MTA To Start WaHi Project Without Extra Shuttles Requested By CB

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — The MTA will stick with its original schedule for shuttles during year-long construction at the 191st Street subway station despite pleas from local officials who said there would be an "emergency" with overcrowding if extra buses weren't added.

The transit agency sent out details Monday about the shuttle bus service that will help Washington Heights residents get around during the project, which will replace an elevator at the 191st Street stop, the deepest staton in the city's subway system.

But the shuttle plan was still the every-20-minute schedule the transit officials had laid out earlier in the year that Community Board 12's then-Chair Richard Lewis called a "failure."

"We need to think this plan in terms of an evacuation mode where the maximum individuals are transported in minimum time. It will be an emergency if things do not change," Lewis wrote in a letter to the MTA, where he begged for more shuttles to be added during the construction project.

Lewis worried that the 20 minute wait for a shuttle would lead to overcrowding on buses, according to the community board's letter.

Board and community members are also concerned with the MTA's plan to not run any shuttle service after 10 p.m., Lewis said.

The shuttle plan will include a free bus called the M191 that will run every 20 minutes from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., except on Sundays when it will run every 20 minutes between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The project is scheduled to start just after midnight on Feb. 1 and will not be done until February 2021, officials said. Elevators will be out of service for the entire project.

1 trains will still stop at the 191st Street station and can be accessed through the tunnel at 190th Street and Broadway, transit officials said. Straphangers can also catch the M3 bus or the shuttle at 191st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue to be brought to the 181st Street 1 station.

Once the construction is done, the station will have new elevators and upgraded communications, security and fire alarm systems, officials said. The project is one of five elevator replacements at Uptown subway stations the MTA hopes to complete by 2022.

The stations include: The West 168th Street 1 station, the 191st Street 1 station, the 190th Street A station, the 181st Street 1 station and the 181st Street A station.

The West 168th Street 1 station projectrecently wrapped up ahead of schedule.