Losing sweep, not sleep
Subway cleaning crew scrubs around napper
The MTA is really struggling to clean up its image during the coronavirus pandemic.
MTA cleaners mopped around a homeless man sprawled out on a subway car on Monday — and the agency says that’s just standard operating procedure, even during the virus outbreak that has seen vagrants flock to the system.
The scene at Manhattan’s East 96th Street station came during a photo op arranged by the MTA’s press office to show the agency’s subway-cleaning efforts, but staff said they were powerless to rouse the man without cops or city outreach workers present.
“We do not ask our workforce or our cleaners to engage in social services or to engage with someone who isn’t interested in moving or doesn’t want to move,” Interim
NYC Transit President Sarah Feinberg said at a separate press event over Zoom later that day.
“Certainly, we don’t ask or allow people to get into a confrontation with anyone. That is exactly one of the many problems we are trying to solve at the moment.”
The napping man was the only homeless person in the station at the time, MTA spokesman Tim Minton said, claiming the problem of vagrants living on trains was “not a daytime issue for the most part.”
The MTA says its unprecedented 1 a.m.-to-5 a.m. systemwide closures, set to begin Wednesday, would allow for an increased presence of cops and outreach workers to remove homeless people from the system so trains can be scrubbed.
“The Post saw firsthand how that can have an impact on the disinfecting process,” Minton said. “That is one of the reasons we need to close the system overnight in order to thoroughly and effectively disinfect.”
As of Wednesday night, the MTA will begin fully disinfecting trains and buses once a day and frequently touched surfaces at stations twice daily, officials said.
“Daytime terminal car cleaning,” as observed by The Post on Monday, involves removing trash, cleaning spills, spot-cleaning surfaces and some disinfecting whenever a train arrives at a terminal, according to Feinberg.
Overnight, empty trains in yards and terminals will get “more comprehensive cleaning,” she said.
The MTA is also testing disinfectants that may kill the coronavirus for up to three months after their application, she said.
And next week, the MTA will install on some buses and trains miniature ultraviolet lamps that may kill the virus, officials said.
“My promise to all New Yorkers for the duration of this pandemic: We will do everything we can, everything possible, to protect your health,” MTA Chairman Pat Foye said on Monday.
“We’ve never undertaken such a challenging task.”