The Justice Department has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the MTA for allegedly violating federal laws meant to help wheelchair-bound commuters get around underground, The Post has learned.
The probe is eyeing the constant breakdown of elevators used by disabled subway riders, delays in repairing them, and the renovation of at least one station that could have been made handicapped-accessible but wasn’t, a source said.
“There are too many examples when the MTA does not comply with the ADA [the Americans with Disabilities Act],” said City Councilman John Liu (D-Queens).
“I’m very happy that they are doing something about it,” said Liu, who chairs the council’s Transportation Committee, which last month held hearings re-exposing the long-running problem.
News of the probe comes at an awkward time for Howard Roberts Jr., the new NYC Transit president. He is reportedly well-liked by advocates and has even agreed to go undercover with a wheelchair-bound commuter at some point to see the problems firsthand.
NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said he couldn’t comment on the probe and insisted that under Roberts, NYC Transit has adopted a new preventative tactic to examine and tune up elevators before they break down.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, which is investigating, declined to comment.
Advocates for the handicapped complain that they have been forced to resort to demonstrations and lawsuits for decades to make the MTA cough up millions of dollars just to make 58 of its 468 stations handicapped-accessible – and yet, wheelchair-bound riders still face obstacles.
For example, Michael Harris, the founder of the Disabled Riders Coalition, said 22 subway-access elevators across the city weren’t working last Tuesday.
“At least, it would be reasonable that they maintain the elevators that they already have,” he said.
An August 2006 investigation by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer showed that two elevators at the West Fourth Street station remained out of service for more than 100 days. To his knowledge, nothing has changed since his report was released.
“I’m hoping, with the new regime, there will be a fresh look at the elevator-repair problem and how people have trouble navigating through the system,” he said.
Fleuranges blamed the repair delays on unavailable parts, which are ordered from vendors.
Critics claim that the maintenance demands will probably increase tenfold in 2020, when NYC Transit hopes to have 100 stations accessible to people with disabilities.
Some strides have been made, including last week’s widening of a passageway at a 4/5 platform in Brooklyn’s busy Atlantic Avenue station to finally allow wheelchair access to an elevator that had been installed there three years ago, the Disabled Riders Coalition said in a press release issued yesterday.
But one wheelchair-bound rider, who was recently unable to get on a train at the 125th Street station at Lexington Avenue because of an elevator that’s been broken for four weeks, mumbled, “I just take the bus, man.”
Harris said the Lexington Avenue situation is outrageous.
“We feel there’s no excuse for an elevator to be out of service for more than seven days,” he said. “Anything over a week is inexcusable.”