Subway upgrades that stalled for nearly a year and a half at five stops in The Bronx and Upper Manhattan are finally advancing after the federal government agreed to release more than $150 million that had been secured for the MTA in 2024.
The 16-month delay in turning loose $156.5 million from the federal All Stations Accessibility Program — or ASAP — marked another transit-funding dustup between the Trump administration and New York, this one centered on the MTA’s efforts to add elevators to the subway system.
The federal government last month restored roughly $60 million in funding for the next phase of the Second Avenue Subway after the MTA filed a lawsuit accusing the feds of withholding contractually obligated money for the extension of the Q line to East Harlem.
The Trump administration was also hit with lawsuits in February over funding for Gateway, the $16 billion set of rail improvements on both sides of the Hudson River that includes construction of a new tunnel in the river.
“Why, why, why are these delays happening?” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. “There’s just no real need except for political posturing.”
While detailing the latest development on the Bronx and Manhattan accessibility projects at the transportation authority’s board meeting last week, Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and chief executive, billed the feds’ release of the $156.5 million as “some good news from Washington — words you have not often heard me utter.”
“The grant stalled when the new administration took over,” Lieber said. “So as you can imagine, we are thrilled that all this funding has been released, so that we can start putting that money to work.”
The funding had been granted to the MTA under the Biden administration, with Sen. Chuck Schumer and House representatives Adriano Espaillat and Ritchie Torres announcing in May 2024 that the money would lead to Bronx upgrades at the 167th Street stop on the B and D lines, the Kingsbridge Road station on the No. 4 line and the No. 2 line’s Wakefield-241st Street terminal.
It would also help pay for improvements in Manhattan at the 145th Street station on the A, B, C and D lines and the Cathedral Parkway-110th Street stop along the No. 1 line.
“If we had an elevator here, I wouldn’t have to have somebody help me when I’m standing outside the station saying I need help,” said 76-year Joan Graham, after a man with a cane carried her rolling cart up the stairs to the southbound platform at Kingsbridge Road. “So we need an elevator here.”
The ‘All Stations’ program was established in 2021 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and is designed to help fund station retrofits in order to bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The federal law requires public transportation to be fully accessible to people with disabilities.
Senators Kristen Gillibrand and Schumer, along with Bronx representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Torres and Espaillat, charged in a May 1 letter to Sean Duffy, the federal transportation secretary, that the MTA was the only recipient of 2024 ASAP funds that were still under review — and therefore held up — “with no indication as to why.”
“Ours was held in the secretary’s office, that’s what we were told, it was not moving,” Lieber said. “Every other grant in that category, the ASAP program, was moved along to the next phase and delivered on — that grant alone was being held.”
After publication of this article, an unnamed spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation said in an emailed statement that the project had been “under administrative review to ensure alignment with the current administration’s priorities.”
The planned work at the five Bronx and Manhattan stations is part of the MTA’s nearly $70 billion capital plan for 2025-2029, which calls for at least 60 more stations to come into compliance with federal ADA law. The accelerated rollout of transit elevator projects comes as the MTA faces a court-mandated deadline to make 95% of all subway and Staten Island Railway stations accessible by 2055.
Of those 493 stations, 158 are now fully accessible according to the MTA, with 43 projects to add elevators or ramps completed since 2020.
The renovations at Kingsbridge Road and 167th Street are expected to be completed by the summer of 2028, according to the MTA, with work on the three other stations projected to start by the end of this year.
After a stranger helped carry her 3-month son’s stroller to a platform level at the elevated Kingsbridge Road stop, Kadiga Diallo said she looks forward to eventually using the elevators that are planned for the station.
“It’s very hard at those stations that don’t have elevators,” she said.
Kat Mon was out of breath after carrying her cat’s stroller up the stairs.
“Some of us do carry carts, some of us do have pets to take to appointments,” she said. “So not having to take the stairs will make things so much easier.”
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