A historic and busy Bronx subway station is now fully accessible to all New Yorkers.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials opened on Wednesday the newly remodeled ADA-accessible Westchester Square–East Tremont Avenue station, home to the 6 train. The station, which is over 100 years old, is located at the corner of Lane and Westchester Avenues in Westchester Square.
The elevated station, located in a bustling hub where multiple bus lines converge, now has three new elevators and 12 new or refurbished stairways that MTA officials said were designed to facilitate easier and smoother traversing.
With nearly 4,000 New York straphangers using it daily, the 125-year-old station is the first in NYC to open as fully accessible in 2025.
“We’re picking up right where we left off before the new year in the mission to make the subway system fully accessible,” MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber said. “This is no easy task because our infrastructure is over 100 years old.”
Other station enhancements include new lighting, a fire alarm system, closed-circuit TVs for security and reconfigured fare arrays for improved passenger circulation.
The iconic station, which is on the U.S. Register of Historic Places, also boasts aesthetic improvements such as new tiling and facade work that is consistent with the prestigious listing.
Major infrastructure rehabilitation includes the replacement of structural steel, platforms and tracks.
Quemuel Arroyo, the MTA’s chief accessibility officer, said the new station will help New Yorkers with disabilities access jobs and schools and navigate the city with independence.
“Access to transportation is access to independence,” he said. “Today we celebrate this transit hub because, as we are seeing, three different lines of buses go through here and four other lines stop or end at this very terminal.“
But he added that accessible stations will not only help those with disabilities but seniors and parents who often have to carry large loads and packages.
“Accessibility is universal,” he said. “Not just for folks with disabilities like myself, but the parents, caregivers, the seniors who live in this area who have not been able to make these trips for so long, and others who have been, but will now be doing it with more ease and more frequently.”
The station’s $122.5 million makeover was 80% funded by the federal government. But, the MTA has said that 80% of congestion pricing revenue, equal to $7.20 of every $9 toll collected during peak hour in Manhattan, will go to capital improvements on NYC transit, which include accessibility projects like this one.
Although the agency made strides toward the end of 2024 in reconfiguring stations to be accessible, it still has a long way to go to meet a court-approved settlement ensuring that 95% of the city’s subway stations are made ADA-accessible by 2055.
Stations in NYC that were recently made fully accessible include Queensboro Plaza in Long Island City on Dec. 12 and the 14th Street Station Complex on Dec. 19.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson commended the MTA for its work on the project while highlighting the importance of elevators.
“The opening of the new elevators at Westchester Sq-E Tremont Avenue is a significant achievement that is part of a larger capital plan to ensure our subway stations are accessible for all New Yorkers commuting to their destination,” she said. “I want to thank the MTA and transit advocates for their work on this project and commitment to upgrading our city’s transit infrastructure.”
Read More: https://www.amny.com/nyc-transit/
