MTA commits to make 95% of NYC subway stations accessible with elevators and ramps over next 40 years

MTA officials on Tuesday announced a decades-long commitment to make 95% of the city's subway system accessible to New Yorkers with disabilities, who are all but shut out from the vast majority of the city's aging subway system.

Just 126 -- or about 27% 472 subway stations are currently wheelchair-accessible, and regular breakdowns of elevators makes the system even more difficult to navigate for those with mobility issues.

The commitment to build more ramps and elevators comes through a settlement to a pair of lawsuits filed by disability advocates against the transit agency that claim officials continue to violate state and federal law by running a subway system that locks out wheelchair users.

The agreement requires the MTA to ink contracts to build ramps and elevators at 81 stations on the subway and Staten Island Railway by 2025; another 85 by 2035; 90 more by 2045 and another 90 by 2055. It's unclear how long it will take to construct all of the accessibility features after the contracts are issued.

"We need to make a system that is truly accessible for not only our disabled people, but also for older people with mobility issues and that burgeoning population of New Yorkers who are racing around with strollers," MTA chairman Janno Lieber said during an event Wednesday.

The deal ends a years-long legal battle fought by disability advocates in court over the MTA's historically sluggish approach to accessibility.

One lawsuit settled this week claims the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is in violation of New York City's Human Rights Law by not having enough accessible stations. Another argues the agency regularly violates the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991 by doing construction at stations without also building ramps and elevators.

The MTA still faces a lawsuit from advocates surrounding maintenance of subway elevators, which regularly break down or close for repairs with little notice to riders who rely on them.

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