Trashing subway bins sparks more fires

The MTA’s oddball bid to decrease subway trash by removing garbage cans has only increased the amount of refuse — and caused more track fires — at some stations, according to a state report released Tuesday.

The MTA had yanked the garbage cans out of 39 stations starting in 2012 in a reverse-logic move to try to reduce trash and rats.

The tactic was originally panned by the state Comptroller’s Office in 2015 based on the results of a study — and the latest follow-up found that the mess hasn’t gotten any better in some of the stations.

“Removing trash cans appears to have resulted in more track fires and garbage at a number of stations,” state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement.

Some riders at the trashed stations agreed.

“Since they removed the trash cans, it has become a pigsty,” Anissa Dolmo, 47, said at Brooklyn’s Broadway Junction station on the J/Z line — which saw its garbage receptacles reduced and its track fires increased. “Now they leave the coffee cups on the seats or on the platform.”

She begged the MTA to bring receptacles back to the stations.

“We are struggling to go to work, to come home, and we can’t have a decent train station,” she griped. “At least give us a trash can and let us have a good start in the mornings.”

There are no garbage cans at stations such as Eighth Street on the R line in Manhattan, FlushingMain Street on the 7 line in Queens and all of the J, M and Z stops that are above ground in Brooklyn and Queens.

The MTA did replace trash cans in the mezzanine levels of seven stations where track fires had become rampant, DiNapoli said.

But the MTA still hasn’t figured out how to keep riders from throwing garbage on the platforms and tracks or even how to measure how much there is lying around, DiNapoli noted.

The MTA also isn’t alerting riders there are no trash cans at certain stations and to take their garbage with them, he added.

“The clearest progress in the MTA’s pilot program so far is that they’ve returned garbage cans to some of the stations,’’ the comptroller said. “Five years after they started this experiment, there’s still no evidence that it’s benefited riders by reducing trash or rats in stations.”

MTA officials insisted its workers have picked up less trash in the targeted stations since the program started.

“In addition, after adjusting track-cleaning schedules as part of our ‘Track Sweep’ initiative, track fires at these stations have decreased by 41 percent,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said.