Q&A
MTA's plans for updating campaigns and infrastructure to address subway surfing
2:45:43
·
4 min
The MTA outlines plans for updating public awareness campaigns and implementing infrastructure changes to combat subway surfing. Council Member Brooks-Powers inquires about specific measures and suggests potential solutions.
- MTA plans to install 10,000 cameras across all subway cars by the end of the year
- Discussion of potential locks between train cars controlled by conductors
- Implementation of platform barriers and blue light pilots to deter track intrusion
- Exploration of engineering solutions and revisiting past ideas for implementation
Franck Joseph
2:45:43
Yeah.
2:45:44
Thank you for that.
2:45:44
And, you know, for us, in terms of next steps, one thing that we're we everyone spoke about here is how do we update, you know, the campaign that exists and, you know, bring that, you know, 2 point o version of it alive.
2:45:56
On our end, we've been charged by chair Lever and by president Critchlow to look at what are, some immediate solves that we can do, and so we are looking at that.
2:46:07
You know, you heard earlier, and I know council member Danowitz kind of pinned down on it a little more about, cameras.
2:46:14
We were charged to have 10,000 cameras across all of our, fleet, and we will have, by the end of this year, all 10, 10,000 cameras in all our fleets.
2:46:25
So every subway car will have cameras, And I know that, you know, people say, hey.
2:46:30
Where else can we place the cameras?
2:46:31
Recently, there were 2 13 year old, girls who were trying to climb on top of a train, and the camera did, see them, and we were able to stop them from climbing on top of the train.
2:46:44
So we will continue doubling down our efforts.
2:46:46
We are going to look at those engineering solves, and revisit some things that we've, thought about of of in the, in the past and and see what is that implementation process, what would that look like?
2:46:58
And we'll continue to have, you know, those good faith dialogues with you and update you on what we're doing on our end and and working with our, city partners here as well.
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
2:47:06
And I'd like to explore, getting the the locks that could be controlled from the conductor between the
Franck Joseph
2:47:16
carts.
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
2:47:16
So would love to see how, I know you guys just approved your next capital plan, but how we are able to prioritize funding to explore, maybe do a pilot program to see if that also can impact.
2:47:30
If we know that the 7 line is that line with the scenic route that they're going for, like, let's try and see how we retrofit the 7 train, 7 line train to address that because we know already where the majority is.
2:47:46
We know what they're looking for.
2:47:48
And so next step is to be able to look at how we impact the infrastructure.
2:47:55
And I know at one point, MTA had installed the glass barriers at some stations also as a way of, like, preventing people from jumping onto the tracks and things like that, that pilot program that you all were doing.
2:48:12
And I'm not sure how it's going, but just thinking about how we can move in a pilot fashion to try and combat some of this and thinking outside of the box on that, I would love to to see that and get a report out from the MTA on that.
Franck Joseph
2:48:27
Definitely.
2:48:28
And and since you mentioned track intrusion, we have started putting, platform barriers as a way to tell our customers where they should be standing as they're waiting, for the train.
2:48:38
So every month we're you know, we have a couple of stations that we're targeting and and we'll continue to do so, and and we're exploring what does it look like to kind of, you know, potentially expand that.
2:48:50
And so we're looking at our platform barriers and, you know, one to 2 a month that we're putting, the platform screen doors we, were not able to move forward with, and but the these, barriers have proven useful.
2:49:01
We're hearing back.
2:49:02
We have our surveys that we put out every month and also our quarterly surveys.
2:49:05
We're hearing back from customers, and saying that it's very useful knowing where they should be standing, waiting for the train.
2:49:11
That way, you know, it it, decreases the the potential of someone, you know, going into the road bed.
2:49:16
And, you know, we've done other work such as our blue light, pilot, where, you know, having a a particular colored lights and type of lights actually, you know, decreases the likelihood that a person would, have adverse behavior, including jumping onto the road bed.
2:49:32
So we've put that in a number of our stations across the system.
2:49:36
And so we're we're looking at many different avenues, not just to combat subway surfing, but also to, combat track intrusion as well.
