MTA Will Completely Close 30 Subway Stations For Months-Long "Revamp"

Governor Andrew Cuomo has spent the week running from press conference to press conference, trash-talking New York City's railways, airports and transit hubs even as he promises to make them grander, glassier, and, he hopes, more efficient.

On Friday morning, the MTA was the focus of the Governor's poetic waxing. From a podium at the MTA Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn, he promised a bevy of technology updates to be rolled out over the next five years, some more cosmetic than others.

For one, Cuomo is pushing for an expedited rollout of countdown clocks for lettered trains and the 7 line, starting this year. Granted, the MTA promised eventual letter train countdown clocks back in 2009. But last March, MTA spokeswoman Amanda Kwan told us that the MTA doesn't have "a specific timeline for the lettered lines."

Cuomo also announced a new digital ticketing system that will allow straphangers to buy their MetroCards online by 2018, and the LIRR and Metro North have pledged to introduce mobile ticketing in the next six months. This technology will extend to subways and buses in 2018, allowing riders to enter the subway by waving their cellphones in the direction of a contactless detector.

The MTA confirmed its intention to phase out the MetroCard completely.

Insisting that his goal is to build a New York for the "next hundred years," Cuomo added, "The MTA is the heart of it. Because you know what the future is? The future is mass transportation."

Cuomo also promised system-wide Wi-Fi by the end of the year, and cellphone service in 2017, plus USB charging stations in 200 subway cars this year and 400 more next year. All new buses added to the system this year will have Wi-Fi. The number of buses with Wi-Fi and charging ports should clock in over 1,000 by 2018.

"I don't want to get on a train and feel like a sardine for an hour and a half on the way to work. I don't want to do that," Cuomo extrapolated. "I want to be able to sit in a seat, I want to be able to listen to my music, I want to be able to make a telephone call, be connected to Wi-Fi. I've come to expect that."

This, from the guy who, apparently, has never taken a city bus. The same governor also declined multiple requests from advocates to take a peak-rush-hour subway ride, and instead made an underground appearance in cardboard form.

oh wow the governor found out subways are a thing who knew https://t.co/fVlJB2KCwd

— David Sims (@davidlsims) January 8, 2016

And then there's this. MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast took to the podium Friday as well, promising to "re-envision" 30 subway stations by 2020. The MTA plans to make these stations "cleaner, brighter... easier to navigate, with better and more intuitive wayfinding, as well as a modernized look and feel." This means more On The Go touch screens, new signage, new lighting.

Rather than close these stations on nights and weekends to accomplish this "renewal"—the Governor described the current approach as "piecemeal"—the MTA will shut down entire stations for an average six to twelve-months per station to expedite renovations. Will your neighborhood's subway station be one of them? Read it and weep/breathe a sigh of relief.

An MTA spokesperson said the full shut-down plan may be modified at stations without an obvious alternative transit option nearby.

After Cuomo's announcement, some critics argued that the MTA is facing more pressing issues than, say, "customer-friendly" initiatives.

There's the issue of extreme overcrowding, for one, and the $1 billion in funding cut from the second phase of the ever-elusive Second Avenue Subway line (tunnel boring for Phase II, which will serve 96th through 125th Streets, is now projected to start no sooner than 2019). Ambitious East Side Access and Penn Station Access projects are currently slotted for 2022, and delays due to rail issues are a thing most New Yorkers are now wearily familiar with.

As for how this large-scale, high-tech makeover will be funded, MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg confirmed that the funding will be covered by the 2015-2019 Capital Program, which has yet to be formally approved.

“The MTA is committed to meeting Governor Cuomo’s challenge head-on, eliminating every possible inefficiency to deliver these improvements faster, better and at a lower cost,” MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast said in a statement. He added that the authority will accomplish this in part through public-private partnerships.

"These are vital investments to modernize subways and buses and make the daily commute less awful for eight million New Yorkers," said Rider's Alliance director John Raskin. "But in order to make them happen, Governor Cuomo has to approve the MTA capital program so the MTA can begin doing the work, and he has to identify how he plans to pay for it all."