Second Ave. Sagas

Progress aboveground at 96th St.

Written by

Benjamin Kabak

in

A subway station house grows in Manhattan. (Photos by Marsha Berkowitz)

The 96th St. station on the West Side IRT is currently a mess. As part of an $80 million overhaul of this heavily-trafficked station, the MTA is constructing a brand new station house in the middle of Broadway close to 95th st.

This station will be one of the Stations of the Future the MTA has been promoting lately. It will be fully ADA-compliant and will eliminate the current design flaw that forces Upper West Siders to go down a flight of stairs, swipe through, go down another flight of stairs and then climb back up to the platform. On the inside, it will eventually look like this:

inside96st

For now, though, it is just a skeleton. A few months behind schedule, the new station house is slowly rising above Broadway. When I got word of the topping out of the new station, I sent Second Ave. Sagas’ Upper West Side correspondent — more affectionately known as my mom — to snap some pictures. The slideshow is below. One day — and according to my other UWS correspondent familiarly known as my dad, that day should be in September 2010 — that station with its new tiles and all will glimmer above Broadway.

Comments

11 responses to “Progress aboveground at 96th St.”

  1. maxtm » 96th Street Rising

    […] Second Ave Sagas has neat pictures of the reconstruction of my old home station, 96th Street on the 1/2/3. This is the last northbound transfer and first southbound transfer between the 1 local (Broadway) and the 2/3 express (Lenox Ave) and is very heavily trafficked. For a long time, it has been a dark dungeon of a station with numerous cracked/missing tiles and plenty of MTA-brand sludge dripping down the walls. […]

    Reply
  2. Alon Levy

    Meh. The station was fine before the reconstruction. Doesn’t the MTA have other projects to blow money on?

    Reply
    1. ChickenUnderwear

      Not so fine. I had to get home from there with a double stroller…. Two downs and an up.. Not so fine.

      Reply
      1. Benjamin Kabak

        There were a lot of “not so fine” aspects to the station. It needed an overhaul.

        And to address your question, Alon: The MTA is engaged in a system-wide ADA upgrade. This was part of it, and the agency decided to spend some more money to spruce up a station that needed it. Considering that $80 million is barely a drop in the SAS bucket, I’m okay with this project.

        Reply
      2. Chemster

        My sympathies on navigating that with the double stroller. But, you know, the 94th street entrance to that station is a more reasonable one — just one flight down to the turnstiles, then another down to the tracks. Still more than I’d want to do with a stroller, but worth a 4-block detour.

        Reply
    2. Marc Shepherd

      I agree with Ben. This is one of the least user-friendly stations in the system.

      Reply
  3. Cap’n Transit

    No complaints about the sidewalk nibbling?

    Reply
    1. Benjamin Kabak

      I’ve tackled that issue in the past. In a nutshell, I don’t see why they had to cut so much sidewalk space — and it really is a lot when you walk around up there. They should have just cut car space. It’s sadly too late for that now though.

      Reply
      1. Cap’n Transit

        Not really. They can always put the sidewalks back. It’s especially nuts when they’re adding so much pedestrian space to Broadway further downtown.

        Reply
  4. Streetsblog » Today’s Headlines

    […] 2nd Ave Sagas Has Pics of 96th St Subway Station, in Progress […]

    Reply
  5. Rising costs force changes at 96th St. :: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog

    […] last week, we took a look at the growing new stationhouse at 96th St. along the West Side IRT. Everything seemed to be moving […]

    Reply

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