Wednesday, February 13, 2008

MTA Trying To Escape Blame For Dilapidated Subway Platforms

After Avi Katz fell into the subway tracks from a platform board in disrepair, AM New York investigated several platforms around the city, finding many in a sorry state. Being good journalists they took comments from the MTA and not so slyly blamed straphangers for their mishaps. Is that what we pay our $76 $81 a month for?

From AM New York:


Broken, rickety or partially missing portions of wooden boards at the end of subway platforms exist throughout the city's underground system, posing potential safety hazards to riders.

At each of the nine random stations amNewYork examined in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, wooden edges -- or rubbing boards -- were found to be at various stages of disrepair. Five underground stations on the No. 6 line in the Bronx, for example, have loose and rotted boards, some with portions missing or hanging by a nail.

The danger of unstable boards was highlighted by the fall of Brooklyn teenager Avi Katz, who said that he was bruised and nearly hit by a Q train when a 10-inch wooden board at the Kings Highway station gave way under his footing, sending him onto the tracks.

Those are the facts ladies and gentlemen, this is the spin:

Riders are warned against standing on or near the platform edge for their own safety, said transit spokesman, Paul Fleuranges. It is unclear how many wooden boards are in the system and when all aging boards will be replaced. Fleuranges said typically, they are replaced when stations are made handicapped accessible, when stations are rehabbed once every several years or when specific work orders are submitted.

"If a platform edge rubbing board is found to be in disrepair, it is replaced," Fleuranges said.

Now we as straphangers know that these boards are not replaced promptly, if at all. This is especially so if these stations happen to be outside of Manhattan....surprise, surprise. If the MTA truly cared they would fix those almost instantaneously and check boards frequently. With that massive budget and the millions and billions more that they pull out of riders' pockets, safety should looked after tenaciously. Dependable service is a joke, and today will be full of delays with the rain.....but safety needs to come first, no matter what. Instead of quick solutions the MTA blames passengers for their mishaps.

Pathetic. Truly pathetic.