Subway Cleanups Ordered After Cuomo Calls Homeless 'Disgusting'

NEW YORK CITY — Every subway car running through New York City should have been disinfected the night before, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the MTA.

The New York governor's order that Metropolitan Transit Authority amp up cleanings came one day after he called reports of apparently homeless New Yorkers sleeping in trains, "disgusting."

"Every essential worker should know that their train was disinfected the night before," Cuomo said Wednesday at his daily new coronavirus briefing. "We owe it to them."

Cuomo called on the MTA — currently facing a 90 percent drop in ridership and a $8.5 billion budget crisis — to create a plan to triple their subway car cleanings. Currently, the MTA disinfects its subway cars every 72 hours.

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"We have to be able to clean the trains," Cuomo said. "I just want to get it done and I will get it done."

Cuomo made headlines Tuesday when he held up the front page of the Daily News — showing a sleeping homeless person on a New York City train — and said, "That is disgusting what is happening on those subway cars."

Cuomo softened those sentiments Wednesday, noting his concern also included the health of homeless New Yorkers.

"You're not doing homeless people any favors," said Cuomo. "Letting them endanger their lives and endanger the lives of others isn't helping anyone."

Ken Lovett, Senior Adviser to Chairman & CEO Pat Foye, confirmed the MTA was developing a plan to increase the frequency of its cleaning.

“We fully agree that we must do everything we can to keep our system and trains and buses as clean and as safe as possible," Lovett said. "We will deliver that plan to the governor as he requested.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday the city would increase its homeless outreach efforts in subways, provide 200 more shelter beds, and asked the MTA to temporarily shutter 10 end-of-line stations for “enhanced sanitization” of subway cars.

But Sarah Feinberg, the New York City Transit interim president, suggested de Blasio's plan would not meet an increasing need for cleanings.

"Frankly we've been asking for this help for months and months," Feinberg said. "I'm angry, I'm incredibly frustrated."

"I want the mayor to send the NYPD and his outreach workers in to every single end-of-line station by the end of the week," Feinberg added. "We need the city to do more."

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