Construction activity has begun on the uptown side of 42nd Street-Bryant Park, a Midtown station that has been in the MTA's accessibility pipeline since 2019 but remains off the agency's accessible-station list.

Construction barriers went up this week on the uptown side of 42nd Street-Bryant Park — the B, D, F, and M station at Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan — marking what appears to be the start of long-delayed ADA work at one of the busiest inaccessible stations in the system.

The station is not on the MTA's accessible stations list, which was updated as recently as June 11, 2026. Riders using wheelchairs, walkers, or strollers currently have no step-free path to the platform.

The project has been a long time coming. In December 2019, the MTA announced that 42nd Street-Bryant Park was among 70 stations selected for elevator installations under the agency's 2020-2024 capital plan — a $5 billion accessibility initiative that then-Transit President Andy Byford said would ensure riders were no more than two stops from an accessible station. Many of those 70 projects slipped past the plan's original window; Bryant Park is among those still in progress.

Work appears to be starting from the uptown end. Observers noted this week that barriers — the blue-painted construction hoarding characteristic of NYC Transit station projects — have appeared on the uptown platform side. The downtown side has not yet been enclosed.

The adjacent 5th Avenue-Bryant Park station, which serves the 7 train on the IRT Flushing Line one block to the east, is also inaccessible; it was not on the 2019 list of 70 stations and its status under subsequent capital plans has not been publicly confirmed by the MTA.

The MTA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the project scope or timeline.