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NEW YORK CITY — The MTA will be installing and testing physical barriers in between trains cars in an effort to combat subway surfing.
The experimental barriers will be installed on select trains cars on the No. 7 line, which runs from Queens to Manhattan.
The new barriers will be placed on the train car exteriors, preventing people from climbing on top of subway trains.
According to the MTA, a prototype was first tested in January on a No. 7 train car. The barriers will cost $10 million. The agency plans to install them on a full train by 2026.
Other train lines could get the barriers in the future, depending on the results of the pilot project.
Five people have died from subway surfing this year. On Oct. 6, two teen girls were killed from subway surfing at the Marcy Avenue–Broadway station in Williamsburg.
A new MTA ad campaign launched this summer aimed at curbing subway surfing deaths across the city.
The campaign, titled “Ride Inside, Stay Alive,” launched in July with support from Queens-born professional BMX rider Nigel Sylvester, NYC Public Schools, and the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development.
It features illustrated comics that tell the stories of characters affected by subway surfing, with Sylvester serving as the campaign ambassador and a positive role model for kids seeking safer, yet thrilling, alternatives to dangerous behavior.
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