137 St-City College 1 train station is now fully accessible after two new elevators open

Riders who use a wheelchair, push a stroller or can't manage stairs can now use the 137 St-City College station on the 1 line in both directions. The MTA showed off two new street-level elevators at the West Harlem stop on Wednesday, one serving the northbound platform and one the southbound side.

With them, the station is now compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, amNY reported. The MTA said on social media that the two elevators made the station "fully accessible."

What changed at the station

Beyond the elevators, the MTA made both platforms fully accessible instead of limiting step-free boarding to marked sections, and installed tactile edge strips for blind and low-vision riders who use canes, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said, according to amNY. Crews also put in new accessible fare arrays, widened stairways and replaced electrical and ventilation systems, along with ceiling repairs. Lieber said the remaining blue plywood construction barriers inside the station should come down within about a week, after weekend work to finish the ceiling.

The stop opened in 1904 as part of the original stretch of the Interborough Rapid Transit subway and is the home station for CUNY's City College. amNY reported it serves about 9,400 riders a day. "Folks back then, I'm not surprising you, were not thinking about accessibility when they designed this great system," Lieber said.

For MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo, who uses a wheelchair and calls 137th Street his home station, the project was personal. He said he had not been able to see the inside of the station for 19 years. Before the elevators, his trip downtown took two buses and a train, the MTA said; now it is an elevator and the 1.

The bigger picture

The MTA says it has installed elevators at 49 stations over the past six years, has 34 more under construction and has funded another 60 in its $68 billion 2025–2029 capital plan. By the end of that plan, the agency says, 75% of subway ridership will be served by accessible stations, amNY reported. The push follows the class-action settlement with disability-rights advocates that set a path to make most of the system accessible.

Lieber said the 137th Street work and upgrades at three other stations were paid for with federal money, but warned that future projects are at risk. He said the federal grant category meant for accessibility projects is being "radically underspent," with only about 30% to 40% of the available money awarded, so some projects the MTA applied for will not be funded. He also repeated warnings that a surface transportation bill moving in Congress could cut the formula funding the MTA relies on.

Riders can check elevator outages before a trip on the MTA's elevator and escalator status page.