Anti-subway-surfing barriers have been installed on a string of No. 7 cars to try to stop kids from attempting the deadly maneuver — but some straphangers aren’t convinced they’ll thwart the young scofflaws.
The padded barriers have been placed toward the top between train cars and are designed to prevent would-be surfers from climbing on the roof a car — but critics say the contraptions could actually give the rogue teens a boost to their destination, or at least do little to stop them.
“It looks like when you go to Chuck E. Cheese’s and you have … things that you can climb up on,” Queens resident Jordani Badettu, 28, scoffed.
Bea Milligan, 53, of Manhattan said the barriers were “not enough.
“Put up metal spikes on top of the [roof], like they do for the birds,” Milligan said.
Trish, a 50-year-old mom from Brooklyn, said, “As a mother, I talked to my children, but I know it’s not enough.
“Kids always want to fit in. They want to impress. … If you are trying to put the guard rails to stop them doing that, they’ll find other ways.”
Queens-based nurse Joseph Cookman agreed that some kids simply “will climb around it.
“If they want to do it, they will figure out how to do it,” he said.
“But I think anything is better than nothing,” Cookman said.
A pilot project involving the barriers began more than a year ago on two cars and was recently expanded to a full train set, NYCT Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said at a Wednesday board meeting.
The MTA said it plans to expand the program to all of its cars on the No. 7 line – at a price tag of $10 million – by the end of 2026.
“Surfing is suicide,” Crichlow said. “It’s something that is a larger issue that requires help from sources across the spectrum: [city Department of Education], city parents, students, family members — everyone plays a part in this.”
The move comes as subway surfing-related incidents have been on the upswing in the Big Apple.
At least five subway-surfing fatalities and four injuries have been reported in 2025, including the death of two 12- and 13-year-old girls who died near the Marcy Avenue train station.
Six people died while subway surfing in 2024, and five people were killed in the dangerous stunts in 2023.
The NYPD has also used drone technology to ferret out and stop subway surfers, with 183 drone deployments leading to 131 subway surfing-related arrests this year of Oct. 5, an agency rep said.
Other efforts to reduce subway surfing include the MTA’s monitoring of subway-surfing social-media posts and “Ride Inside, Stay Alive” announcements featuring celebrities including Cardi B.
Badettu, while skeptical of the barriers, praised the agency for at least trying to tackle the problem.
“I don’t know how durable they are or how preventative they are,” Badettu said of the physical barriers, “But anything they’re doing to stop the kids from subway surfing basically is something. … Ads are one thing, but actual preventative measures are another thing.”
Other city subway routes that may get the barriers are the J and No. 6 lines, the MTA said.
“We’ve done a lot of trials on it – a lot of adjustments to the actual equipment – and I feel that we have a good set in place for it,” Crichlow said of the pilot project.
“MTA is doing our part.”
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