-onset Parkinson’s disease, which means she sometimes has difficulty with balance and walking.
When those two long escalators are out, the alternative is 80 stairs up to the street. Avión estimates in the past six months, she’s had to take the stairs somewhere between 15 to 20 times.
“It’s not easy for me,” she said, adding, “It’s not easy pretty much for anyone.”
Listen to Shumita Basu’s report on WNYC:
On mornings when Avión would turn the corner and see both escalators out of service, she would often go back down to the 7 platform and take an elevator to the mezzanine, and another nearby elevator to the street. But as of September 2019, both of those elevators have been taken out of service for replacement. One’s scheduled to reopen in May, the other in June.
“We’re not naive,” said Avión. “We know that maintenance needs to be done, but sometimes I think that commuters feel like we are not cared for enough.”
Signs explaining why the elevator is out.
Over a million commuters pass through the Grand Central corridor every day. We The Commuters has received complaints from a number them about accessibility during this scheduled work, so we decided to look into your questions.
One common question: Why did the MTA take both of those elevators at Grand Central out of service at the same time?
The short answer is: It wasn’t exactly supposed to happen this way. One elevator from the mezzanine to the street was scheduled to be replaced starting September 2019 and reopen in June 2020. To anticipate that closure, a new functioning elevator was added to connect the mezzanine to the street.
But in late August of 2019, the elevator connecting the 7 train platform to the mezzanine (which was scheduled for eventual replacement in 2020) started experiencing issues.
MTA spokesperson Andrei Berman explained to WNYC/Gothamist that it became necessary to take that elevator offline and replace it earlier than anticipated, meaning that a short overlap of time where both the platform and mezzanine elevators were out of service became a seven-month gap.
“We are working with the private developer with the hope of reducing their current timeline and getting these [replacements] completed as soon as possible,” said Berman.
The escalators at Grand Central's subway station
Another question we received from commuters: While the elevators are down, can we at least get more reliable escalator service at Grand Central?
To that, Berman said they’re constantly monitoring conditions to make sure escalators are in motion while other equipment is being replaced.
“Systemwide our elevators are available more than 96 percent of the time and escalators are available more than 89 percent of the time,” said Berman.
But the escalators at Grand Central have one of the lowest in-service rates in the city, working just 70 percent of the time. Up to 78 elevators and 65 escalators system-wide, including those two long, unpredictable escalators that Avión uses to get to the street from the 7 platform, are due to be replaced in the next capital plan.
What gets in the way of making your commute fully accessible? As We The Commuters looks into your questions about and experiences with accessibility in NYC transit, we’re looking to you to help build a Visual Checklist to send to the MTA. Here’s what we want: Send us a picture of the bumps, blocks and design flaws that make your commute inaccessible. Also include a few words about you and your accessibility needs. Share it on Twitter using #WeTheCommuters or send us an email at [email protected]. We’ll compile your entries and share it with the MTA.
