MTA Touts Remade Elevators at 66th St.-Lincoln Center Station

There are two brand-new elevators at the 66th Street-Lincoln Center station, replacing the out-of-date pair that stood there before them.

The MTA hopes that the public will see them as emblems of why regular system maintenance–which includes the occasional laborious replacement of elevators, shutting down service for up to a year at a time–is crucial. In fact, the transit agency wants to get the word out about these scheduled replacements in general, since some transit users may mistake them for equipment malfunctions.

At an informal gathering held next to one of the new elevators on July 8, two local politicians—State Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal and City Council Member Gale Brewer—showed up to give favorable comments. They later posed for pictures in front of the gleaming metal contraption, before being shuffled aside by a photographer, who wanted an action shot with some hardhat workers.

“This is very exciting, because we know that accessibility has been a big issue,” Rosenthal said. “They also encourage people to go into the subway. . . . It’s wonderful, and I congratulate the MTA, and we’ll send some more money your way next year!”

Brewer expressed hope that congestion-pricing revenue would create more elevator installations. “The more people see such a nice elevator, the more they’ll want to be on the subway,” she said.

Brewer also mentioned how the new elevators at 66th Street could positively impact local travel and consumption; namely, by providing foot traffic to flea markets such as the Grand Bazaar NYC, as well as a new school scheduled to open across the street at 1972 Broadway. “The NYC Department of Education didn’t know about it, we had to tell them,” Brewer pointed out. “They’ll have some pre-K and early infant education at that location.”

MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo was also in attendance, where he elaborated on his mission to persuade others to “celebrate these projects.” Arroyo, who uses a wheelchair himself, first noted that he can share in the “the pain” that results from elevators being out of commission for scheduled maintenance. MTA elevators are typically upgraded to ensure reliability every 20 years or so, he said, which is known as capital replacement.

“If you check our MTA website today, there are about 32 elevators out of service,” he added. “Out of those 32—systemwide, we have a little over 300 elevators—29 are ‘out’ because we are replacing them. So, it’s not a real outage, it’s a capital replacement. It is really important that the community understands that this is work that has to happen. The [out-of-service elevators] have reached the end of their useful life.”

In an interview with The Spirit, Arroyo emphasized that he wants “customers to understand the rationale” behind capital replacements. “We don’t like doing it, but it’s the only guarantee we have for keeping elevator availability reliable . . . in order to keep people moving,” he said. “An elevator is only good if it’s working.”

For the technical-minded reader, the elevator replacements at the 66th Street-Lincoln Center station included: a full replacement of the elevator cab and cab equipment, extensive alterations to the pit and shaft, a replacement and modernization of the elevator machine room, and upgrades to remote monitoring systems.