Straphangers Praise Brooklyn Station Makeover
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Subway riders usually have little good to say about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but this was not the situation along one D line station in Brooklyn on Thursday, where straphangers were singing the authority's praises. NY1’s Tina Redwine filed the following report.Riders showered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority with kudos on Thursday at the Bay Parkway station in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
It's one of seven stations at the end of the D line in Brooklyn that the MTA rehabilitated.
“It's fabulous,” said one passenger.
The authority installed new lighting, windows, platform edges and pay areas. But the biggest draw at Bay Parkway was the elevators.
They help make the 78th Street station comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Many other riders were also grateful.
“I don't have to carry my baby up and down the stairs anymore. Thank god, it's a blessing,” said a rider.
For the first time, the MTA has installed speakers on the uncovered portions of an outdoor platform. Passengers who like to stand in those portions said it is a relief to finally hear the announcements.
“Sometimes you're waiting for at least like 20 minutes and then later on you find out that there's no train,” said a straphanger.
Passengers had to put up with service disruptions from time to time over the past three years to allow for the work. Thomas Prendergast, the president of New York City Transit, thanked riders for their patience.
“Anything you do when you are operating a system 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it's difficult. When you're doing it right in the heart of a community it's difficult, and of course this station is over a major intersection,” he said.
Now one rider wants his Bushwick station to get the same treatment.
“I think Central Avenue, where I live at, should be much cleaner like this train station,” he said.
The MTA used federal stimulus money to pay for the $88 million rehab.
Unless there are more changes on the way or the state gives the MTA more funding, many of these upgrades won’t be seen as quickly as the authority and passengers would like.