A subway conductor outraged about attacks on transit riders and his fellow transit workers confronted MTA CEO Janno Lieber during a live radio interview Wednesday — calling the subway a “magnet and haven for criminals” and demanding more cops to address the problem.
“The public, the ridership, is not safe. The New York City subway system is a magnet and a haven for criminals,” the conductor, who said his name was Chris, told Lieber during an appearance on WNYC.
“We need constant police presence. Anyone who tells you that the subways is safe, they’re not being honest with New Yorkers.”
Felony assaults jumped 50 percent from February to March of this year, The Post previously reported. Overall crime is down compared to before COVID-19 — but not when adjusted to lower pandemic ridership figures.
MTA workers who spend all day underground have borne of the brunt of that crime surge. MTA stats show an average of nearly two attacks per week on subway workers so far this year, and many dozens more weekly cases of anti-worker harassment.
Chris, who said he is 57 years old and a “lifelong New Yorker,” recalled being “attacked last week” by a person who refused to leave a train about to be taken out of service.
He claimed he never sees the cops who patrol the system, and when he does they often just put disruptive individuals onto other trains.
“During my shift, you might see the cops come patrol for about a half-hour, and they leave,” he said. “We have deranged people walking around the subways. And the cops, NYPD, will take them off the northbound train — where they harass and torment our ridership and my coworkers — and put them on the southbound train.”
Lieber declined to dispute the veteran conductor’s points — but defended Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD’s move to increase the number and effectiveness of subway patrols.
“The issue that Chris is talking about is real, that we do need to have a more effective police presence,” Lieber said.
“Chris has made some comments about the effectiveness of those patrols. I respect that, but I also think that there’s a commitment in the NYPD and in City Hall to making sure that putting cops where riders feel vulnerable and where our workers are vulnerable is going to over time deter the kinds of violence and intimidation that Chris has described.”