{"id":116793,"date":"2026-01-29T23:10:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116793\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T23:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:10:56","slug":"snow-blocked-bus-stops-pose-challenge-to-commuters-as-nyc-works-to-clear-safe-paths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116793\/","title":{"rendered":"Snow-blocked bus stops pose challenge to commuters as NYC works to clear safe paths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four days after Sunday\u2019s snowstorm, city workers are still working to clear snow and ice from bus stops around the city, where a full day of plowing left walls of snow<\/a> two to three feet high and created challenges for commuters trying to get from the sidewalk to the bus.<\/p>\n

All of the city\u2019s 3,400 sheltered bus stops \u2014 stops with structures meant to shield waiting passengers from the weather \u2014 had been cleared by Thursday afternoon, a Department of Transportation spokesperson told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

The city department, which is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure supporting the state-run MTA bus lines, subcontracts management of the shelters<\/a> to advertising firm JCDecaux \u2014 which cleans the shelters on a regular basis. JCDecaux work crews were tasked with salting the stops ahead of the storm, clearing them of snow after, and removing any buildup from subsequent plowing.<\/p>\n

\"AA Department of Sanitation worker plows out a bus stand on the corner of E. 86th St. and 2nd Ave. Monday, January 26, 2026, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

According to the DOT, the firm had cleared all of the city\u2019s sheltered stops by 4 p.m. Thursday, and had crews on hand to make sure they stayed clear.<\/p>\n

But the overwhelming majority of city bus stops \u2014 some 11,000 of them \u2014 have no shelters. In those instances, they are treated like any other section of sidewalk: as the responsibility of whoever owns the property to clear it of snow.<\/p>\n

\"RidersRiders board an M15 as a Department of Sanitation worker plows out a bus stand on the corer of E. 86th St. and 2nd Ave. Monday, January 26, 2026, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

On Monday, however, the city sanitation department \u2014 which is responsible for the vast majority of plowing in the five boroughs \u2014 decided to step in and start clearing unsheltered bus stops to ensure commuters stayed safe, Sanitation Department Press Secretary Vincent Gragnani told The News Thursday, an effort that remains ongoing.<\/p>\n

As of Thursday morning, according to the Sanitation Department, a little more than half of those 11,000 bus stops had been cleared of snow.<\/p>\n

\"DepartmentDepartment of Sanitation workers melt snow at a site in Red Hook, Brooklyn on Thursday, January 29, 2026. DSNY set up the machines, which can melt up to 120 tons of snow per hour, at eight locations in the five boroughs. (Gardiner Anderson \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

MTA chairman Janno Lieber said, at meeting of the transit agency\u2019s board on Wednesday, that his office was in touch with City Hall on the snow-clearing, asking that it happen faster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re closely coordinating,\u201d Lieber said. \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to emphasize to the new City Hall team that this needs to be a priority from the beginning of the storm, not just waiting until the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another winter storm system currently over the Atlantic Ocean could bring more snow to Gotham this weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four days after Sunday\u2019s snowstorm, city workers are still working to clear snow and ice from bus stops…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[85,267,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,608,133],"class_list":["post-116793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-transportation","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}