I’d mentioned before the logjam at the top of the stairs heading from Grand Central down to the subways. Well, the city has done something about it.

This morning, for the first time, commuters were greeted with the steel barricades more commonly seen at Puerto Rican Day parades and, going back a bit, Yankee World Series parades.

The need for a barricade stems from the fact that, at least at 9 a.m. on a weekday, way more people are streaming down the stairs than coming up them. So instead of there naturally being two lanes for up and two for down, the extra bodies heading down often take up the third lane on the stairs, leaving just one lane for those heading up.

Which is usually not a problem, though about once a week, I see a mass of frustrated commuters waiting to climb the stairs as some ninny traipses down them. (In sporting terms, the ninny is “offsides,” and should be sent to a penalty box. Perhaps the ticket booths that aren’t really needed anymore could double as a penalty box?)

The new barricades separate those heading up and those heading down. The weird thing was, the portable cattle pens stopped just short of the stairs, meaning one could easily slide one’s frame through the gap and hop down the up stairs. Only today, a beefy member of New York’s Finest blocked the gap.

We’ll see what the city has planned for tomorrow.