The MTA on Monday reopened 18 bathrooms at 9 subway stations after all of the system’s restrooms closed throughout the pandemic on account of what officers claimed was a scarcity of cleaners.
It’s a fraction of the 133 bathrooms the MTA reviews are tucked in subway stations throughout town — however marks the first time since March 2020 that riders have a spot to alleviate themselves with out exiting the turnstiles.
Transit officers stated they’ve not too long ago employed extra cleaners and “took advantage” of the almost three-year rest room hiatus to make upgrades like automated taps, tile grouting and new indicators with the hours of operation.
However good luck finding a bathroom in the subway stations. There aren’t any way-finding indicators in the stations to direct riders in the direction of the john.
Nonetheless, Shlomo Gavriyah, 60, a veteran subway rider, knew the place to go on the Jay Avenue-MetroTech station when he needed to go.
“Us old guys don’t want to urinate on the tracks, so it’s good,” he stated Monday concerning the newly reopened bogs.
However Gavriyah frightened the circumstances in the bathrooms will deteriorate rapidly.
“Don’t just open them, monitor them,” stated Gavriyah. “Because it’s still a lot of homeless people out and they’ll use the bathrooms and lock themselves in, so people who really need to use them won’t be able to use them.
Coming out of the women’s room at Jay Street-MetroTech, Haby Sylla, 42, found the toilets “very, very clean,” however didn’t assume all of the bogs at subway stations ought to reopen.
“I think it’s best to open the ones that have a lot of people around,” Sylla stated. “For safety.”
The MTA has additionally diminished the hours the bathrooms are open. Earlier than the pandemic, the restrooms would shut between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. Now, they’re solely open from 7 a.m to 7 p.m., with a one-hour cleansing break between 12 p.m and 1 p.m.
Rosie Cola, a foreperson at decrease Manhattan’s Fulton Avenue station who’s in cost of protecting its bathrooms open, closed the subway rest room proper at midday for cleansing.
(*9*) stated Cola. “They’re being responsible and we’re now cleaning so that it’s germ free. But we don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s a trial today, see how it goes.”
The subways have 133 bathrooms throughout 69 stations, in keeping with MTA officers. That’s fewer than transit officers reported in 1989, when information obtained by Gothamist present NYC Transit officers listed 210 public bogs at 106 stations.
MTA representatives declined to say when — or if — the remaining bathrooms will open.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber final yr flushed chilly water on any hopes for extra openings.
“We can’t be the bathroom for all of New York,” Lieber stated in a September interview.
Bathrooms are open on the following stations:
- 161 St–Yankee Stadium
- 14 St–Union Sq.
- East 180 St.
- 42 St–Bryant Park
- Jay St–MetroTech
- Kings Freeway
- Jackson Hts–Roosevelt Ave.
- Forest Hills–71 Ave.
- Fulton St.