Accessibility of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
One provision of it, Section 504, was initially interpreted to require all public transit systems to become equally accessible to disabled people or risk losing Federal funding.
[8] In September 1979, the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association (EPVA) filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court that sought to block subway modernization projects from proceeding unless elevators were installed in stations, as per a state law that required that access for disabled riders be provided.
The lawsuit also charged that the MTA was in defiance of New York's Human Rights Law, which outlaws discrimination, for denying people with disabilities from using public transit facilities.
[7] In 1981, the Reagan administration reinterpreted Section 504, requiring that transit agencies demonstrate that they were making their best efforts to provide adequate transportation for people in wheelchairs.
[9] In December 1982, the New York State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the EPVA, and on January 4, 1983, the Court judge officially signed an order that barred 10 station renovation projects in the MTA's first Capital Program from proceeding until an agreement was reached regarding accessibility in the New York City transit system, which the MTA appealed.
Following the decision, the MTA asked the New York State Legislature to exempt the agency from the law requiring transportation be accessible to people with disabilities.
The bill also would have required half of buses to be equipped with wheelchair lifts, and created a 15-member Handicapped Transportation Board to oversee the paratransit system.
He opposed making stations accessible, writing, "I have concluded that it is simply wrong to spend $50 million in the next eight years—and ultimately more—in putting elevators in the subways.
As part of the plan, agencies were required to include the methodology they used to select key stations and a timeline for the completion of the accessibility improvements.
Though stations were required to be made accessible by July 1993, transit agencies were granted permission to extend the deadline by as many as thirty years.
[15]: 2 However, this revision also stipulated that the subway and Staten Island Railway were exempt from making accessibility modifications that were, by law, required for other public buildings.
[18] In October 2010, the United Spinal Association filed a class action lawsuit against the MTA for not making the Dyckman Street station accessible as part of a station renovation project, arguing that the agency violated the ADA by not allocating twenty percent of the project budget to improving access to disabled people.
[20] In July 2010, the United Spinal Association announced that it had reached a settlement with the MTA to install an elevator to the southbound platform of the station by 2014.
In addition, making the Court Street station was not found to be feasible due to the significant amount of conduits that would have to be rerouted.
The MTA reached a settlement with the Suffolk Independent Living Organization on July 10, 2020, agreeing to make the three stations fully compliant with the ADA, including the installation of elevators.
The cost of the project was reduced by planning to make the stations accessible without constructing machine rooms, which require additional excavation and underground utility relocation.
Under the proposed legislation, developers of lots adjacent to subway stations would meet with the MTA to determine whether an elevator entrance could be constructed.
[48] In June 2022, as part of a settlement for two class-action lawsuits, the MTA proposed making 95 percent of subway and Staten Island Railway stations accessible by 2055.
[51] After partnering with Cubic to design the fare gates, the MTA would replace existing equipment at select locations in order to make station access easier for wheelchair users and passengers with other wheeled devices such as walkers, strollers, and suitcases.
[90] Similarly, in 2017, disability rights groups filed a class-action suit against the MTA because the subway in general was inaccessible, which violated both state and federal laws.
[91][68] The federal government sued the MTA in March 2018 over a lack of elevators at Middletown Road and the Enhanced Station Initiative stops.
Rather than renovate to meet ADA standards, ten low-floor stations, including the surviving five on the Lower Montauk Branch were closed in March 1998, due to low patronage, and incompatibility with then-new C3 bi-level coach cars that can only use high platforms.
All MTA buses and routes are wheelchair accessible, since all current fleet were built and entered service in the 2000s or later, after the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Drivers sometimes refused to pick up disabled passengers, or they did not carry keys for lift-equipped buses, or the lifts were operated improperly.
[127] As part of a disability-lawsuit agreement in June 1984, Governor Mario Cuomo agreed to equip 65% of MTA buses with wheelchair lifts.
At the time, despite having 1 million annual customers the program only had 300 vehicles and Access-A-Ride journeys often took several hours, while only twenty-six subway stations were ADA-accessible.
[137] Howard Roberts, a former high-ranking MTA official, was quoted as saying that "it probably has turned out to be … a hundred times more expensive to go with buses and paratransit than it would have been to bite the bullet and simply rehabilitate the stations and put elevators in.
[149] The MTA also added a hearing induction loop to the Bowling Green station, the first such installation in the subway system, during a pilot program in early 2020.
[151][152] To assist visually-impaired riders and those with limited English proficiency, the MTA began adding colorful QR codes outside selected subway stations in early 2024.
The following listing excludes stations that are already accessible but will receive ADA renovations anyway, including Forest Hills on the LIRR Main Line in Queens.
