MTA to build elevator at Bay Ridge’s 86th St. station

September 9, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Plans for the construction of a street-level elevator to accommodate subway riders seeking access to the underground R train station at 86th Street are included in the MTA’s 2015-2019 Capital Plan. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning to construct an elevator at the R train station at 86th Street in Bay Ridge, a move being hailed by local officials.

The elevator, which will likely be installed next to the subway station entrance located on the southeast corner of 86th Street and Fourth Avenue, will take passengers from the street to the mezzanine level of the underground subway station, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials. A second elevator will take riders from the mezzanine to the train platform.

No date has been set for the start of construction of the elevator, but Melissa Farley, assistant director of government and community relations for MTA New York City Transit, told Community Board 10’s Traffic and Transportation Committee at a meeting on Sept. 3 that the 86th Street elevator is included in the MTA’s 2015-2019 Capital Plan.

The Capital Plan, which is issued in five-year increments, lists all of the major construction projects the MTA is undertaking.

The first step, according to Farley, is to take a close look at the street and the infrastructure. “We have to look at what utilities are there,” she said, referring to any electrical wires, gas mains and other equipment that might be stored underground at that location.

“Some reconfiguration will probably have to be done,” Farley told the committee at the meeting, which took place at the community board’s office at 8119 Fifth Ave. The new elevator is “going to change the streetscape,” she said.

The 86th Street station elevator would be the first one constructed in an R train station in Bay Ridge.

More than a dozen subway stations in Brooklyn are currently equipped with elevators, including: Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center, Bay Parkway (D line), Borough Hall (2,3,4,5 lines), Church Avenue, Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue, Utica Avenue (2,3,4,5 lines), DeKalb Avenue, Euclid Avenue, Flatbush Avenue-Brooklyn College, Flushing Avenue, Franklin Avenue-Fulton Street, Jay Street-Metrotech, Kings Highway (B, Q lines), Marcy Avenue, Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues and Utica Avenue (A, C lines).

State Sen. Marty Golden, who said he has been a long-time advocate for elevator service at the 86th Street station in Bay Ridge, predicted that the elevator will be a godsend to senior citizens and the physically disabled who have difficulty navigating subway stairs.

Bay Ridge is a neighborhood with a large population of senior citizens, Golden (R-C-Bay Ridge-southwest Brooklyn) said. “With a community with a large concentration of senior citizens, and for those with disabilities, it makes perfect sense to provide elevator access to our trains,” he said.