The MTA installed hand sanitizer dispensers at some subway stations across the Big Apple on Monday as the city inches closer to a reopening date — but so far, they’re about as reliable as the R train.
Three yellow, foot-pump powered dispensers were found chained to pillars and staircases at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station, below the 2 and 3 platform, Monday morning.
But only one was delivering the solution supposed to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“The first two I tried didn’t work. The third one shot the stuff onto my crotch!” said Jamaal Nelson, 23, who tried out the new machines.
Alyssa Garcia, 41, a home health care attendant and Queens resident, had a similar experience.
“The foot pump is good and free is good but they’re empty so, no good,” she said.
The MTA said the dispensers have also been rolled out at Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station in Queens, the Third Avenue-149th Street station in the Bronx and the Delancey Street-Essex Street station in lower Manhattan.
MTA Communications Director Tim Minton said it is a pilot program and problems are to be expected.
“The reality is this pilot has served its intended purpose in highlighting some areas that need to be addressed in terms of functionality of the equipment and we are working on that with the objective of having fully, functioning units available prior to the reopening of New York City on June 8,” he said.
He added that “technical teams” are out and about trying to make the dispensers function properly, but it would be “premature to speculate” on what specific parts of the equipment aren’t working.