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MTA board to vote on 90-minute bench limits at Grand Central Madison
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Mar 27, 2023
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By
Catalina Gonella
Published Mar 27, 2023
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Commuters and visitors lucky enough to find a bench at the recently opened Grand Central Madison station will only get to sit down for an hour-and-a-half.
The MTA board will vote Wednesday on a set of rules of conduct for Grand Central Madison Terminal — including one that would limit the amount of time commuters can sit on benches to 90 minutes. People will also not be allowed to lie down on the benches or anywhere on the station, so as to not “block free movement of another person,” or sit on the platforms, stairs, tables, counters or landings.
The rules of conduct will be adopted by the Grand Central Madison Concourse Operating Company, a small MTA subagency established to run the new terminal. The station first opened in January after years of construction delays and $11.6 billion dollars spent.
MTA officials said the 90-minute rule is only a continuation of an old policy that's existed at Grand Central for years.
“This is an existing rule for Grand Central Terminal that was adopted for the Grand Central Madison Rules of Conduct to ensure there is one set of rules for one building,” MTA Spokesperson Michael Cortez said. “A customer should not have to wait more than 90 minutes to catch their train, barring a significant service disruption.”
But advocates said the rules are aimed at the homeless population in New York, rather than transit riders. Measures include a formal ban on defecating in the station outside of toilets, and a ban on carts larger than 30 inches. The MTA in 2020 formally banned large carts on the subways after train operator Garrett Goble was killed in a fire started by a homeless man who entered a 2 train with a cart full of accelerants.
“The rules are clearly aimed at homeless New Yorkers, there's no question about it,” said Dave Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless. “Sitting on a bench when you're tired is a pretty simple ask and putting rules in place that are designed specifically to keep people who have no place else to go from sitting down and resting is just cruel and inhumane.”
Riders Alliance Policy and Communications Director Danny Pearlstein said the rule is far from addressing the root cause of the issue.
“The MTA is struggling with a crisis that's not of its own making. That's a housing crisis, but in some ways, in some cases, a mental health crisis or an addiction crisis,” Pearlstein said. “It's far from addressed with a rule that says you can't be somewhere for more than 90 minutes.”
The rules come after riders and advocates expressed dismay over the lack of seating options at midtown's new Moynihan train station, which opened to the public in 2020, as well as in the midst of a housing crisis,
Some lawmakers had similar complaints about Moynihan Train Hall, which opened in 2020 in Midtown. City, federal and state officials called on the MTA and Amtrak to install benches there after its opening, arguing there were not enough places for people to sit outside of a waiting area for passengers with tickets. They penned a letter to the MTA acknowledging the unstated reason that the lack of benches may be to prevent homeless people from spending time there.
“We are aware that a number of unhoused individuals frequent this neighborhood, which might cause some concerns,” the legislators said in the letter. “This is a valid issue that should be addressed with services and outreach, instead of an exclusionary design plan that punishes transit users."
Clayton Guse and Stephen Nessen contributed reporting.
Tagged
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transportation
Catalina Gonella
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