Dyckman Subway Platforms Crumbling

AMNY has cited Dyckman Street as a hazardous spot for waiting on the subway, due to rotting platforms.

Potentially dangerous subway platforms lined with cracked and decaying wooden boards -- tripping hazards that straphangers say have been deteriorating for years -- are being found more widely throughout the system.

At the Dyckman Street station in Inwood, these planks, which are called rubber boards and are installed to prevent subway trains from hitting the cement platform, were so decayed they bent under the slightest pressure from a reporter's foot. [snip]

At the Dyckman Street station, some boards are so warped with age and water damage they curl away from the platform's edge and in some places they've nearly completely rotted away. Jocasta Sanders, 30, a legal technician who lives in Inwood, said she sees people trip all the time on crooked and buckling boards.

"I've seen people trip many times," she said. "It's crazy how dangerous these things are."

"It's been like this for years," said Stefanelly Garcia, 18, a freshman at Barnard College who grew up near the Dyckman Street station. "They reinforce it with plywood sometimes but it keeps caving in."

It's not clear (to us anyway) if the article is referring to the A or the 1, though the 1 seems more likely, as the piece also mentions the 168th Street station on the 1 line.

Media outlets have been investigating subway platform conditions since a 14-year-old Brooklyn boy fell into the path of an oncoming Q train in January, barely escaping injury.

Under PlaNYC, all Inwood subway stations would be renovated -- though the city apparently considers virtually all Northern Manhattan 1 stations, including Dyckman Street, as currently "in good repair."

Photo by Jamie Latendresse via the Inwoodite Flickr pool

Comments

[uSkyscraper]

Dyckman station is a joke, no question about it. 207 and 215 are not aging well since their renovation in 1991 but they are downright luxurious compared to Dyckman.

All stations should be redone similar to 125 St, with windows and period details restored.

[david]

I read a while back where Dyckman station is due for an overhaul; at the minmum new roofs.

[Ft.Geo local]

This report is spot-on - every time I'm killing time on the 1-line Dyckman platform, I actually look for the rotted spots, testing 'em to see where I might break through. Repair and upkeep of the stations sure seems to depend on which neighborhoods the lines run through. They get polished marble floors on the UES, don't they?

[Ajlouny]

It's not a big deal until someone gets hurt. Then maybe there will be an action to fix this problem.