BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Commuters who catch a train at the Nostrand Avenue stop in Crown Heights  say there are delays just to get in and out of the station at rush hour.

"It's really hectic," commuter Tisha King, a Crown Heights resident, said. "Like, if you're in traffic and you can't move, you have to kind of stand there and kind of wait."

Now, the MTA wants to take pressure of the Nostrand Avenue's lone entrance, by reopening staircases a nearly a quarter of a mile down the station, underneath Bedford Avenue.

Those entrances have been shuttered for at least 30 years.

"This one was selected because of the tremendous growth in ridership in this station," said Sally Librera, the MTA executive in charge of the subway. "Opening these entrances will provide better circulation within the station."

Over 17,500 commuters use this station each day - a 15 percent increase over the past decade.

With new buildings sprouting up nearby, even more riders are expected to squeeze though entrances at a single intersection.

"Right above where we are, there are two new buildings slated to go up, which will have at least another three or four hundred housing units," said Richard Flateau, chair of Brooklyn Community Board 3.

More than 100 stations, like Nostrand Avenue, had at least one staircase or entrance closed since the 1970s, as ridership dropped and crime rose.

Parts of stations became too costly to maintain and protect.

The MTA has reopened a handful of entrances over the years, but most remain closed, over concerns that reopening them would require the MTA to install elevators.

The Nostrand Avenue station is one of 70 slated to get an elevator.

It will cost $2 million to reopen its entrances.

"The bones of the corridor here are in pretty good shape," Librera, the subways chief, said.

The work will include inspecting and possibly repairing staircases, painting, installing electrical wiring and turnstiles.

Two state lawmakers - Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright and State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery - will contribute $750,000.

"People still remember when this exit was open," Wright said. "They remember walking through the tunnel and being able to exit this station on Bedford Avenue and they really would like to see us do it again."

The MTA expects to open the entrances up by the end of the year.