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More woes for the everyday commuter: the MTA will soon cut nearly 282 "customer assistants" from 86 stations in the city. The action, which the MTA hopes will shave $52 million from its budget, is set to take place in less than two weeks—and over the next several years the MTA will be getting rid of as many as 772 additional agents. “The plan to eliminate some secondary full-time agent booths is just one part of larger cost-saving efforts,” wrote Howard Roberts, Jr., president of New York City Transit. Both the subway fare hikes and the reduction of subway agents are a result of the MTA's messy deficit, and have left many New Yorkers beyond disgruntled. "They're going to make the subways scarier and less convenient and it's no way to treat their customers," said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. In Manhattan, 63 booths, including tourist hubs along 42nd Street, will be affected. Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues in Brooklyn, Queens Plaza and Yankee Stadium will be among the others who will feel the pinch. But with daily headlines about subway pervs whose private parts just "fell out" and serial muggers, the issue may feel less like a pinch and more like another punch to the gut.
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Another case of sudden jihad:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/student_kills_prof_nGgR2x0Omat9UDx4
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Those agents are useless and a waste of funding. Good riddance.
$52 million divided by 282 employees is over $180,000 per employee. Doubtful all the savings will come from that.
Add in pension contributions and benefits, and it's pretty close.
As much as I would like to agree that those agents are a waste of budget and not helpful with some of the worst attitudes ever displayed by paid people intended to assist...they are fairly necessary in some of the uptown stations where they witness and sometimes break up crimes.
Another reason they are necessary is because of all the faulty turnstiles, card readers, etc. in those stations. Unless the MTA finally wants to liberate some funds in their budgets towards fixing those things, they might be better off with at least part time assistants.
My only experience with these agents is reading the big signs they post saying "I CANT SELL YOU A CARD OR HELP YOU IN ANY WAY."
I bet if they cut just a couple of their completely useless board members and management they'd save a whole lot more.
Is anyone out there? Nothing but waste and mismanagement. No accountablity and NO competition. The subways are dirty, the improvements do not exist and things do not change.
Come to the 184th Street station in the morning and watch the agent sleep while behind glass only to be awaken by an urgent customer or the ringing of a phone. Oh yes..and talk, talk, talk on the phone they do.
Can you explain to me the real purpose of these agents? I see the graffiti on the walls within feet of the booth and even on the very windows of the booth itself.
And their purpose is???
Last time I spoke to a "service agent" was 2 weeks ago in an unfamiliar station in Brooklyn. I went to her booth to ask which exit leads to Pacific Avenue. She snapped at me because she thought I was somebody else, but never apologized afterward.
I should have asked somebody not collecting an MTA check.
...but who will sit in their booth and ignore rapes happening in the station?
Queens Plaza = Rikers Island transfer station. What could go wrong?
They serve no function. All they can do is hand you the envelope you need to mail back your defective Metro Card. That's it. Crime will happen with or without them in the booth...
I don't even think they can do that. I am at west 4th street daily, and they could just as easily have a recording that goes off every 5mins, cause all you ever here them say is, oh yeah that card doesn't work(No shit sherlock!)you need to send it back and have it replaced, envelopes, what envelopes?? That and No i don't have any maps to give you, just pay your fare and get on a train.
Well, they do open the emergency exit for you when you've got a large object.
I luckily have never been in an emergency where I need them but it's fun to freak out the sleeping ones by banging on the glass.
A few less attitudinal ghetto slobs on the city payroll. BFD.
At least everyone here agrees. The station agents and customer assistants are totally useless.
My favorites are the guys at 181st street that sit in the elevator and press the up and down buttons.
The MTA as an organization is a complete waste and needs to be privatized. Most of their current leadership should probably be executed for treason. We need more personal accountability in this country and cutting the heads off of the MTA heads and disemboweling them publicly would go a long way towards re-establishing that.
so what do all you geniuses do when the turnstile keeps asking you to swipe the card over and over and over and over when you're trying to get to work? wait fifteen minutes to try another turnstile or ask the clerk to let you through? i don't know what they do most of their time, but when there are mechanical failures (turnstiles or dispensers), what are you supposed to do? sure a lot of them are pricks and there's tons of fat to be trimmed, but i've had one help me fish something i dropped out of the tracks for god's sake! i wasn't going down there to get it.
Trust me when i say, the kindness or help you received is VERY RARE from anyone MTA related. On the packed trains home, guess who are the first people to take seats, MTA emoployees(AND they're probably riding for free!), proudly sporting their MTA logo, at least the cops regardless of on or off duty, are not allowed to sit. I guess it's tiring to sit in a booth all day and treat people like shit.