Times Square subway station
© Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY NETWORK + © Robert Deutsch, USAT via Imagn Content Services, LLC
(New York, NY) — The MTA has quietly replaced benches at the West 4th Street subway station with leaning bars. It’s part of a pilot program to see if riders will mind if pricey benches are eventually yanked out of all 472 stations system wide. The much small compact leaning bars are much cheaper than replacing benches.
Riders at the Greenwich Village station have noticed that benches are gone, and many say they are not happy about it. They say the leaning bars are not a good replacement for a seat on the platform, especially while waiting for a train that’s late to the station.
The MTA also announced Wednesday that they will phase out MetroCards by the end of the year. The cards have been around since 1994. Riders will have to get onboard with the tap-and-go OMNY system that was introduced back in 2019. Right now around 70 percent of riders use OMNY on busses and subways.
