The MTA is doubling its subway station cleanings as coronavirus cases continue to rise in New York state.
Transit crews currently cleaning stations each night will now perform a second scrubbing during the day, Sarah Feinberg, the authority’s interim transit president, said Tuesday night on NY1’s “Inside City Hall.”
“So every single night we clean and disinfect the stations — all of the touchpoints that the passengers and riders are likely to touch,” Feinberg said. “Starting tomorrow, we’re going to do that twice.”
Each train car is still scheduled to be disinfected every three days, she said.
“So we’re working really hard to make sure that we’re doing our best to keep the system as safe as clean and as safe for riders as possible,” she said.
Feinberg joined the chorus of city and MTA officials advising commuters to avoid mass transit if possible as the number of coronavirus cases in the metropolitan area climbed to 173, including 36 cases in New York City and more than 100 in Westchester County.
Feinberg said “anecdotally, [the subway system] feels a little bit quiet” as riders heed their advice — though there hasn’t been a “dramatic” drop in ridership yet, she added.
While Feinberg couldn’t predict the impact the virus will have on the system, MTA Chairman Pat Foye said the authority is bracing for a “significant” budget impact over lower ridership figures and higher labor costs for station cleanings.
“The MTA and its agencies will incur a significant amount of costs to this endeavor,” Foye said Monday.
To really keep the system clean, though, a public health expert previously told the Post that the MTA would have to essentially clean around the clock because so many surfaces that are touched by multiple hands every few seconds.
With David Meyer
Map of coronavirus cases in the US
