The MTA is mulling reserved seating for subways and buses to make sure social distancing as soon as New York begins reopening.
MTA Chairman and CEO Pat Foye mentioned the thought is amongst a number of methods the authority is kicking round to maintain commuters and transit staff secure post-coronavirus lockdown.
“In that state of affairs clients, at the least for some time frame, could be requested to make a reservation,” he mentioned throughout a CRAIN’s New York Enterprise panel Thursday.
“That’s not one thing we’ve decided on; we’re not shut to creating a call.”
The reservation system must use the MTA’s new and nonetheless restricted OMNY fee system together with “Ticketmaster know-how,” Foye added.
Foye acknowledged the unimaginable logistical hurdles to creating such a system work, however needed to drift the idea to point out the MTA is exploring all choices — “all the things is on the desk,” he mentioned.
“Clearly, a reservation system would have all kinds of issues right here in New York, given 472 [subway] stations and, pre-pandemic, tens of millions of passengers,” he mentioned.
Transit advocates doubted reservations could be a workable answer.
“How would it not work to order a seat on a subway practice?” requested Ben Fried, a spokesman for TransitCenter.
“I believe there may very well be a model of it at a number of the greatest stations, the place there’s some form of monitoring of how crowded situations are inside … however I believe that may solely be workable at sure stations.”
Fried believes employers must play a task in staggering hours or step by step bringing their workforces again to verify trains and buses stay comfortably full.
“Until you’ve gotten individuals staffing each door of the practice, I simply don’t imagine you’ll be capable to management particular person actions like that,” he added.
Foye reiterated that the MTA’s prime concern in the mean time is securing extra federal funding to make the company complete after the pandemic decimated public transit ridership.
“Growing transit service when the federal government begins to elevate New York on PAUSE downstate goes to be extremely essential to the restoration of New York Metropolis and the New York Metropolis area. It could actually’t occur with out sturdy and dependable and secure service by the MTA,” Foye mentioned
“The regional economic system’s and admittedly the nationwide economic system’s restoration can be slowed and stunted if the MTA doesn’t get federal funding … but in addition if we’re not in a position to restore service in the way in which I simply described,” he mentioned.
As soon as town does get shifting once more, Foye envisions a transit system the place masks are necessary for staff and riders. MTA workers must get their temperatures checked every day and in-station cameras can be used to observe subway crowding ranges, he mentioned.
Cleanings must be intensified.
“There isn’t any single step to it,” he mentioned. “It will be a multiplicity of actions taken which is able to contain innovation and know-how.”