![]() ![]() A recurring thread in all of it is the idea that MTA workers should be actively getting people to pay up. The agency, officials say, is also on the brink of financial disaster as it petitions the federal government for a second $3.9 billion boost.City officials have a lot of ideas about fare evasion, both why it happens ( entitled latte drinkers, open doors) and how to fix it (blue-ribbon panels producing questionable wordplay, closing those doors). The pandemic has devastated the MTA, which has lost more than 130 employees - most of them bus and subway workers - to COVID-19. “But it is totally unacceptable that a rider would go after a bus operator on this.”Īs passengers have begun returning to city buses - there were 1.1 million riders on Wednesday, according to the MTA statistics - TWU Local 100 has been pushing for enforcement on the mask-wearing rule, with a $100 fine for those who violate it. “We are reminding people on the bus announcements, in station announcements, train announcements, we’ve got signage, we’re doing everything we possibly can,” Feinberg told THE CITY. In 2008, Brooklyn bus operator Edwin Thomas was stabbed to death in a dispute with a rider who didn’t pay. She said bus operators are not asked to enforce that passengers wear masks, in the same way they did not flag farebeaters prior to the pandemic. Sarah Feinberg, the interim president of New York City Transit, said she wants a “law-enforcement presence” in the transit system to remind riders of the mask-wearing mandate, though she noted MTA surveys show more than 90% of riders are covering their faces. The financially troubled transit agency expects to resume collecting fares next month through front-door boarding on buses that are being equipped with protective shields for drivers. In March, the MTA barred front-door boarding on most of its bus routes, allowing riders to enter without paying a fare. “It’s like the fare - when the bus operators try to enforce it, they’re putting themselves in danger.” “This is a major safety issue,” said JP Patafio, a vice president with TWU Local 100. ‘A Major Safety Issue’Ī leader of Transport Workers Union Local 100 said the ugly encounters point to the peril faced by bus operators who request that passengers cover their faces. ![]() Police said he fled and that no one was injured. Three days later at around 10:30 p.m., a man on another Brooklyn bus “became irate” over the mask requirement - and threatened to stab the driver and kill passengers aboard the B25 at Fulton Street and Carlton Avenue in Fort Greene. “He didn’t say nothing to me,” the driver said. “The virus can be passed on to me or to the innocent riding public. “Once you come on the bus it’s protocol,” said Reid, who has driven a bus since 1999. ![]() The MTA classified 76 of those violent incidents since April 15 - when Governor Andrew Cuomo made mask-wearing mandatory in the transit system - as “COVID-related” because of riders becoming enraged by social distancing or the facial-covering regulation.Īll but three attacks involved bus operators, MTA figures show, with 37 of them occurring in Brooklyn. Members and sponsors make THE CITY possible.
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