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"This is an accident waiting to happen," Long Island lawyer David Pfeffer, 32, said. "It's a hazard. There's too many people and not enough space. The liability for the city is enormous." Adding options The goal of the $59 million project is to reduce overcrowding by adding options to get to and from the platform, TA spokesman Charles Seaton said.
During the evening rush hour, the TA routinely shuts off the downward escalator at the westend of the platform to slow the endless flow of people, a TA worker said. Police also sometimes halt people heading to the platform until it clears, Seaton said.
One recent evening, approximately 10 TA workers in orange vests urged people to keep moving down the platform toward the Third Ave. exit, where there is more space. About half that number were there during a recent morning rush hour. Seventh-busiest station TA employees said it is sometimes difficult getting people to listen to their pleas. Tempers often flare, they said, and they are often subject to verbal abuse from frustrated riders. Two women recently slugged it out after a bumping incident.
Subway riders say it's an accident waiting to happen.
At the 53rd St. and Lexington Ave. station in Manhattan, two boarded-up work areas have forced straphangers to squeeze through dangerously narrow spaces on the E and V train platform.
During rush hour, when there's barely enough room to move, one slight push could end in tragedy.
"This is crazy," Jean Montalvano, 39, a banker from New Jersey, said. "Somebody is going to die. We have to move through cubbyholes like rats."
While the Transit Authority posts workers to maintain crowd control in the station, which is one of the busiest in the city, riders routinely ignore warning signs and wait in off-limit areas.
The culprits are wooden construction walls that block off two large work areas. Each wall is 8 feet wide; one is about 18 feet long and the other about 28 feet long.
Instead of having the full width of the platform, rush-hour riders have to squeeze through a 6 1/2-foot-wide passage between the edge of the platform and the construction wall.
"This is an accident waiting to happen," Long Island lawyer David Pfeffer, 32, said. "It's a hazard. There's too many people and not enough space. The liability for the city is enormous." Adding options The goal of the $59 million project is to reduce overcrowding by adding options to get to and from the platform, TA spokesman Charles Seaton said.
There will be an expanded mezzanine upstairs, allowing travelers to exit the station or make an easier connection to the No. 6 train.
Work crews are expected to remove the barricade around the escalator close to Thanksgiving and provide several more feet of wiggle room along the platform. But the new elevator and escalator will not be operational until sometime in 2005, Seaton said.
"There are a lot of things in place to maintain safety while work is going on," he said.
During the evening rush hour, the TA routinely shuts off the downward escalator at the westend of the platform to slow the endless flow of people, a TA worker said. Police also sometimes halt people heading to the platform until it clears, Seaton said.
One recent evening, approximately 10 TA workers in orange vests urged people to keep moving down the platform toward the Third Ave. exit, where there is more space. About half that number were there during a recent morning rush hour. Seventh-busiest station TA employees said it is sometimes difficult getting people to listen to their pleas. Tempers often flare, they said, and they are often subject to verbal abuse from frustrated riders. Two women recently slugged it out after a bumping incident.
"This is a job, trying to get people to cooperate," one worker said.
Nearly 70,000 people enter the hub, where E and V trains connect with No. 6 trains, on an average weekday, making it the seventh- busiest station in the system.
The project - which also calls for new floor and wall tiles, painting, better lighting and other improvements - highlights the problem of doing major station rehabilitation while keeping essential subway service running, officials said.
"In the long run, it's going to be better, but obviously it's going to be difficult for a while," said Jack Costa, 25, a computer systems consultant from New Jersey.
Caption: MIKE ALBANS DAILY NEWS THIN LINE Passengers scoot between moving train and temporary wall at Lexington Ave. and 53rd St. subway station.
Copyright Daily News, L.P. Oct 28, 2002