Marie McCullough, an elderly woman who lives near the 161 Street station, called the situation “really outrageous” on Monday.
McCullough, who recently recovered from a torn meniscus, relies on the elevators for transporting her groceries. She told The Post she has skipped downtown shopping trips because she knew the elevators weren’t working.
“I don’t want to have to ride up to 167 or 170 (streets) to get the elevator there because I’d still have to get downtown. I live down here. I don’t live up there,” McCullough explained.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority spent about $26.7 million for five elevators at the Yankee Stadium subway station as part of a broader 14-elevator purchase totaling $74.8 million. The replacement project began in November 2024, with all five elevators supposed to be operational around April of this year, according to MTA documents.
Instead, the new elevators logged 41 outages between April through September, including 35 unplanned interruptions, according to an analysis of MTA records. The MTA said three of the elevators are now working.
“Five elevators that were installed before Aaron Boone even played for the Yankees were not performing well and needed to be replaced,” an MTA spokesperson said. Boone, who is now the Yankees manager, played part of the 2003 season in New York. “Three of them are now back in full service. You could call it a rebuilding season,” the spokesperson added.
Elevator 135, which connects the mezzanine to the northbound B/D platform, suffered an unplanned outage in April and recorded no operating time at all in July, August or September, according to MTA data. It remains out of service and is expected to stay that way until January of next year, according to the MTA website, which blames “Final contract items.”
The MTA previously listed “Con Edison Power Issues” as the reason for elevator 135’s shutdown, according to a report by The City Reporter. But the MTA has since removed that language from its site. Con Edison told The Post the outages weren’t their fault. “We are confident the voltage levels are adequate on our end,” a spokesperson said.
Another elevator — elevator 131, which links the street and mezzanine — had dropped to a 36.5% operating level by June, operated at a 31.8% rate in July, plummeted to 0% in August and only got up to 30.7% in September, according to MTA data.
Regina Penny, 70, who lives across the street from Yankee Stadium, stopped Monday to help a young mother with a suitcase and a large stroller carrying two children too young to walk on their own. The mother waited beside a broken elevator, and Penny helped her find someone who could carry the stroller up the stairs.
“I have to stand with her and wait for somebody nice to come and help her,” Penny said. “It’s a shame. It’s been like that for a whole year.”
“It’s no respect for her. People with wheelchairs, walkers. It’s no respect,” she added.
“I’m schlepping up the stairs with something that’s heavy. It’s ridiculous,” said McCullough as she prepared to lug her cart full of groceries up a flight of stairs. “It’s a terrible inconvenience,” she added.
The elevator replacement project at the Yankee Stadium subway station began in November 2024, with all five elevators supposed to be in service around April of this year, according to MTA documents. The new elevators logged 41 outages between April through September, including 35 unplanned interruptions, according to an analysis of MTA records.
Elevator 135 is expected to remain out of service until January of next year.