While the MTA’s Doomsday budget with fare hikes and service cuts for all is but a memory, one aspect of the plan — the reduction of station agents throughout the system — remains set for a Sept. 20 rollout. On that day, the MTA will begin phasing out station agents through attrition, and eventually, the system will be leaner the payroll and quite possibly meaner for straphangers fearing for their safety at half-empty stations.
As it became clear after the Albany bailout passed that the MTA would still be cutting these agents, I’ve looked skeptically at their roles in the system. In my non-verified opinion, these station agents provide the illusion of safety. They can’t stop crime and are forbidden from leaving their booths to assist passengers in need. They can provide directions, place phone calls and just sit there as a deterrent presence.
During the build-up to these staffing cuts, the MTA has pursued this line of thinking as well. Straphangers support the agents, but the MTA has claimed that agents field on average less than a handful of support requests every hour. They are, says the transit authority, largely superfluous.
Our city comptroller disagrees. William C. Thompson has written to the MTA Board a scathing indictment of the MTA’s internal report on the station agent program. While the letter, as of this writing, isn’t up yet on Thompson’s website, Heather Haddon has more:
An internal MTA study used to justify the closure of station agent booths across the subway system is “faulty” and “defective,” according to city Comptroller William Thompson.
In a letter sent to the MTA board Wednesday, Thompson blasted the agency’s reasoning in closing 105 booths manned by red-vested station agents later this month, countering many of the MTA’s arguments and the way the survey was conducted. “The report appears to have been written … with the goal of demonstrating that the (station agent) program is a failure,” he wrote…
Thompson’s office said it found that the station agents were busy, helping passengers a total of 820 times during the observation period. Workers assisted riders every three minutes at more than a third of the stations. The transit survey also said that agents did not deter crime, with felonies in the system down drastically since 2002. But Thompson argued that the report did not address misdemeanor crimes like theft or harassment, which are more common than felonies.
I’ll reserver further judgment until I have a chance to review Thompson’s charges, but if rigorous, his claims would give me pause. The MTA is going to save $16 million through 2010 as they eliminate these station agents. If Thompson’s charges hold water, the city could easily see those savings vanish through inefficiencies and an increase in subway crimes — including vandalism.
The station agents are indicative of a larger problem with running a system such as New York’s. Because the city is open for business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, the subways must be too. Because the track mileage is vast, the system is relatively open, and controlled access points — along with people to man those points — are relatively scarce. The MTA can only cut back so many services, so many station agents, before the cuts take a collective toll on the safety, security and stability of the subway system.
As the station agents hit the chopping block in less than three weeks, the MTA will engage in a real-life experiment in subway security. Can the subways operate without the station agents? Can they operate efficiently with them? We’ll find out, but this debate is far from over.
22 comments
Thompson is right- this is an idiotic move. Who’s going to call the EMTs when there’s an accident or emergency (last I checked my cell phone still doesn’t get a signal in most stations)? Who’s going to call the transit police on fare-jumpers? Who’s going to give tourists directions about which street they have to cross to get to the downtown platform? Who’s going to distribute subway and bus maps? Who’s going to open the gate for me and my bicycle, and turn off the alarm when trailblazers beeline for the stairway?
Since when do station agents give tourists directions?
all the time. I thought you were paying attention? you post here often enough to make it sound like you do.
I was. When I ask for directions, even for stuff they should know like “Where is Lost Property?” at Penn Station, they don’t give any useful information.
I have been a Railroad Clerk ? Station Agent for 15 out of my 21 years with the Transit Authority and I have been given a lot of information to tourists, some of them wanted to give me tips but I refused because I told them it was my job. Anyone who does not know Station Agents give directions to tourists probably does not use the Subway
I have been a Railroad Clerk / Station Agent for 15 out of my 21 years with the Transit Authority and I have been given a lot of information to tourists, some of them wanted to give me tips but I refused because I told them it was my job. Anyone who does not know Station Agents give directions to tourists probably does not use the Subway
What realistic effect on security do these booth clerks really provide? Anybody recall last year’s rape that occurred right on the platform, right in front of the eyes of said booth clerk?
