Subway Mess Is Your Fault, MTA Boss Tells Slobby Commuters

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NEW YORK CITY, NY – MTA boss Joe Lhota said the long-suffering commuter is partly responsible for wrecking the subway.

Just days after he wrote a memo telling his staff they needed to do better, he blamed a track fire in Harlem Monday that injured nine people, crippled trains and left platforms dangerously crowded on passengers dropping trash.

And he said the solution could be barring people bringing food onto the platform.

“There have been a lot of recommendations about what foods are appropriate and what foods are not,” Lhota told reporters at Penn Station on Tuesday. “So there’s a debate going on.”

Asked if the MTA would ban food from stations, he said “wait for the 30-day waiting period,” an apparent reference to a review the authority is currently undergoing.

On Monday morning, trash on tracks between 135th and 145th Streets caught fire, sending plumes of smoke through the system and shutting down the A, B, C and D lines in Harlem.

A 30-foot long heap of trash had piled up on tracks near 145th Street, according to the Daily News.

Lhota said MTA officials discussed Monday what to do about food waste while talking about cleanliness on subway cars, trains and stations.

He suggested some types of food – like styrofoam boxes brimming with takeout – might be banned, while other kinds would be permitted.

“Early in the morning, if you’re a smart student, you may live in Queens, you may live in Brooklyn and you're so smart you’re able to get into the Bronx High School of Science and you want to take a protein bar in the morning on the way in,” Lhota said.

It's unclear why he separated students at the elite school from the rest of the traveling populace.

“We need to think about this from the point of view of what works.”

Earlier this year, the MTA ended a program testing out the removal of trash cans at some stations, an unsuccessful attempt to deal with waste.

Throughout Tuesday’s press conference, Lhota sought to cast the MTA as a shared responsibility between commuters and authorities.

“I want to believe that the MTA – it’s our MTA. We all have to band together,” he said.

“Anything that anybody can do to make sure that the trash doesn’t get down on the tracks would be very, very helpful. These fires all start with trash being thrown down there.”

Lhota also noted the MTA recently acquired two new vacuum devices that clean trash and has ordered 12 more.

He said track fires are down more than 90 percent compared to 1981, when there were some 5,800 fires.

Lead image of Joe Lhota speaking Tuesday at Penn Station by Shant Shahrigian/Patch.

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