{"id":137384,"date":"2025-08-11T16:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T16:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/137384\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T16:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T16:34:14","slug":"elevators-are-finally-coming-to-nycs-tallest-subway-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/137384\/","title":{"rendered":"Elevators Are Finally Coming to NYC\u2019s Tallest Subway Station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve ever trudged up to the Smith\u20139th Streets station in Gowanus, Brooklyn, you know it\u2019s not for the faint of heart\u2014or the bad of knees. Perched nearly 90 feet above street level, the city\u2019s tallest subway stop (and one of the tallest in the world) offers sweeping skyline views and a daunting staircase workout. Now, after 92 years of vertiginous climbs, the MTA says relief is on the way: Elevators are coming.<\/p>\n<p>The upgrade, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nysenate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2025\/andrew-gounardes\/sen-gounardes-am-simon-mta-announce-elevator-access\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced on August 8<\/a> by State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon and the MTA, is part of the agency\u2019s $68.4 billion 2025\u20132029 Capital Plan. More than 60 subway stations are slated for accessibility improvements, including Brooklyn\u2019s Court Street, Hoyt\u2013Schermerhorn, 36th Street and 4th Avenue\u20139th Street.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RECOMMENDED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/news\/commutes-along-the-4-5-and-6-trains-are-about-to-get-messy-next-week-heres-what-to-know-080725\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Commutes along the 4, 5 and 6 trains are about to get messy\u00a0this week\u2014here&#8217;s what to know<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery day, New Yorkers hike the stairs up this station like they\u2019re climbing Mount Everest, struggling to catch the train on time,\u201d Gounardes said. \u201cWith elevators coming to the Smith\u20139th Street station, that\u2019s finally going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The station, which serves the F and G lines, opened in 1933 and has never had elevators\u2014just escalators with a \u201clong history\u201d of breaking down, as Simon put it. That\u2019s meant decades of headaches for wheelchair users, parents with strollers, travelers lugging suitcases and anyone who finds the daily climb more punishment than cardio.<\/p>\n<p>The MTA hasn\u2019t given a completion date yet, but officials say the work will push the subway system past 50-percent accessibility. It\u2019s also a step toward meeting a court-ordered settlement requiring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/newyork\/news\/a-dozen-nyc-subway-stations-are-about-to-get-new-accessibility-upgrades-says-mta-072525\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">95-percent of stations to be ADA-accessible by 2055<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo station better demonstrates the need for accessibility than Smith\u20139th Street, the highest point in the entire subway system,\u201d said Quemuel Arroyo, the MTA\u2019s chief accessibility officer. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to start work there and throughout the borough soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For riders, that means the city\u2019s most sky-high commute will finally be an option for everyone, not just the stair-sturdy and escalator-lucky. Until then, you can still enjoy the panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline from the platform, just make sure to leave a few extra minutes for the climb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve ever trudged up to the Smith\u20139th Streets station in Gowanus, Brooklyn, you know it\u2019s not for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":137385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,11234,405,403,11235,5226,5225,5228,5227,1164,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-137384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-categories-travel","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-news-transport-travel","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-travel","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115011103418768654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}