Lives back on track

The four-hour overnight closure of the subway, in place since May 4 due to coronavirus, has now been scaled back to two hours, from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. That’s great for late night and early morning riders, including odd-shift working stiffs who suffered a significant inconvenience. The two-hour shutdown era shouldn’t last long.

During it, deep cleaning of cars and stations will continue, as will the other silver lining of the new policy: delivering better options to homeless people who otherwise were bedding down in the subway. Neglecting folks with crying mental health and substance abuse problems on trains and platforms might have seemed humane, but it was the opposite.

The enhanced homeless outreach that started when the system shut down last spring must become permanent when 24-hour operation resumes, because it’s working.

In the 10 months since everyone has to exit the system each night, 2,176 people have voluntarily accepted a warm bed in a city shelter rather than sulk off into the darkness. Remarkably, a third of them, 757, are currently in their shelter placement and out of the subways. Supposed advocates for the homeless who grouse about the reforms should be forced to reckon with that reality: Hundreds of previously unreachable people are actually in a position to get the help they need.

The shuttering of the system isn’t the only tool to connect people with services; when 24/7 operation resumes, other approaches will do the heavy lifting. The MTA’s new rule limiting all persons to one hour at a particular subway station ensures that no one camps out on a bench. A new rule that all passengers must leave a train at the end of the line offers another opportunity for engagement.

A lawsuit charging that these restrictions unfairly target homeless people is bunk. The subway system is for transportation of people. Letting it lapse into a shelter of last resort is worse for commuters and for the rough-sleepers desperate for a better life.