MTA vet, 67, a popular pastor, dies

A popular pastor who earned his living as a New York City subway track worker has died from coronavirus.

Scott Elijah, pastor of the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church in Yonkers, was a 15-year veteran of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He was on a subway emergency response team based out of the Parsons-Archer train terminal in Jamaica, Queens.

He died Sunday, officials said. “They called him the pastor of Yonkers,” said Elijah’s bishop, Gregory Ingram. “It’s amazing what some people can do in a short period of time.”

In a Facebook post from March 24, Elijah wrote he had received a test for COVID-19 at a local health clinic, and encouraged his friends who felt ill to do the same.

“While coronavirus testing is almost impossible to get, if you’re in NY, CityMD urgent care is testing,” he wrote in the post. “I repeat CityMD urgent care is testing. I walked in and was tested in five minutes, no appointment needed.”

Ingram said he spoke with Elijah (inset) by phone a few days before his death. He said the hospitalized pastor sounded like he was on the mend.

“He was a wonderful pastor, very gregarious, and kept the community and his people at heart,” said Ingram.

The bishop noted that Elijah, 67, considered retiring from the MTA in recent years, but wanted to work full time to make sure his three children were taken care of.

Elijah was the third MTA employee to die from coronavirus. Longtime subway conductor Peter Petrassi and veteran bus operator Oliver Cyrus died Thursday.

MTA officials confirmed Monday four other employees have died from COVID-19, bringing the confirmed coronavirus death toll among the agency’s workforce to seven.