What Tourists Must Know About New York's Increasingly Dangerous Subway Platforms

All Joseph Lynskey wanted to do was go home. On December 31, 2024, Lynskey was standing in a Manhattan subway station, waiting for a train to Brooklyn. Just as the train approached, a random assailant pushed him off the edge of the platform, landing him between the two tracks. Miraculously, Lynskey survived, but he sustained several injuries, including a fractured skull and ruptured spleen. He's alive, and Lynskey vowed to ride the subway again. But others are not so lucky.

"Everybody should stand away from the edge of the platform," said Janno Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, when CNN interviewed him in January 2022. Why did he say this? Because two years before Lynskey narrowly survived a murder attempt, another (unidentified) man had been pushed in front of a speeding train. That event came at the heels of a third assault — on a woman named Michelle Alyssa Go — which proved fatal. Just before that, a victim was beaten up by a gang and either thrown or fell off the platform. He survived, but a bystander who tried to rescue him was killed by an oncoming train.

Visitors already have to adjust to the New York subway system, along with its somewhat confusing map, and many first-timers get anxious about New York's underground platforms, which are often narrow and completely open. It sounds dramatic, but it's true: Anyone could jump, fall, or get pushed off the edge, into a speeding train. A rash of attacks in the 2020s seems to confirm these fears: In 2021, a total of 21 people were reportedly shoved off New York City subway platforms, and in 2022, that number rose to at least 25.

To be fair, physical harm is statistically rare on the subway. According to The City, a little over 200 people are injured by MTA trains each year, including train surfers and other incidents. Every one of these injuries is serious, of course, and it's tragic that they occur. Yet 3.6 million people ride NY's subway every day. The odds of getting hurt in any way, much less being the victim of a serial pusher, are infinitesimally small.

Still, the tracks beneath each platform are completely exposed, and the sight of steel rails, weathered wood ties, and blackened gravel can give a lot of us the willies. It's perfectly normal to see a rat scuttling down the way, and above-ground tracks typically accumulate puddles and trash. General grossness aside, falling onto the tracks puts you in a critical position: Platforms are usually 36 inches above the tracks, which is pretty high for young children, shorter adults, or folks with mobility issues. There are almost always ladders or steps at either end of the platform, but that can be far to run. There's a popular belief that the space directly underneath the platform is large enough to contain a fallen adult, but this isn't always true; people have been killed huddling in this alcove.

Most New Yorkers shrug off these concerns. The subway system first opened way back in 1904, and many riders appreciate its unique character. Riding this system is something of an art, like knowing to avoid riding in an empty subway car. Trains and stations today are downright spotless compared to their low point in the 1980s, when seemingly every surface was covered in graffiti and violent crime was a citywide epidemic.

But one question lingers: Why are MTA platforms so open in the first place? Doesn't this seem like a massive liability, relying on a little yellow line and the occasional sign to keep people away from this deadly precipice? After 120 years of operation, and probably a lawsuit or two, has no one devised a safer platform design? This is especially hard to believe if you've ever visited a major city in East Asia, where plexiglass barriers are common. Officially known as "platform screen doors," these walls make it virtually impossible to hurt yourself while traveling underground. While you might still twist an ankle walking down the stairs, you would be hard-pressed to get hit by a speeding train — let alone get pushed into one.

Lieber, MTA's CEO, actually addressed this possibility in the same CNN report. "Literally, the structure of our very old, 100-year-old stations don't accommodate it," he said. "And there's some real ventilation issues: How will we ventilate — for fire code safety and for human comfort — in that event?"

This isn't the only antiquated design element that haunts the MTA. Many of the system's current signals and switches were first installed in the 1930s and never upgraded. MTA maintenance is full of unsettling stories about inaccessible buttons, burn marks from outdated wiring, and rotary phones used to communicate. To say MTA is underfunded is an understatement: According to a February 2025 estimate, Lieber told CBS News that the country's most-used urban transit system is short about $33 billion for subway improvements. For now, New York City remains one of the 10 American cities to visit where you can go car-free, thanks to its excellent public transit system. With some effort, it'll only get safer, too.