Still Want That Discount?

MTA riders are going to be getting a discount come December's holiday season. Reduced fares and extended run monthly tickets. That costs $50 million this year. Yet, many stations that were supposed to have elevator and escalator repairs and replacements are still not completed. In other words, disabled riders can't fully utilize the system because of cost overruns and other problems.

The authority has promised to make 67 "key stations," as determined by ridership, accessible by 2010, and 100 by 2020. Currently, of the 468 subway stations, only 60 are accessible, including 45 key stations.

Mishaps in transit-construction projects are nothing new, but elevator and escalator projects are a sensitive legal area because of the requirements imposed by the Americans With Disabilities Act.

At West Fourth Street, a busy transfer point in Greenwich Village, three new elevators opened in April, more than a year behind schedule.

They broke down repeatedly, and this month they were closed, a development first reported last week by WCBS-TV.

Yesterday, two subway riders who use wheelchairs, Michael A. Harris and Edith M. Prentiss, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan, accusing the authority of violating their rights under the disabilities act by failing to repair and reopen the elevators.

So, what could that $50 million do? How about make needed repairs to those subway stations so that riders can benefit from the escalators and elevators that were put in but broke down.

The $50 million was supposed to be a 'gift' to the riders, but this 'gift' is going to cost far more than it's worth.