By james art The delay in adding seats for Long Island Rail Road riders in Grand Central Madison’s mezzanine may be the latest example of transit providers deliberately forgoing customer amenities to discourage homeless people from hanging out at stations. say experts.
But the MTA chief said it took 18 months to add the seats because the transit agency didn’t anticipate that so many LIRR riders would want more opportunities to get off their feet at the new station.
“We saw a need,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Jano Lieber said at a press conference at Grand Central on Monday. “We’ve put in some places to deal with that.”
The addition of 28 new seats at Grand Central Madison is the latest development to draw attention to the relative lack of seats at some new and recently renovated transit hubs serving Long Island commuters, including Penn Station and the adjacent Moynihan Hall.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Some riders and experts said they believe the omission of abundant seating at the LIRR’s Grand Central Madison Station and other new and recently renovated transit hubs was intended to deter homeless people.
- It took 18 months for the MTA to add Grand Central Madison mezzanine seating.
- MTA officials said 28 new benches were in response to higher than expected demand for places at the station.
Merrick passenger Kyle Bullock sitting on one of the new aluminum benches at Grand Central Madison On Monday afternoon, he said he was “really glad they’re here.” When he used to travel to and from Grand Central Madison, Bullock said he would have to “sit on the floor and just wait” for his train.
“You either stand and suffer,” said Bullock, who believes the shortage of seats at the LIRR’s new Manhattan terminal is by design. “I always assumed they were trying to keep the homeless away.”
Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University, thinks Bullock is on to something.
“The MTA realizes that their goal is to attract riders, not the homeless [people]Moss said in an interview Thursday. “So the lack of benches is an attempt to discourage the homeless, not necessarily to discourage riders. But that could be a side effect.
Asked if the additions were prompted by concerns about the homeless, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said in a statement: “Everything that we provide, whether it’s service levels or retail outlets or seating, is something that we review relative to demand. “
A welcome addition
Donovan added that the addition of the seats came after the MTA observed riders regularly sitting on the floor of Grand Central’s mezzanine level.
The new seating area, located near the escalators and stairs leading to the rail levels below 47th Street, was a welcome sight for Alison Krieger of Woodmere, who broke her right leg about a month ago and was “very” happy to be able to get off his feet as he waited for his train on Monday.
“It’s a nice addition,” said Krieger, who used to wait for her train in the station’s corridor-level waiting room — a long escalator ride from the mezzanine level — because it had the only seating area in the station. “Then you must hurry down.” So we better sit here than up there.
Alison Krieger of Woodmere is happy to be off her feet. Credit: Ed Quinn
In discussing why the MTA waited a year and a half before adding mezzanine-level benches, Lieber suggested the transit authority was caught off guard by the demand for seating.
“We saw more people than we expected in the planning process, crowds around the entrance, the escalators, directly onto the tracks,” Lieber said, adding that the new seats are “primarily for people with mobility issues.”
About 80,000 passengers travel through Grand Central Madison each day, roughly half of the 162,000 passengers the MTA recently projected in March 2020.
Asked if the MTA would add more seats at Grand Central Madison, Lieber said the agency would “see how they’re used and learn from that.” The new seating section is just one of eight stair/escalator landing areas leading to the track levels.
Michael Smart, associate professor in the Edward J. School of Planning and Public Policy. Bluestein, of Rutgers University, said he believes the lack of sufficient seating at Grand Central Madison — which was designed and built over nearly two decades — is not an oversight.
“It’s 100 percent the fact that the lack of space in the new facilities is because of the homeless,” said Smart, who has studied how transit agencies deal with homelessness in cities around the world. “The chief designers of the station … when they look at the question of balancing the comfort of passengers and the homeless people using the space, they immediately lean in the direction of not having seating.”
The picture in Moynihan, Penn
The lack of seating is even more dire at another new transit facility in Manhattan, Smart said. Opening in 2021, the $1.2 billion Moynihan Train Hall, serving Amtrak and LIRR trains, includes 225,000 square feet of space but very limited seating.
Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said in a statement that “there are seats available for customers” at Moynihan, including in the ticket lounge, dining hall and Metropolitan Lounge.
“Any additional opportunities to increase seating will have to go through Empire State Development,” the state agency that developed the facility, Abrams said.
Right next to Moynihan, the LIRR’s Penn Station concourse underwent a $700 million renovation, largely completed last year, that added much more room for standing passengers but not significantly more seating. There are two small waiting areas at the east and west ends of the station with seating for passengers presenting tickets.
“It’s so obvious. . . what it’s all about, and it’s such a disservice to existing passengers,” said Smart, who noted that ticket lounges such as those at Moynihan, Grand Central Madison and Penn Station are often far from where passengers typically congregate. near the gates leading to the runways. “We all want to have somewhere to sit while we wait for our train.”
Asked if the MTA would add more seats at Grand Central Madison, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said the agency would “see how they’re used and learn from that.” Credit: Ed Quinn
While he declined to speculate on the intent behind the abundance of seating outside the design of modern transit centers, David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, said there is no shortage of examples in transit centers of “hostile architecture” and restrictive regulations “aimed at to deter people who have nowhere else to go from being able to sit down and rest.” Among them: the 90-minute time limit for using Grand Central Madison’s new seats.
“It’s inhumane and insane,” Giffen said. “Transport facilities are supposed to be for the public and your status as a member of the public is not dependent on whether or not you own a home.”
Instead of “creating spaces that are unfriendly to everyone,” including commuters who want to get loaded, Giffen said, public planners should focus on “creating enough affordable housing” for the 350,000 New Yorkers without homes .
Moss, the New York University planner, said the city’s transportation system is especially attractive to homeless people, especially during cold weather. Their presence, Moss said, can contribute to the perception of an unsafe climate for travelers.
“You don’t have to be a victim of a crime to feel that the stations are unsafe,” Moss said. “The homeless and the emotionally challenged. . . heightens feelings of uncertainty about safety. And that is why they are a serious problem.”
Alfonso Castillo has been a reporter for Newsday since 1999 and has covered the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.