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A pilot program to keep subway stations cleaner on the No. 7 and L lines was a success, but transit officials are balking at the cost of implementing it citywide, which would be approximately $100 million. The test run increased the number of cleaners at all stations on two subway lines, providing round the clock service; an MTA analysis found that those stations had heavy litter just 10% of the time, down from 33% before the pilot program. But NYC Transit would have to hire an additional 1,575 cleaners and spend nearly $230,000 per hub to meet those standards, the Daily News reports. And $100 million is no small potatoes in a time when the MTA is facing a nearly $1 billion budget deficit and considering service cuts. [Photo cred.]
MTA Says Clean Stations Will Cost $100 Million
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How about hiring fewer cleaners and instead hiring people to fine people who litter? Or sentencing people to cleaning the subway stations and tracks?
how about people stop being so fucking lazy and they pick up their trash. i've called out at least twenty people when they throw shit on the ground. why should i have to pay for people's laziness.
how about a few steam cleaners. that would blast off the nastiness in a lot of places. like 125th & Lex on the 4 train uptown side all the way in the back...someone blew out some rhea on the wall...
how about the cops that stand around the stations chatting with one another make some effort to spot and fine the folks who litter? In other words - do their jobs.
the last time i even glanced disapprovingly at someone for littering in a subway station, I got verbally abused for the next 10 minutes.
the guy goes on and on yelling at me, cursing me out, insulting my intelligence, insulting my "virtue", insulting my mother, works himself up into a total tizzy and all he's got left for his big climax is "if you don't like me throwing my shit on the tracks, go back to arkansas", and then he peters out.
my train finally pulls up, the door's about to open, i see that he's not going to get on the train, so I turn to him and just say "you have a WONDERFUL day" in my sweetest little voice - ha, pissed him off more than everything else, he starts ranting and screaming and going crazy all over again and the people on the subway car were giving me the best looks: made my day.
agree with #1, there are cops in my station all the time and if they starting issuing tickets for littering it would bring in money and potentially decrease the trash.
And cleaning stations would be a great community service assignment.
Finally, why aren't there "adopt a station" programs. The filth of the stations system wide is a disgrace. I'm floored at the state of the ones where thousands of tourist come through (34th ST, 42nd ST are prime examples), you'd think if the city was going to focus on some it would be those. They need a power-scrubbing of the platforms/walls/support beams over head - it is disgusting.
Public caning for littering like they do in Singapore.
MTA, you're a bunch of lazy fucks. Why can't you keep the subways clean like they are in Tokyo?
Ban eating in the subway. That would take care of a LOT of litter, especially liter that attracts vermin.
I agree that a big part of the problem is littering. Every time I come home from travel overseas and see the state of the airports and the subways, it just makes my heart sink. Even Canada manages to keep their public spaces not only clean but pleasant to be in. Every time I go down to a subway station, I feel like I'm an animal locked up in a back room in a zoo, with all the locked gates, and concrete, all sorts of unmentionable litter, and the fetid stench. We're supposed to be the Big Apple but there's nothing appetizing about our public areas.
How about those community re-entry programs like Ready Willing and Able? The participants do a great job of keeping certain areas looking great.
There should be a law to mandate
all public school students to perform
cleaning duties,
just like Japan has its students do.
Yes give them gloves, and a bucket.
There would be less crime, and less b.s.
if the students are tired from cleaning.
They would have no energy to harrass and
learn how to rob and pick up a gun.
how inventing a laser beam that zaps all the trash away.
In Tokyo and many other cities, its not culturally or socially acceptable to litter like we do. Most other systems close between midnight and 5 to allow for full station cleanings. This is why the MTA will never be as clean as other systems so it's pretty pointless to compare it to other places.
#13, It's not like the stations in Tokyo and other cities are really accumulating any litter during operating hours.
I think the being closed between midnight and 5 allows for a lot of track work that would otherwise be done on weekends.
Oh my, we have to pay $12.50 for every man, woman, and child in this city so we can have a clean subway?
I do like your plan though PathtoWisdom. It really is a great idea. Kids simply shouldn't have the time to commit crimes. When they are out of school, they should be put to work!
The city is overrun with human vermin. We have seen them all. They treat the subway like a buffet table. Knives, forks, plates, rice, beans, chicken bones, soda cans strewn everywhere. They jam food into their disgusting faces like it was going out of style. Those that come from third world nations have brought that mentality with them. They have lived in squalor and see nothing wrong with it. We then have the assholes with a sense of entitlement who find nothing wrong with spilling coffee all over the floor. Then we have people who piss and shit all over the platforms. Exterminate the human vermin before you bring one extra mop and bucket onto the platforms
I just did community service cleaning the train stations. Let me tell you something, the MTA doesn't have to hire new cleaners, they need to stop paying the current workers so damn much to do absolutely nothing. I talked to my overseer, who told me he makes about $60,000 a year. This is a guy who only has to sweep, change garbage bags, and occasionally wipe down machines. I'd say the work takes less than half of their day. The rest of the time, they sit around doing absolutely nothing, waiting for the time that they can go to their next station. Not to mention, they have community service people doing essentially their jobs for them. Instead of locking up people or giving them long probations, they should just make them clean the damn subways.
