Overview
- The MTA and a coalition of disability groups announced a settlement at an MTA board meeting on Wednesday that narrows the long-running 2017 lawsuit to outage transparency and maintenance standards and must be approved by a federal judge.
- Under the agreement the agency must maintain elevator availability above 95 percent and give advance public notice when elevators at stations with accessible entrances will be out of service.
- MTA officials say elevator reliability has improved to roughly 95 to 98 percent and the number of accessible subway stations has risen to about 160–161 from 112 in 2017.
- The pact also requires clearer rider information and operational steps such as new street-level signs, real-time updates on screens and apps, frequent platform announcements for long outages, and mandatory staff accessibility training.
- The settlement builds on earlier deals that set a goal of making nearly all subway and Staten Island Railway stations accessible by 2055 and is backed by more than $7 billion for station accessibility in the MTA’s 2025–2029 capital plan, with monitoring and enforcement to follow after court approval.