Add these yellow elephants to the unnecessary billions spent by MTA.
The Transit Agency refuses to reveal the results, or the costs, of a pilot project, had yellow safety rails installed not on the edge, but in the middle, of the platform in three subway stations, part of a broader initiative to prevent falls, on the tracks.
The agency had the structures installed in 57th Street Stop at the F, the Bedford Street stop in the L and the Crescent Street Stop in the J, in 2023.
Two years later, he refuses to say if they are working, or what they cost to taxpayers. The MTA has been giving the stone questions for three weeks.
The initiative occurred after the death of Michelle Go in January January 2022, who was put in the tracks in Times Square.
“We are looking for opportunities to make the platform safer, and this is one of them,” said Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Construction & Development, at a meeting of the March Board of 2023.
“It is an opportunity for the client to stop in a location and feel safe. We are evaluating how it works, whether there are other versions of this that can work more effective.”
But the peak time duration this week at the West 57th Street stop, the post observed few real travelers using the structure for its planned purpose.
One of the rails was covered with graffiti, while another was used as a grid for a homeless man, and later by a close tired as a stretch and exercise post.
“Useless,” said New Yorker Charles Sprawls, 59, who said that homeless also uses the structure to rest at night.
“I think it’s weird,” added Eduardo López, 28.
“On the train, they have them on the edge and that makes sense, but this is a waste of space.”
Around the last year, the MTA has been implementing other designs, more in a more tight way on the edge of the platforms, they thought that the New Yorkers were not much more impressed.
Until now, about 20 stations have Goths safety barriers on the edge of the platforms, according to the MTA and the Government. Kathy Hochul said in January that he would provide financing to install the edge barriers of the platform in more than 100 additional stations at the end of 2025.