By Gus Saltonstall
The 79th Street subway station’s downtown platform was shuttered for the month of February due to renovation work. Now, the uptown side of the station will be out of service during March.
Uptown 1 trains and local 2 trains will skip the West 79th Street and Broadway stop from March 4 through “late March,” the MTA recently announced. Crews will be performing “structural maintenance” work during the period.
For commuters trying to get near 79th Street, the MTA suggests taking a train to 96th Street, before transferring to a downtown 1 train.
The 79th Street downtown station reopened in March, as the MTA’s planned service changes page no longer lists the stop among its suspended service section.
Elsewhere, uptown 1 trains and local 2 trains will also skip the 50th Street station beginning on March 4 through the end of the month.
The 79th Street subway station opened in 1904 as one of the original 28 New York City subway stops.
You can find out more — HERE.
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That corner is cursed.
Gus – Are they going to install the walls along the platform edges to protect riders and staff from falling, or jumping or being pushed on to the tracks in front of a train? See: https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2017/09/26/the-case-of-the-missing-platform-doors/ The original invention dates to like 1913 I believe. I’ve written about this in comments to the WSR before but not for quite a while. We sure do need them. Stay safe.
I have found that standing away from the edge, being aware of my surroundings (no headphones), and not staring at my phone has helped me avoid falling or getting pushed on the tracks. If someone wants to jump, they’re gonna jump.
The IRT lines have some of the worst clearances for platform doors. In many cases it would make the platforms even less ADA compliant. The best bet for platform doors are on the BMT & IND lines. They were built later with lots more room.
My Lord. I have doctors on 68th and York and the other on 25th and First. So to get downtown I had to go uptown to 96th for one to go to Times Square to take the downtown local to 23rd where the crosstown bus ticket kiosk stripped my easy pass and I had to take a chance and just jump on the bus to go west to get a temporary (which I had to load even though I have auto pay) at 23rd station (thankful that it happens to be a stop with an attendant that informed me that the self ticket machines for crosstown often wipe metro cards).
So now I’m buying a regular metro card even though I’m a senior citizen and will be paying twice as much as I should have to because I don’t want to be stranded again with a stripped card and can at least get another senior temporary.
For the doctor on 68th and York, I took a downtown bus to get to the crosstown bus. At least I didn’t have to use a ticket machine. One hour trips because one and a half.
I leave it to the imagination how it works in reverse this month.
It would be easier to swallow if I didn’t believe with all my heart that the construction is taking at least twice as long as it ought. I’m aging in dog years.
You should contact the MTA about your issues with your reduced fare card. They are responsive and helpful. https://new.mta.info/contact-us
And once you have your new reduced fare card, you really need to switch over to the OMNY system. The metro cards will be phased out soon.
https://new.mta.info/fares/reduced-fare/omny
good luck!
I’ve never heard of the machines stripping Easy Pass before. In any case you should still be able to use the smaller kiosk at the stops to pay half fare. Also, most stations have temporary senior cards. I hope you get it worked out.
Why not start earlier, take the crosstown to 2nd ave. and take the 2nd Ave. bus down, OR, take a bus to 72nd St. and transfer to the 72nd st. crosstown which goes to New York Hospital on 68th.
I was looking at the downtown 79th St. stop when we went by earlier this week and I’m not a construction expert but I have a hard time believing they will be done by Monday – seems like they were working hard but there is a lot left to do with whatever they are doing. One would assume that they won’t start the uptown work until downtown is done.
People are always going to whine about something. Once in a while they have to do repairs. That’s life. Sorry for the inconvenience. It could be a lot worse.
That being said, as someone whose stop is 86th, this has selfishly been great – speeds up my trips by skipping a stop!
Please renovate, clean, and paint the 79th Street and 50th Street stations.
And install elevators. We need elevators at those stations (and 86th Street as well). All we have are the ones at 96th Street and 72nd Street.
And 96th.