MTA's New Staffers To Help Make Subways Less Gross

NEW YORK — See a collapsed ceiling or poop on the floor at a subway station? Now you'll know who to call. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has brought on a phalanx of staffers to make sure the city's 472 stations are in tip-top shape.

About two dozen new "group station managers" started work this month overseeing every facet of the customer service and station environments at up to 25 stops apiece, the transit agency announced Tuesday.

While they'll have offices in their services areas, the managers will also personally inspect each station to make sure they're clean, safe and serving riders properly, the MTA said. That could help improve the disgusting conditions at some stops, which Patch documented on a map earlier this year.

"We’re working hard to reduce delays, renovate stations and make more of them accessible, and while we do that, we’re also bringing absolute and clear accountability for delivery of cleaner, safer, consistently welcoming station service," New York City Transit President Andy Byford said in a statement.

Byford imported the group station manager jobs from London, where he held such a position before implementing a similar system as head of the Toronto Transit Commission.

Coming from a variety of backgrounds, the new managers will work to communicate better with riders as public faces of New York City Transit, according to a news release.

They'll also address particular problems by coordinating with a range of professionals, such as electricians, police, countdown clock specialists and MetroCard vending machine technicians, the MTA said.

The managers will be able to pay closer attention to their stops than under the MTA's previous system, in which station supervision handled about 100 stations apiece, the agency said. They report to four new "district customer service managers," one each in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx, the MTA said.

"This new management model will allow our teams to have more resources at hand so they can take ownership and really build pride in their territory," Rachelle Glazier, New York City Transit's chief stations officer, said in a statement. "This will bring a new level of empowerment and pride to our workforce, and a new level of service for our customers."

Byford has sought to improve communication with riders since taking over the city's beleaguered transit system in January. He's hired a chief customer officer and launched a series of town hall meetings on his "Fast Forward" plan to overhaul the subways.

(Lead image: Dirty stairs are seen at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn. Photo by Kathleen Culliton/Patch)