MTA’s clean sweep
500 workers to deal with trashed tracks
Subway rats will soon have less pizza to nosh on.
The MTA in September will begin an unprecedented cleanup to clear every piece of trash off the tracks, officials said Friday.
This, they say, will significantly cut down on fires and help keep trains on schedule.
The agency already upped the number of tracks in and around stations it cleans from 34 to 94 every two weeks.
And next month, it plans to put 500 workers on overtime to do a one-time clean sweep of all of the hundreds of tracks in and near the stations, which is where most of the garbage piles up.
The agency has also ordered three giant vacuum trains to suck up massive amounts of garbage from all 660 miles of rails.
MTA officials Friday also told riders to stop throwing their coffee cups, pizza crusts and newspapers on the floors of stations and trains.
“It’s important for everyone to realize that riders have a critically important role to play as well,” said MTA president Ronnie Hakim. “Keeping the tracks clean means that everyone has to pitch in by disposing of trash properly.”
The agency hauls about 40 tons of trash out of the system daily.
Trash fires are common. They’re usually minor, but can lead to delays of several minutes.
This isn’t the first highprofile change that the MTA has made to the way it handles garbage in recent years.
In 2012, the agency started removing trash cans altogether from some of its stations.
Two years ago, it removed the receptacles from every outdoor station on the J and M lines in Brooklyn and Queens. Officials claim that making straphangers take their refuse with them keeps the stations cleaner.
Riders at the West 4th Street station Friday said it’s about time the MTA makes more of an effort to keep tracks clean.
“Visually, it’s disgusting, especially when it’s hot in the morning,” said Robert Chase, 22.
Tina Perkins, 29, added, “It’s gross, but I guess I got used to it.”