Do Subway Elevators Really Need to Cost $100

The original subway lines were designed in-house by the MTA’s forerunners, but the function was outsourced in the intervening decades as officials were forced to find money to run the trains and sought to avoid paying for labor contracts protected by Albany as lawmakers loaded the agency with debt. Albany needs to address the consequences of its actions and explicitly give the MTA room in its budget to bring these functions back in-house. This spending would pay for itself if the new unit could trim just $5 million off each ADA project.