These kids that you want cleaning the station, would they be paid?
i blame the unions, as illusrated by #17
im starting to really hate this city
#17, thanks for the insight.
Actually I think you'd be surprised how much a clean, litter-free environment actually discourages littering. Have you ever seen people chasing down their napkins when they blow away in Bryant Park? I see that all the time. Probably not behavior you would have seen when that place was a drug-infested garbage hole. I think once you got the system to a clean standard, you would start to see a reduction in littering, similar to the way that once they started cleaning graffiti off every subway car, the rate of vandalism plummeted.
Anyway, I think the $100 million would be worth it. Unless I'm mistaken, that's roughly a ten-cent fare increase.
My question would be about their efficiency. I've seen their sweeping, and the deliberate pace of these super-compensated workers is not dazzling. I've seen their power-washing operation too. Never have I seen 4 people move so slow. And there never seems to be a supervisor around, unless he's the guy on the bench with the sandwich. It seriously looks like they are in a contest to see who can walk the slowest. I would beg the MTA to build more performance incentives into their compensation packages, but these union bullies go on strike at even the suggestion that workers pay 1% of their salary towards their health benefits. Maybe $40K/year with full benefits and pension at age 55 is a little much for a sweeper. That's why we can't have a clean system.
If you notice it's not just the subways that have a litter problem you know that the problem is the people, most of all.
New Yorkers should be absolutely ashamed of themselves with how much they freely toss their trash wherever.
I agree that fines for littering should be enforced. I don't know how else to go about it.
Publicly caning litterbugs would work. Also the spoiled slobs employed by the MTA ought to all be fired. Then hire people with stronger work ethics.
Aren't there people on staff to clean the stations? Rather than spend a shit-ton of money that the MTA doesn't have, maybe they should just retrain the staff that already exists.
Yes, the city is full of slobs.
Yes, it's a contradiction keep the system clean and sell food in the system.
But, the math doesn't make sense. We have just under 280 stations and it takes 100 million dollars to keep them clean? That's about $357,150 per station per year.
280 stations? Where'd you get that number? The MTA operates 468 subway stations.
It may not completely solve the problem, but I would love to see more recycling bins throughout (I think I've seen just one! I forget where...) Especially considering all of the newspapers read down there.
Angrygod:
Your point about cost per station is acknowledged, but there are currently 467 active stations in the system, not 280.
That makes it about $215,000 per station. That's not just salaries, however, that's also mobile wash machinery, waste disposal, etc. And remember, this is a cost for an improved cleaning system, as they have piloted on the L & 7 lines, which got vastly improved cleaning grades on the last Riders Report Card.
I'm not saying there isn't waste at the MTA...but some people really underestimate what it actually costs to run the largest urban transportation system in the world, mainly because they're paying less than $2 a ride.
$100 mil seems correct when its discovered that they, like their long island brethren, can make over $2500 a day!
Bring back the WPA, and use tax dollars to help fund this program that would otherwise go to the "bailout."
Also to #17, I had no idea the cleaners made this much...thank you for the input!
While I realize I reap the benefits of some work from the Unions over the years, why for instance does the US still have the fewest vacation days of any first world country? As far as other benefits, you either have none or all, depending on whether your industry is represented by a union.
#17
Subway cleaners ABSOLUTLY DO NOT make that much money.
Stations Supervisors MIGHT make that.
Cleaner on Avg pulls about 40,000
$40k is still an awful lot for such a simple job.
But I wouldn't want transit cops to be more involved. Remember, they're still NYPD. They'd probably start throwing suspects onto the tracks then claim they jumped. Being Poganed in the subway wouldn't be fun.
40K is more than starting teacher salary
He said with overtime, 60,000. Regardless, I say get rid of the unions and hire all the illegal immigrants. They'd get the job done right.
I just saw an ad on TV for the 'see something say something' campaign, on channel 5 I think. Perhaps if they didnt waste their budget on unnecessary ads like that they would have a bit more money to provide a clean service.
$40k is still an awful lot for such a simple job.
On your feet all day, oppressively hot stations in the summer, hypothermic stations in the winter, battling rat infestations in refuse rooms, trying not to injure yourself disposing of the unbelievable crap that people throw away in the subway, mopping up puke from sunday morning party goers trying to find their way home.
I could use several adjectives to describe that kind of job...."Simple" would not be one of them.
Its not just subway stations, this whole country is turning into a garbage dump. No one has personal responsibility anymore.
I would love to see those who litter have to pay at least a $1,000 fine and be forced to do community service by picking up trash.