NYCT Launches Special Shuttle Bus Service to Customers While Work is Ongoing;

Subway Service to Station Continues to Operate in Both Directions Through Work

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced the launch of a special shuttle bus service that will assist customers in navigating their commutes when work to replace the system’s deepest station begins next week at the 191 St  station. The work at 191 St on the  is part of broader elevator replacement work at five separate “deep” stations in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan and is expected to culminate next winter. For many customers there, the elevators are utilized both for accessing the subway as well as more easily traversing the neighborhood’s unique, steep topography.

Once the elevator replacement work is underway, access to the 191 St  Station will remain available via the tunnel at 190 St and Broadway. Regular M3 bus and free M191 shuttle buses will assist customers make their connections. Those who typically enter and exit the 191 St station on the St Nicholas Av side between West 190 St and West 191 St should take the M3 or the free M191 shuttle bus to and from the 181  Station while the work is ongoing. Customers accustomed to utilizing the tunnel in the area to travel across the neighborhood between ST Nicholas Av and Broadway can also take the free M191 shuttle bus.

“Since the start of this critical elevator replacement, we’ve vowed to engage transparently with the community and we remain encouraged with the work’s progress thus far,” said New York City Transit President Andy Byford. “We completed work on the 168 St station weeks ahead of schedule and are eager to move forward on this next phase of the work. Customers in Upper Manhattan deserve high functioning elevators in a part of the city that can be uniquely challenging to navigate.”

The free shuttle will run every 20 minutes from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., except on Sundays when it runs every 20 minutes between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Full schedules and additional information on the project is available here.

The work will replace the existing elevators and upgrade communications, security and fire alarm systems. The projects mark the first time that the elevators and component systems at the stations have been replaced in their entirety. MTA personnel began community board and elected official outreach during the summer of 2018. The 191  station opened in 1911. It is listed on the US Register of Historic Places, and is the deepest subway station in NYC at 173 feet below ground.