Commuters petition for an elevator at the Spuyten Duyvil Metro-North station

Stroller carriers are just one group looking for an alternative to the Spuyten Duyvil Metro-North station.
Adam Kinory lives in Spuyten Duyvil with his wife, Julie, and their 2-year-old daughter. He takes the train roughly 10 times a week to get to to his teaching job in Manhattan. But outside of his necessary commute, he finds it impossible to utilize the train when traveling with his family.

“I thought it would make it very accessible for me to take the whole family but the problem is, since there’s no elevator, it’s really impossible to take the stroller,” he said.
Julie Kinory said her husband is convinced he’s capable of carrying the stroller and the baby down the stairs, if necessary, but she knows she couldn’t lift both.

“I can’t take the baby in the stroller. It’s too steep,” she said. “I’d have to take her out in one arm and carry a stroller and a diaper bag in the other.”

The Kinorys agreed, attempting to carry their daughter and the stroller up and down the Spuyten Duyvil station’s steps in any combination would be too dangerous, so they don’t attempt it. This means the family doesn’t take the train at all, despite living a stone’s throw away from the station.

Adam Kinory said, in addition to his family, he also wants an elevator at the station for his elderly neighbor. He said his neighbor is an older gentleman who uses a walker and he can’t negotiate the station’s staircases either.

“The demographics (in Riverdale) seem to be a lot of seniors and a lot of young families, there’s not that much in the middle,” Julie Kinory said.

Another local mother, Rhianna Weber, said she is also forced to avoid taking the train with her young son.
“We’ve delayed doing some trips or have just not done them at all,” Weber said. “Hopefully, there’s somebody nice that can help me walk the stroller down.”

If Weber has to take the station’s stairs with her son, she takes him out of the stroller to wear him in a baby carrier on her chest while wearing her backpack, then folds the stroller as compact as possible and carries any other bags in her free hand, hoping all the while she doesn’t fall as she climbs the steps with her hands full.

In order to try to get something done, Adam Kinory created a petition June 10 and distributed it throughout his building and in local online groups to spread the word about his goal of getting an elevator at the station, or at least putting it on the MTA’s radar.

Without train access, parents like the Kinorys and Weber are forced to use their cars, but they know having a car to replace the train is not typical for New Yorkers.

“I feel terrible when we take the car when there’s a public transportation alternative,” Adam Kinory said. “But we could take the car, which is easy, or we could take Metro-North, which is very difficult, so we’ve shied away from taking [our daughter] on Metro-North.”

The Spuyten Duyvil station was constructed in 1983 and, according to the MTA, the current capital program of projects slated through 2024 does not include adding an elevator to that station.

An MTA spokesperson said about 20 years ago, during the last multi-station state-of-good-repair project, the Spuyten Duyvil station was reviewed for an elevator but ultimately only platform work and repairs were performed and no elevator was installed.

During the same project, the Riverdale Metro-North station was provided with repairs and an elevator installation.

Adding an elevator to the Spuyten Duyvil station isn’t necessarily impossible but would most likely require reconfiguring the track and layout of the station.
“Before funding sources are identified and sought, there is a capital planning process that begins with the 20-year needs assessment to evaluate all MTA assets systemwide,” an MTA spokesperson said.

For a project of this scale to be completed, the MTA said it would need financial assistance, debt, and grants for funding.

An MTA spokesperson points out Spuyten Duyvil station’s Track 1 has a ramp, meaning it’s considered accessible, but that accessibility seems theoretical considering commuters would have to walk the narrow winding road to the level of the station without a sidewalk or be dropped off by a car to avoid that portion of the commute. This does not take into account that Track 1 only sees trains traveling further upstate and there is no way to access Track 2 without climbing the set of stairs at the platform.

Adam Kinory said he hopes the MTA will give the station fair consideration for an elevator. His petition can be found at bit.ly/SpuytenDuyvilElevator.