Sleek Seats! MTA Swapping Wooden Benches with Metal Ones [Update: Coming to the Outer Boroughs First]

It’s a good thing it has been a mild winter. Otherwise, there would be a lot of freezing tooshes on the city’s subway platforms down at the Whitehall station. That is where the city has installed the first of its new subway benches, a stainless steel number that looks not unlike the new bus stops.

(Maybe the chilly seats are part of the new Subway Diet—make ’em stand so they burn those calories.)

The new benches are supposed to be easier to clean and maintain, according to the Daily News. The MTA has been working on the benches at least since 2010, in part because of concerns over bed bugs inhabiting the old wooden models.

MTA will not be rolling out these rolled-metal models too quickly, though. Like the trains it buys in batches (been on the G lately?) the transit agency cannot afford to buy the benches all at once, and will instead install them over time.

Here’s a revolutionary idea: why not start in the outer boroughs for once. Manhattan already has the best lines and the only cellphone service, so why not let the rest of the city enjoy a new program first for once.

Update: An MTA spokesman informs us that the benches will be coming to the outer boroughs first, along the Far Rockaway and Myrtle Avenue lines in Queens.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC