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One of the Bronx's oldest subway stations gets a $123M makeover after years of delays
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Jul 6, 2026
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Ramsey Khalifeh / Gothamist
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Jul 6, 2026
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The MTA is wrapping up a $123 million upgrade to one of the Bronx's oldest subway stations.
The project — which faced nearly three years of delays — added elevators and restored the 120-year-old headhouse at the 149th Street-Grand Concourse station.
When it opened in 1905, the station was called Mott Avenue after a street that no longer exists. The original station had elevators, but they were removed in the 1970s and it’s remained inaccessible to wheelchair users ever since.
The station grew dilapidated over the decades. Nearby residents are receiving the MTA’s project to restore the mosaic tiling and brick on the station’s headhouse as a long-overdue investment in the South Bronx’s aging transit infrastructure.
“When I look at it, the Bronx should’ve been fixed up a long time ago,” 72-year-old Johnny Chisholm said. “Downtown, they keep it cleaner because that's where all the tourists come. The tourists don’t come into the Bronx.”
The MTA agrees the project is overdue. The work began in 2021, and the agency plans to open the new elevators later this summer. But a consultant report published by the agency in June said construction was 32 months behind schedule, and blamed the delays on their “contractor’s inability to effectively manage, plan, resource, coordinate, and recover the work.”
The Mott Avenue station, now called 149th Street-Grand Concourse, had elevators until the 1970s.
Courtesy Library of Congress
"Bronx riders have every reason to be excited about the improvements coming to 149th Street-Grand Concourse,” MTA spokesperson Michael Cortez wrote in a statement. “While the project has been delayed by contractor performance issues, the MTA is working around the clock to bring it to completion and deliver a fully accessible station while restoring one of the subway system's historic station houses."
Last week, contractors were cleaning up the restored headhouse and adding the finishing touches to its facade.
Chisholm said the station crumbled for decades while the surrounding neighborhood evolved. He pointed to a strip of restaurants on the Grand Concourse that replaced a gas station, and to a bridge crossing the Harlem River where the old Bronx Market used to be before it was replaced by a larger shopping complex in 2009.
Locals said the project would be welcome news for elderly and disabled people in the South Bronx who have long struggled to climb the station’s stairs. The new elevators, which were built inside the old headhouse, are among dozens of accessibility projects the MTA has completed in recent years. The transit agency settled a lawsuit in 2022 by agreeing to make 95% of the city’s subway stations accessible to people with disabilities by 2055.
Zamora Davila, another longtime Bronx resident, said she was happy to see the old headhouse be repurposed.
“It's about time. It's been like that for so long. I never thought it would be in use,” she said.
Tagged
bronx
new york city
transportation
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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