NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg appeared on PIX 11 Morning News with Dan Mannarino to discuss transit plans as New York City enters Phase 4 reopening.
A transcript of the interview appears below.
Dan Mannarino: New York City entering the next stage of reopening, which means more people on the streets riding the buses and the subways, right, as they venture out into the heat. Joining us this morning in New York City Transit president Sarah Feinberg to explain how things are moving along over at the MTA. So good morning to you, Ms. Feinberg. Thanks for joining us.
Sarah Feinberg: Good morning. Great to be with you.
Mannarino: Always good to have you here. So let's talk about it right, more riders equals more safety measures, what's being done this morning to ensure the next phase of reopening goes smoothly? We kind of talk about this each and every phase.
Feinberg: That's right. Welcome to Phase 4. So I wish there was better weather to greet everyone you know, like breezy and 75 would be better than 104, I can't believe that weather report. But this is what you're going to see in the subway system today: hundreds of volunteers out in force handing out masks if you need them. So by now I think everyone's gotten the message on masks, I see widespread compliance. We know most people are, 95% or so of riders are wearing their mask, but if you end up in the system and you've forgotten your mask or broke on you or fell out of your pocket, first of all, all of our station boots have masks just ask for one. Second of all, we're going to have hundreds of volunteers in the system, on trains, in stations handing out masks if you need them.
Mannarino: Good information there, but I want to talk about this uptick in attacks, though on MTA workers despite the dramatic decrease in ridership and involves that mask you speak of. The New York Post reporting more than 20% of these attacks are related to the mask and social distancing requirements. In fact, there were 515 attacks between April 15 and June 30. So, what is being done here to protect the workers?
Feinberg: If someone can explain this to me I'm all ears. It's inexcusable. I think by and large, the vast majority of New Yorkers don't understand it. We wear masks to protect ourselves, protect our family members, to show them respect to our fellow New Yorkers. The fact that you would get on an MTA bus, New York City Transit bus, refuse to wear a mask and then attack the bus operator, it's just, it's appalling and it’s abhorrent and it's inexcusable. We're working closely with the police and with the DA’s office to make sure that we prosecute these cases to the fullest. And by the way, there's cameras both on buses and on the streets, and so if we see this kind of behavior we're obviously going to be cooperating with the police at every path, but it's just, it's inexcusable.
Mannarino: Yeah, I mean, in one of those cases, the windshield of a bus was actually cracked because of a passenger throwing a bottle at that windshield because the bus driver said, ‘can you please put on your mask.’ But let's move on to two big questions I have this morning: one being when is overnight subway service going to resume? I know the answer is when the pandemic is over, but what does that mean?
Feinberg: Well, you have the answer right, when the pandemic is over. So I won't be the one to call the end of the pandemic, I'll leave that to public health experts to let us know when it's when the pandemic is over. For now, we continue to do the cleaning 24/7, we're cleaning the stations multiple times a day, cleaning the cars multiple times a day. What's important to though is that we're also being really responsive to the science as it changes, to the medical guidance as it changes. So we're all we're seeing a lot more about aerosols and about how the virus can move through air streams, and so we're making sure that we have top, state of the art, the best possible air filters that we possibly can to make sure that air is circulating all the time. So we're going to continue to do everything we can to keep people safe, whether it's cleaning or make sure the air is circulating.
Mannarino: You know and the other question was, we've been hearing a lot about this doomsday situation for the MTA. Now being reported that several lines would have to be cut due to the decrease in ridership during the COVID crisis. Is there any truth to these scenarios? And if there is, what are the lines you are actually looking at?
Feinberg: Well look, in my mind, so first of all to our finance crisis, it's absolutely true that we are in a dire financial situation. We have called on our federal partners to please step in and help us just like they did after 9/11, just like they did after Superstorm Sandy, just like New Yorkers do when other parts of the country are affected by an emergency, or, some sort of tragedy, so we need our federal partners to step up. We're also making sure that we are you know, both actively making cuts internally so that our house is in order, but also looking at if that federal assistance doesn't come through, what do we need to do on our end? Service cuts are certainly on the table because everything has to be on the table. The reality is, is you don't get a lot of bang for the buck there, when you cut service you don't get you don't get a ton of savings, but you're impacting people's lives. And so that has to be, that has to go at the end, that has to be the absolute last resort. So we're going to do everything we can first before we get to that. I don't have a list of potential service cuts for you right now, we're putting that together but that should be, that should be our, the last thing we look at. We've got to make sure that we do everything else before that.
Mannarino: Understood Sarah Feinberg, Interim President of New York City Transit. Always appreciate you joining us this morning for the update.
Feinberg: Great to be with you.
Mannarino: All right, take care.