Take the P Train! Bathrooms will reopen at 12 more subway stations in May

Subway riders can expect some relief in the coming months, with bathrooms at 12 more stations set to reopen in May after being shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcement by New York City Transit president Rich Davey on Wednesday means that straphangers can even expect to flush toilets once again at Flushing-Main Street, plus 11 other less appropriately named stops, starting May 2.

The bathrooms at the 12 stations, one men’s and one women’s room at each, join those at nine other stations that have reopened since the pandemic. They represent just 30 percent of the bathrooms at 69 stations that were open prior to the pandemic. The MTA shut them down as a means to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The first nine stations to reopen came online in January and have been heavily used since. The “flush counter” tracking usage at those stations has recorded over 35,000 flushes since they reopened.

Take the P Train! Bathrooms will reopen at 12 more subway stations in May 4 — The “gleaming” reopened bathroom at 14th Street-Union Square on March 8, 2023.Marc A. Hermann / MTA

“Our customers are clearly using these facilities and amenities,” said Davey. “And that’s why we’re gonna open this new tranche.”

The bathrooms will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a one-hour cleaning window from noon to 1 p.m. The lavatories have undergone a revamp, getting new motion-activated faucets, new hand dryers and new “privacy panels.”

Davey said that the agency is pursuing a “phased” reopening of bathrooms instead of doing it all at once due in part to a shortage of available cleaners. The agency is currently onboarding about 50 cleaners per month, he said, with a goal of hiring about 550 end-of-line cleaners and 270 station cleaners.

Davey said hiring the cleaners in-house, instead of contracting to the private sector, will save money in the long-term, and the financial benefits are included as part of the $400 million in “efficiency” savings that make up part of Governor Kathy Hochul’s MTA rescue plan.

Also complicating a full reopening is the poor condition that some of the shuttered bathrooms are in.

“A number of the bathrooms are in just bad shape,” Davey said. “So, we do not want to open up facilities that are otherwise discouraging our customers from using them. So we have some work to do. Some require some significant capital investment as well, and so we’re going through in that regard.”

Take the P Train! Bathrooms will reopen at 12 more subway stations in May 5 — New York City Transit president Rich Davey on March 8, 2023.Photo by Ben Brachfeld

Even before the pandemic, bathrooms were only at about 15% of the system; on Wednesday, Davey said there were no plans to build new bathrooms at stations currently without them.

Of the 35,000 flushes recorded since January, men’s rooms have apparently recorded more than three times as many as women’s rooms, Davey said, with 27,000 and 8,400 flushes respectively.

“I don’t know if that says we’re poor planners or we have smaller bladders,” Davey said.

By May 2, commuters can expect relief once again at the following stations:

BRONX