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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

MTA to Test Subway Platform Barriers at L Train Station

By Gwynne Hogan | October 25, 2017 12:37pm

EAST VILLAGE — The MTA plans to test platform barriers at a subway station along the L line to prevent people from jumping or falling onto the train tracks, officials said Wednesday. 

The agency is currently figuring out how to install the "screen doors" at the Third Avenue station in Manhattan, said MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein, after previously planning to introduce them at the line's Sixth Avenue station.

"We’re in the design planning stages and working to overcome structural challenges" at the station, said Weinstein, who declined to provide a timeline for when riders could expect to see the platform barriers.

The MTA selected the Third Avenue station because it has the space needed to install the equipment, an adequate power supply and other variables, the spokesman added.

It wasn't immediately clear how much the pilot would cost.

Last year, 168 people were hit by trains in the five boroughs, according to the MTA.

Forty-eight of those people were killed, the lowest number in five years, DNAinfo reported.