MTA Says "No" To Food Ban On Trains

You know the scene. You’ve been there. You hop on the train at Sheepshead Bay Road. A few stops down the line, someone gets on with some crappy Chinese food. Or ketchup-drowned french fries. Or curry. Or, hell, spaghetti – because why the heck not?

Does that odor bother you? It’s going to be one… long… ride…

And that’s got some asking, “Should food be banned on the subway? ”

MTA Chairman Jay Walder says absolutely not, and has rejected the idea outright. But he still believes we should have a little common courtesy.

“I think we all have responsibility to try to treat our subway system and fellow riders with respect. I think that extends to food as well,” Walder said after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s monthly board meeting Wednesday.

Another reason Walder decided against the ban is because of the huge inconvenience it would cause commuters, and the expense involved in enforcing it.

“This is a system that carries five million people a day, and I’m not sure a ban on food is really practical or enforceable,” he told the Daily News.

Other MTA boardmembers, though, say banning food is a “swell idea,” though stopped short of proposing it. At the very least, they’re arguing that, post-mastication, these filthy commuters ought to learn a darn thing about the garbage can. Boardmember Charles Moerdler says litterbugs are the real problem, not the people who eat on the subway.

“They’re the cause of rats. They’re the cause of the fires. We have to do something to make it clear that the public has to wake up,” Moerdler said.

Who among us can say they’ve never had a chomp on the chute? So what do you think?  Should eating be banned on the subway?