The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s multi-million dollar overhaul of five elevators at the Yankee Stadium subway station has left riders contending with unreliable service — including one lift that hasn’t been working for months.
The station’s new elevators logged 41 outages between April through September, including 35 unplanned interruptions, according to an analysis of MTA records.
The elevators were purchased as a part of a 14-elevator buy for $74.8 million, and the MTA spent about $26.7 million for the five elevators at the Yankee Stadium stop.
“It’s really outrageous,” Marie McCullough, an elderly woman who lives near the 161 Street station told The Post on Monday. “Many times I have not shopped downtown, even though I may have wanted to get some things because of the fact I knew the elevators weren’t working.”
McCullough, who recently recovered from a torn meniscus, relies on the elevators for transporting her groceries.
“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 elevator replacement project at the Yankee Stadium subway station began in November 2024 and all five elevators were supposed to be in service around April of this year, according to MTA documents.
The MTA said three of the elevators are now working — and praised themselves despite barely half of the new elevators 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.
In the meantime, subway riders are forced to face detours and stairs.
A young mother waited Monday beside a broken elevator with a suitcase and a large stroller carrying two children too young to walk on their own.
Regina Penny, 70, who lives across the street from Yankee Stadium, stopped to help the mother 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.
Elevator 135, which connects the mezzanine to the northbound B/D platform, already suffered an unplanned outage in April and recorded no operating time at all in July, August or September, according to MTA data.
It is still out and expected to remain out 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 publication 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.
“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.
