MTA doubling its efforts to disinfect touch points throughout the NYC region
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will increase its disinfecting efforts of touch points to twice a day on New York City Transit, MTA Bus Company, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North as it intensifies its efforts to protect against the novel coronavirus.
MTA will continue its 72-hour or less full fleet cleaning schedule and daily disinfection of the Access-A-Ride fleet.
Frequently used surfaces that will see an increase in cleaning in stations, include turnstiles, MetroCard and ticket vending machines and handrails. The MTA continues to use EPA-approved and CDC-endorsed disinfectants.
At Metro-North’s New Rochelle station, crews will be performing a weekly deep cleaning and a dedicated cleaning crew is now stationed there daily. Cleaning crews have redoubled efforts to clean major touch points at the station, cleaning once at night and again during the day to ensure commuters traveling from that station are safe as possible. New Rochelle has the largest cluster of COVID-19 cases in New York and a section has been placed under "Containment Zone."
“Our top priority is to ensure we are doing all we can to make the system as safe as possible for customers and employees,” said Patrick J. Foye, MTA Chairman and CEO. “We are investigating new advanced disinfectant methods to build on the round-the-clock efforts our hard-working employees are undertaking to sanitize the system.”
The MTA has continued to deploy health guidance PSAs at stations, on train cars and buses to complement customer messaging already deployed across 3,600 subway screens, 2,000 bus screens and at 84 subway station street entrances. The same messaging has also been deployed across 550 railroad screens. The MTA has stockpiles of hygienic supplies on hand and continues to procure cleaning materials, while working hand-in-hand with the National Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the State Department of Health (DOH), and other government agencies.
Daily car disinfection of New York City Transit’s 6,714 subway cars, Staten Island Railway’s 64 cars, and Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North's over 1,100 cars each, continues so that no car in a fleet would go beyond a 72-hour period without a full cleaning. This cleaning cycle also includes the MTA’s 5,700 buses and fleet of 1,341 dedicated Access-A-Ride vans, which are fully disinfected daily.
Cumulatively since March 2, there have been 16,225 subway cars disinfected, as well as 293 Staten Island Railway cars, 16,049 NYC Transit and MTA buses, 11,045 Paratransit vehicles, 4,756 Long Island Rail Road train cars, and 3,635 Metro-North Railroad train cars.
There are 472 subway stations, 21 stations along Staten Island Railway, the 124 stations and terminals along Long Island Rail Road and 124 stations throughout Metro-North's territory.
“We are taking every precaution to ensure the health and safety of our employees that continue to show their dedication to move 8 million commuters every day,” said MTA Chief Operating Officer Mario Péloquin. “Our employees continue to do a terrific job disinfecting stations, trains and buses to keep us all safe.”
