It’s transit riders who will suffer the most, some say, if the MTA goes through with a plan to lay off more than 1,000 workers.
Desperate for cash, the MTA plans to eliminate some 600 union and non-union administrative workers and lay off over 500 station agents, those red-vested transit employees who sell MetroCards and monitor life underground.
“A station agent can stop crime or help a lost passenger,” warned John Samuelson, head of the Transit Workers Union.
“These layoffs are extremely painful, but we must live within our means,” said MTA chairman Jay Walder.
Fewer station agents will mean a spike in crime, said Andrew Albert, chair of the New York City Transit Riders Council. “There’s nobody there,” he said. “God forbid a terrorist decides to waltz into the subway.”
Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said the number of unmonitored entrances in the subway system would present “an invitation to turnstile jumping.”