MBTA to upgrade accessibility for disabled riders

BOSTON --The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has agreed to spend more than $310 million to upgrade station elevators, platforms, buses and other facilities and equipment to provide better accessibility for disabled riders.

Under the settlement of a class action lawsuit announced Monday by MBTA officials and groups representing people with disabilities, the authority also will create an assistant general manager for accessibility, and train transit workers with the help of disabled riders.

"Certainly for 20 to 30 percent of our customers at the MBTA, we are an essential component in their ability to live their life, enjoy their lives, go to work, go to a movie and to get there in a reliable fashion, said MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas. "Therefore, it merits a substantial investment."

Grabauskas said the plan sets a precedent as the first court-enforceable accessibility overhaul to jointly and amicably negotiated by a transit authority and disability advocates.

"This is a real prescription with a mandate," said Bill Henning, director of the Boston Center for Independent Living who said he was elated with the agreement.

If the settlement is approved by U.S. District Court Judge Morris E. Lasker, progress of the changes will be assessed by undercover monitors and a court-appointed overseer, who will report to Lasker.

In the suit filed in 2002, disability advocates claimed broken elevators, ineffective wheelchair lifts and inaccessible stations rendered the public transit system useless to the disabled community.

The settlement calls for no monetary damages to be paid, although the MBTA will incur all or a portion of the plaintiffs' legal costs. That figure has not been disclosed.