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A modernized elevator opened this month at the MTA's W 4 St-Wash Sq station in the West Village, and LiftComm provided the emergency communication system inside the cab. The MTA delivered it on budget and more than two weeks ahead of schedule. It completes a three-elevator replacement at the station that began in 2025.
Not the cab. Not the machine room. Not the mechanical or electrical equipment. The two-way voice and text intercom that meets ASME A17.1-2019 Section 2.27.1.1.3 and lets a rider reach help the moment the doors close behind them.
The LiftComm system installed at W 4 St-Wash Sq is ASME A17.1-2019 compliant, with two-way voice and text, video acknowledgement, a 45-second auto-reroute when the first responder doesn't answer, and four-hour standby power. It is ADA compliant. It is hosted on-premises, so call traffic stays inside MTA infrastructure.
That on-premises architecture is the difference. Cloud-hosted elevator phones route emergency traffic through third-party vendor infrastructure, which is a non-starter for transit, federal, and healthcare environments. LiftComm devices integrate into the agency's own network and PBX. The PoE-powered units provision automatically when they're plugged in.
The W 4 St-Wash Sq station serves approximately 27,000 weekday riders across the A, B, C, D, E, F, and M lines. That is a multiple of what most office buildings see in a year. The newly opened elevator provides access from the uptown platforms to the mezzanine and is the last of three replacements at the station since 2025.
The MTA's scope of work for the modernization included the elevator cab, shaft and pit equipment, machine room electrical and mechanical, the head house glass and canopy at street level, fire alarm, cameras, remote monitoring, and the intercom system. LiftComm provided the intercom.
The MTA completed 39 elevator replacements in 2025, more than double the previous record of 16 set in 2021. Elevator replacement projects are underway in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. The 2025-2029 Capital Plan funds at least 60 additional ADA-accessible stations and 45 more subway elevator replacements.
Every one of those elevators needs an emergency phone that meets current code. ASME A17.1-2019 is the floor. That is what LiftComm builds.
W 4 St-Wash Sq is one elevator now in service. The work continues.
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