It’s back to business in one of the nation’s busiest cities: New York City says the amount of poop and pee incidents on their precious subway cars is reaching pre-pandemic levels.
The City reports the MTA is taking out more cars for cleaning — a rate that is beginning to rival the all-time high set in 2019. So far, roughly 1,700 cars were taken out of service for cleaning this year; In all of 2019, the total number of cars with soiled interiors was just over 3,400.
When asked about the sullied state of things, Matt Ahern, a Transport Workers Union Local 100 official that represents subway cleaners, said, “It’s bad, it’s bad.”
Ridership is only 60 percent of what it used to be, so what is causing more people to urinate and defecate in the cars?
Well, it could be that the MTA has kept its public bathrooms closed since the COVID-19 outbreak. They say the stalls will be kept closed for public safety. That is further complicated by the rising number of the city’s homeless population, who use the subway cars for shelter and travel.
Said Ahern, “Listen, when you have people living on the car and using it as their kitchen and their toilet, they are going to be soiled.”
To combat the stinky situation, the MTA is hiring additional cleaners to take care of the filthy cars; They currently have 913 cleaners holding the line.
Ahern says that until they tackle this messy problem — ridership will remain low. “They’re trying to get ridership back,” he explained. “Well, nobody wants to ride a filthy subway car, so that’s all part of it.”
That is sparking calls for the MTA to reopen its bathrooms.