The Night Shift: MTA Edition

This week the subway system closed to riders between 1 am and 5 am for deep cleaning that will continue for the foreseeable future. MTA is providing free bus service and car-service for essential workers who need it, the city is assisting with clearing the trains and stations, and directing homeless subway residents to above-ground shelters and medical help.

Did you know:

• More than 700 cleaners work each night to disinfect subway cars and deep clean subway stations. There are 2,500 cleaners working over the 24-hour period within New York City Transit.
• More than 1,000 NYPD officers secured stations and helped clear trains. NYPD also focused efforts at 30 end-of-line stations.
• Crews are cleaning and disinfecting of all MTA rolling stock around the clock, including poles, seating, floor, ceiling, doors and walls. Every car in passenger service is disinfected at least every 24 hours. Trains are disinfected at terminals during particular hours over the course of the day.
• While cleaning activities take place 24/7, the four-hour closure of the system enables crews to deep clean stations, yards, and terminals, where crews remove garbage and graffiti, clean spills and bio hazards, mop floors, clean seats cleaning, and disinfect surfaces.
• The MTA has significantly enhanced overnight bus service, adding 1,168 trips – a 76% increase – and 344 buses on top of the 235 that currently run during these hours – an approximately 150% increase in the operational fleet.
• The MTA enhanced service on 61 bus lines, including 11 interborough express routes with additional stops (five routes in the Bronx, three each in Brooklyn and Queens), and 13 new routes that normally don’t offer overnight service (17 in Brooklyn, 13 in Queens, 10 each in the Bronx and Manhattan). Thirty-seven routes have added overnight service. Here is a link to more info and the Brooklyn night bus map.
• The B44 serving Kings County Hospital will run every 15 minutes, rather than once an hour.
• MTA is testing three antimicrobial biostats that are applied after the surfaces inside buses and trains are cleaned and disinfected. These biostats lay down a protective colorless, odorless barrier on surfaces that does not allow germs to grow.
• MTA will pilot the use of ultraviolet light technology to disinfect subway and buses in the second week of May. Ultraviolet (UV) light is an efficient, proven, and effective technology for eliminating viruses, used in hospital operating rooms. If proven successful, the MTA will deploy these solutions systemwide.