New seating at Grand Central Madison for LIRR riders draws attention to why there aren’t more seats at transit hubs

The delay in adding seating for Long Island Rail Road riders on the Grand Central Madison mezzanine level could be the latest example of transportation providers deliberately foregoing customer comfort to deter homeless people from hanging out at stations, they say experts.

But the head of the MTA said it took 18 months to add the seats because the transit agency didn’t expect so many LIRR riders would want more options to stand at the new station.

“We saw a need,” Janno Lieber, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said at a news conference Monday in Grand Central. “We’ve opened up some seats to deal with it.”

The addition of 28 new seats at Grand Central Madison is the latest development drawing attention to the relative lack of seating at a number of new and newly renovated transit hubs serving Long Island commuters, including Penn Station and the adjacent Moynihan Train Hall.

Merrick commuter Kyle Bullock, sitting on one of the new aluminum benches in Grand Central Madison On Monday afternoon, he said he’s “really happy they’re here.” When he previously commuted in and out of Grand Central Madison, Bullock said, he had to “sit on the floor and just wait” for his train.

“Or you stand and you suffer,” says Bullock, who believes the scarcity of seats at the new Manhattan terminal is a result of its design. “I always assumed they were trying to keep the homeless away.”

Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University, believes Bullock is on to something.

“The MTA realizes that their goal is to attract riders, not homeless (people),” Moss said in an interview Thursday. “So the lack of benches is an attempt to discourage homeless people, not necessarily to discourage cyclists. But that could be a secondary effect.”

Asked whether the addition of seating was driven by concerns about homelessness, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said in a statement: “Everything we provide, whether it’s service levels, retail or seating, is something we judge by of the question. “

A welcome addition

Donovan added that the addition of the seats came after the MTA observed riders regularly sitting on the floor in Grand Central’s mezzanine level.

The new seating area, located near the escalators and stairs leading to the track levels below 47th Street, was a welcome sight for Allison Krieger of Woodmere, who broke her right foot about a month ago and was “very” happy to get up. ​while she waited for her train on Monday.

“It’s a nice addition,” said Krieger, who previously waited for her train in the station’s concourse-level waiting room — a long escalator ride from the mezzanine level — because it had the only seating area in the station. ‘Then you must hurry to get down. So it’s better to sit here than upstairs.”

In responding to a question about why the MTA waited a year and a half to install benches on the mezzanine level, Lieber suggested the transit authority was overwhelmed by the demand for seating.

“We saw more people than we anticipated during the planning process, crowding around the entrance, up the escalators, straight to the tracks,” Lieber said, adding that the new seats are “mainly intended for people with mobility issues.”
About 80,000 passengers travel through Grand Central Madison daily, about half of the 162,000 passengers the MTA recently projected in March 2020.

When asked if the MTA would add more seats in Grand Central Madison, Lieber said the agency “will see how they are used and learn from it.” The new seating area is located at just one of eight landing areas for stairs and escalators leading to track levels.

Michael Smart, an associate professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said he believes that leaving out adequate seating at Grand Central Madison — which was designed and built over nearly two decades — is not a was a mistake.

“It is 100% true that the lack of seating in new facilities is due to homelessness,” said Smart, who has studied how transit agencies address homelessness in cities around the world. “The bosses of the station designers… when they look at the issue of balancing the comfort of their passengers and homeless people using the space, they immediately tilt towards providing no seating.”

The photo at Moynihan, Penn

The lack of seating is even “more glaring” at another new transit facility in Manhattan, Smart said. The 2021 Moynihan Train Hall, which serves both Amtrak and LIRR trains, opened in 2021 and includes 225,000 square feet of space but very limited seating.

Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams pointed out in a statement that “there is seating available for customers” in Moynihan, including in a ticketed waiting area, the dining room and the Metropolitan Lounge.

“Any additional opportunity to increase seating would have to go through Empire State Development,” the state agency that developed the facility said, Abrams said.

Right next to Moynihan, the LIRR’s Penn Station concourse underwent a $700 million renovation that was largely completed last year, adding much more standing room for passengers but not significantly more seating. There are two small waiting areas on the east and west sides of the station with some seating for passengers who can show tickets.

“It’s so clear. . . what it’s about, and it’s such a disservice to existing travelers,” said Smart, who noted that ticketing waiting rooms like those at Moynihan, Grand Central Madison and Penn Station are often far from where travelers usually meet, near the gates leading to the tracks. “We all want to have a place to sit while we wait for our train.”

Although David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, declined to speculate on the intent behind omitting abundant seating in the design of modern transit hubs, he said there is no shortage of examples in transit hubs of “hostile architecture” and restrictive regulations. “Aimed at deterring people who have nowhere else to go so they can’t sit down and rest.” Among them: the 90-minute time limit for using the new seats at Grand Central Madison.

“It’s inhumane and insane,” Giffen said. “Transportation facilities are for the public, and your status as a member of the public is not dependent on whether you have a home or not.”

Rather than “creating spaces that are unfriendly to everyone,” including commuters looking to relieve congestion, Giffen said public planners should focus on “creating enough affordable housing” for New York City’s 350,000 residents without homes.

Moss, the NYU planner, said the city’s transportation system is especially inviting to the homeless, especially during cold weather. Their presence, Moss said, can contribute to the perception of a dangerous climate for commuters.

“You don’t have to be the victim of a crime to feel like the stations aren’t safe,” Moss said. “The homeless and people with emotional disabilities. . . reinforce the feeling of uncertainty about safety. And that is why they are a serious problem.”