Amid NYC crime wave, doors put on some subway platforms to keep riders from being pushed on tracks

Amid a crime wave in New York City, including five people last month being pushed onto subway tracks, officials have installed doors on some waiting platform to protect passengers.

The doors, at three stations, will create a barrier between the platform and the track to prevent people from falling or being pushed onto the tracks.

The announcement of the plan Wednesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority follows a major uptick in violence at subway stations across the city, including a woman being killed last month when a homeless, mentally ill man pushed her in front of an oncoming train.

During the first six months of 2021, 47 people died after getting struck by a train, according to the MTA.

Officials acknowledge the difficulties facing the program, considering its cost and how it can be integrated into the aging and busiest subway system in the country, with pre-pandemic numbers reaching nearly 6 million rides a day.

"It's going to take a while, and we're going to have to put the money together, which is a little complicated," said Janno Lieber, the MTA's chairman and CEO. "But our goal is to try out these technologies at different places in the system."

The pilot program will reportedly cost over $100 million and likely will not be fully ready until 2024.

The barriers will be installed at the Times Square 7, Third Avenue L, and Sutphin Boulevard JFK Airport E lines.

The MTA has previously asserted that installing barriers would be prohibitively expensive because of having to retrofit the roughly 118-year-old system.

Earlier this year, the agency released an extensive report detailing the cost of installing barriers – about $7 billion – in just one-quarter of the city's 472 stations.