MTA Chairman and CEO Jano Lieber said the congestion pricing system launched Monday will force more New Yorkers to take troubled public transit. In response, he dismissed subway crime as “all in people's heads.''
In an interview with Bloomberg Surveillance Monday morning, Lieber sidestepped concerns about subway safety, telling listeners: ”
“The overall statistics are positive. In fact, crime numbers were down 12.5 percent last year compared to 2019, the year before COVID-19,” Lieber said.
Asked about installing guardrails similar to mass transit systems in other major cities such as London and Tokyo, Lieber said the MTA is initially focused on fare evasion post-COVID-19, but will also improve safety. He said a wall would be erected later.
“Since fare evasion, we have invested $1 billion in new capital programs, and this whole phenomenon has certainly accelerated post-COVID. “It worked when I was a kid, but it's clearly no longer effective where we live,” he said.
The MTA chief's comments come after a series of attacks on the city's transit system, including the shocking attack on Debrina Khawam, 57, who was set on fire on a Brooklyn F train in front of horrified commuters. The announcement came after a high-profile attack.
There have been at least five attacks in the days since Khawam's death, including the fatal stabbing of an MTA worker working in the Bronx at the Pelham Parkway station on Thursday.
Last week alone, four commuters were slashed on consecutive days, including a 52-year-old man stabbed in the arm at the Myrtle Wyckoff L station in Brooklyn. A 48-year-old man was slashed in the neck at the West 50th Street and 8th Avenue station in Manhattan. And the remaining two on New Year's Day.
In the violent incidents, a 30-year-old man was slashed in the arm during an altercation with another commuter at the 110th Street/Cathedral Parkway station in Manhattan, and a 31-year-old man was slashed in the back at the 14th Street station. I was stabbed. Arrive at Manhattan Street Station in just 15 minutes.
Last Tuesday, music programmer Joseph Lynskey, 45, miraculously survived what was apparently an unprovoked attack when he was randomly shoved in front of a No. 1 train in Manhattan.
Violence continued to pervade New York City's subways over the weekend, with a 38-year-old man stabbed in the arm inside the 6th Express station at Third Avenue and 138th Street in Mott Haven. The victim was taken to the hospital, where his condition is stable.
In the wake of transport disruption, volunteer vigilante group Guardian Angels has resumed patrolling subways for the first time since 2020, at levels not seen since their inception in the late 1970s. .
The group, founded by former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, aims to provide water and assistance to homeless people on subway cars, and says it will report any problems to the NYPD.
