By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — After 3 1/2 years of construction, the station house at 96th Street finally opened Monday. Unfortunately, the new above ground station entrance is still inaccessible for riders in wheelchairs and difficult for the elderly and mothers with strollers to use.
The Station House, which serves the 1, 2 and 3 lines, was opened to allow for constuction on the project to proceed in other locations.
However, passengers must still travel down 34 steps in order to board the subway and station accessibility won't be drastically improved until the installation of two elevators are completed in the fall.
"The issue was…lack of accessibility," said City Council member Gale Brewer about the station overhaul. "There are many many people who have wheelchairs [and] there's a huge older population."
Lloyd Jasper, 80, echoed the sentiment after stopping by the opening ceremony to inquire about the new elevators.
"Apparently, they're not ready yet," Jasper told DNAinfo. "I would use the elevator because I'm 80-years-old and my legs aren't what they used to be."
While the $98 million project is not fully completed, the first trainload of straphangers were allowed to traverse the new 96th Street station house just after 11 a.m.
Two of the old entrances, both on 96th Street and Broadway, will close forever, while the two entrances on 94th Street will remaining open, New York City Transit's Paul J. Fleuranges said.
NYC Transit also cut the number of steps required to reach the subway by almost half.
"[W]e've eliminated the trip of 64 steps before you get to the train," said Lois Tendler, NYC Transit's Director of Government and Community Relations, at the opening of the glass station house.
Even with just 34 steps, the task will still prove difficult for parents pushing strollers.
"It's a little disappointing," Jeff Slack, a father of three who lives on 94th and Riverside Drive, said about the fact that the elevators weren't ready yet.
Still, Slack said he would continue to use the station, as he rolled a stroller towards the new entrance. "You get as light-weight a stroller as you can."
Not every straphanger was as patient with the project as Slack.
Cecilia Gullas, 65, who said she's lived in the area for the past 30 years, saw the crowd of politicians and media people who were gathered for the station house opening and decided to walk over.
Interrupting Tendler's tour of the new facility, Gullas asked about the new elevators.
"How about the elevators – will they be functioning 24 hours a day?" Gullas interjected.
"Yes," Tendler answered.
"Promise?" she asked.
"Yes, I promise," the official told Gullas, who'll have to wait until fall to find out.
