New Elevators at Brooklyn Subway Station Experience Problems

A trio of new elevators at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Clark Street subway station in Brooklyn Heights, NYC, experienced at least 35 non-scheduled outages and 11 instances of entrapment between when the nearly US$30-million project was completed in May 2022 and the end of the year, The City is among outlets to report. One instance in mid-January involved firefighters releasing 21 passengers and one dog who had been trapped for approximately 30 min. That elevator has experienced one entrapment and six non-scheduled outages since May, while the other two have 10 instances of entrapment and 23 non-scheduled outages combined. Part of a larger, US$61-million project, the new elevators at Clark Street are the only way passengers can get to and from a mezzanine level with stairs that connect to a train platform. MTA attributed the January entrapment to the elevator’s mechanism that prevents doors from opening between landings. On the upside, Davey said, the nearly 300 elevators operated by NYC Transit have enjoyed a nearly 99% availability rates in recent months.