It's already a squeeze to get onto the 1, 2, and 3 trains at 72nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

"You get squished," one commuter said as a 1 train pulled into the station. "I mean, right now, it's, like, not too bad, but I don't like getting squished in the morning by strangers."

That squishing is about to get worse.

The MTA plans to close the B and C station two blocks away at 72nd Street and Central Park West in May for five months of renovations.

About 10,000 riders will seek alternatives. Many are expected to make their way to the neighboring, and often overcrowded, 1, 2, and 3 lines at 72nd Street.

But the MTA said it has no plans to add more train service to accommodate them.

"I'm giving myself extra time, already," one commuter said.

It is one of four Manhattan stations that will close for renovations as part of the third wave of shutdowns under the MTA's controversial "Enhanced Station Initiative" (ESI).

163rd Street-Amsterdam Avenue on the C line will close first, on March 12. That work is expected to last until September.

"Now I'll have to, like, you know, wake up early and relocate myself to another station, and it's going to be definitely complicated for me," one woman said as she sat on a bench in the station.

The three other stations are on the Upper West Side on the B and C lines: 110th Street, 86th Street, and that 72nd Street stop.

The MTA plans to renovate more than 30 stations in the next few years, improving lighting, staircases, and entrances. At 163rd Street, the work will include waterproofing.

Critics have said that the projects take too long and do not make enough changes to justify the inconveniences.

The MTA has also faced grumbling about similar projects in Brooklyn and Queens, with many of the complaints there centered on the lack of elevators in the renovations.

"I, and all my neighbors, are going to be inconvenienced for over six months, and when that inconvenience ends it's going to be the same bad service," a commuter said. "I think it's totally unacceptable."

But the MTA has said that the work includes needed structural improvements, like at a station in Astoria.

"You do need to look at the whole program," New York City Transit President Andy Byford said. "These ESI packages contained a lot of state-of-good-repair work that could not be ignored any longer."