Cuomo, MTA Defend Late-Night Subway Closures During Pandemic

NEW YORK CITY — Officials defended the decision to shutter the New York City subway system for four hours each night so the MTA can clean and disinfect cars during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Saturday news conference in a subway maintenance facility in Corona, Queens, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and MTA officials said the closures from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. are necessary to protect transit and other essential workers, and they pledged to provide alternative transportation.

The closures, which are due to start May 6, will enable the MTA to clean every single subway car at least once a day, officials said.

"To make sure the transit workers are safe, to make sure the riding public is safe, the best thing you can do is disinfect the whole inside of the car, as massive a challenge as that is," Cuomo said.

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Interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg said the MTA will provide bus service running every 20 minutes to match the subway timetable during those hours. A website with details on service changes will launch in the next few days, according to Feinberg.

The MTA says about 11,000 riders take the subway in that four-hour timeframe.

"If you were depending on the subways, we're going to try to match bus service," Feinberg said. "We’re not going to leave behind the folks that need to use the system overnight.”

Before his briefing, @NYGovCuomo inspected the MTA’s disinfecting process and thanked the transit workers on the front lines. He was hands on as always. pic.twitter.com/LiixsEGI80
— Rich Azzopardi (@RichAzzopardi) May 2, 2020

Since Cuomo announced the closures Thursday, transit advocates and essential workers who commute during those hours have shared concerns about the change.

"Even during a crisis, New York is and will be a 24/7 city," Riders Alliance Executive Director Betsy Plum said. "Governor Cuomo's suspension of subway service must be strictly temporary while a longer-term solution is developed and implemented."

The city will dispatch NYPD officers to ensure customers leave the trains and stations, including homeless riders.

Cuomo on Saturday called the late-night closures an "opportunity" to help New York City's homeless population by connecting them to shelters, job training, mental health services and other resources but said it's up to local governments to determine strategies.

“You do not help the homeless by letting them stay on a subway car and sleep on a subway car in the middle of a global pandemic when they could expose themselves or others to a virus," Cuomo said.

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