Cuomo To Shut Down 30 MTA Subway Stations For USB Ports, Countdown Clocks And New Signs

Anybody out there use the 6th Avenue M/F stop at 23rd Street?

Say goodbye to it for a while, maybe as long as a year - this came during Cuomo's press conference today touting his transit agenda for 2016:

MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast took to the podium Friday as well, promising to "re-invision" 30 subway stations by 2020. The MTA plans to make these stations "cleaner, brighter... easier to navigate, with better and more intuitive wayfinding, as well as a modernized look and feel." This means more On The Go touch screens, new signage, new lighting.

Rather than close these stations on nights and weekends to accomplish this "renewal"—the Governor described the current approach as "piecemeal"—the MTA will shut down entire stations for an average six to twelve-months per station to expedite renovations. Will your neighborhood's subway station be one of them? Read it and weep/breathe a sigh of relief.

One of the stations on the list to be shut for "re-invision"?

The very busy 23rd Street M/F stop.

Because what's more important than being able to get off at your stop for work?

Why USB ports, countdown clocks and new signs!

The M/F 23rd Street stop floods like a, well, like a mother -----, every time it rains, but that apparently is not going to be fixed by Cuomo - nor are some other important problems:

After Cuomo's announcement, some critics argued that the MTA is facing more pressing issues than, say, "customer-friendly" initiatives.

There's the issue of extreme overcrowding, for one, and the $1 billion in funding cut from the second phase of the ever-elusive Second Avenue Subway line (tunnel boring for Phase II, which will serve 96th through 125th Streets, is now projected to start no sooner than 2019). Ambitious East Side Access and Penn Station Access projects are still a pipe dream, and delays due to rail issues are a thing most New Yorkers are now wearily familiar with. 

But hey, we're going to have USB charging ports and mew signs- wheee!!!!!

Many commenters at Gothamist feel same way - here's one of my favorites: 

"I don't want to get on a train and feel like a sardine for an hour and a half on the way to work. I don't want to do that," Cuomo extrapolated. "I want to be able to sit in a seat, I want to be able to listen to my music, I want to be able to make a telephone call, be connected to Wi-Fi. I've come to expect that."

OH MY GOD SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU GODDAMN TONEDEAF UPSTATE PIECE OF SHIT

And here's another:

Oh good. My station is on the list. Fuck you, Cuomo. The "piecemeal" approach may be slower, but if it allows a station to remain open that's highly preferable. That piece of shit truly cannot comprehend how completely closing a station for a year fucks people over.

All right - I got a couple more for you:

IS THIS MAN on FUCKING CRACK?????

To which someone replies:

Too much of Sandra Lee's Kwanzaa Cake this year.

M/F indeed.