Push to boost transit-worker protection

The MTA and union officials are asking New York state lawmakers to pass a bill that would protect more transit workers from assaults before the legislative session ends, The Post has learned.

In a letter to state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), transit chiefs noted that assaults on transit workers have “grown and grown in recent years.”

“We write to you asking that, before the 2022 Legislative Session adjourns, you address one of the egregious deficiencies in the New York State law protecting transit workers from attacks,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber and six other transit chiefs said in the Saturday letter, obtained by The Post.

Under current law, individuals who assault or harass certain transit workers — such as subway train operators or conductors — “with intent to cause physical injury” can be charged with assault in the second degree.

But the MTA wants Albany to tweak state law to include roughly 11,000 more transit employees such as station customer assistants, traffic checkers, ticket collection agents and their supervisors. The change would also cover workers in these positions on the commuter rail lines, like the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North.

Will Schwartz, the MTA’s deputy chief of state and local government affairs, told The Post he and Lieber had a Zoom meeting with

Heastie one week ago explaining the urgent need for the request ahead of June 2 — the last day of the legislative session.

“The clock is running out, we don’t want to see them going out without this piece,” he said.

MTA statistics show subway workers suffered an average of two attacks every week this year alone.