True that its technically not in their job description to step in, but they need to quit promoting how they are there for safety. The girl was raped and beat up and the guy got away with it well before NYPD could arrive in time. How could someone just sit there and watch a young girl get raped and now have the human decency or even rage to stop it? The only security these guys provide is theatre.
I think booth clerks should be stationed at the busy transfer stations and nowhere else. Maps are on the wall, directions are pretty easy to come by, turnstile jumpers are generally caught by the undercovers or blatantly obvious officer on post,and in all my years living here, I have never needed the help of a booth clerk.
This could save some substantial money in times when waste should be the first thing to go.
oh yea, forgot to say that wasnt the original purpose of these clerks was to sell tickets, tokens, finally metrocards to people? I mean even in the instances in which the machines were down, i would try to buy a metrocard at the booth and was told they no longer do that and would have to go back to street level and buy a one from a newsstand or bodega. Since machines have completely replaced that function in most regards, why are they there in their current capacity?
Im not one to throw the working class under the bus, afterall, jobs are desperately needed right now. Maybe we can take these clerks and ‘retool’ them into security personnel who have the legal ability to stop/prevent crime. And since these are the same people who worked these stations in their previous capacity, they would still possess customer service knowledge to help the lost passenger/tourist when need be.
I have never gone down into the subway platform and said to myself, “Damn, these station agents are really useless.” They are always helping people and had helped me immensely when I was a subway rookie. And, whether it is real or perceived, they do make you feel a little more comfortable waiting for the subway late at night. I don’t want to downplay 16 million, but what exactly is that 16 million going to solve? Is it more important than the safety and convenience of the passengers?
Can’t we just say that both are mostly wrong (and both have a hint of right)? There is no purpose paying someone to sit inside a booth – the job was to sell tokens, and that job no longer exists. $16 million to provide directions to tourists who could get that information by asking someone else, or by reading a map? Use (some of) the money saved to hire mobile personnel instead (since MTA likely can’t modernize the job description, though that approach would be preferable). One agent on foot, armed with a camera and a phone, could cover the platforms more effectively that two sitting in booths. And two agents on foot could cover the entire station (including walkways) far more effectively than two booth agents.
The only reason the TA wants to eliminate this position is to save money so modernizing the job is useless because they would still have to pay an employee which is what they are trying to eliminate.
Modern technology would allow passengers with cell phones to call the police, or even take pictures of perps in the act — if station had cell phone service. Until then, and I know that could be a long long time to come, the MTA should keep agents in the stations.
“or even take pictures of perps in the act” – – really? You really can envision New Yorkers stopping to take a picture of a felony in progress? Then waiting around or going out of their way to get the pictures to the police. That is not realistic at all
They’re definitely useful when the turnstyle repeatedly tells me to “please swipe again,” and I do to the point that it tells me that my monthly unlimited card was “just used.” Without them, I’d have to wait 15 minutes to try again.
Yes! Of course, I’d rather the turnstiles not do the “please swipe again” thing, but let’s get realistic…
The agents are helpful if I want to get on the subway with something that won’t fit through the turnstiles (like a stroller).
Also, I see tourists talking to these people a lot. The subway system’s really confusing; tourists need all the help they can get.
Yes. Very true. I have had this happen. I’m not 100% sure all of these problems are worth having someone there at all hours, but these station agents do come in very handy when necessary.
[…] William C. Thompson Jr., who is running for mayor, is advocating strongly against the planned systemwide reduction of Metropolitan Transportation Authority station agents set to begin Sept. 20. [Second Ave. […]
Thompson reminds me of Japanese opposition parties. Neither has a well-defined ideology, other than to oppose the corrupt ruling party, with its corporate-state merger, and insist that they would never have the same problems. (About ten years ago, when the Japanese government wanted to increase sales taxes, the communist party attacked it for promoting big government.)
Without token booth clerks, who will open the emergency gates for passengers with strollers or in wheelchairs?
I also suspect that the clerks deter at least one kind of criminal — fare beaters. A couple years ago, when they started telling token booth clerks at my home station to leave the booths and wander around the station, people became pretty brazen about jumping the turnstiles when the booths were empty.
Maybe these benefits are outweighed by the costs, but they are real benefits.
Station agents don’t give directions; they mumble something incoherent to foreign tourists and are pretty much a low in terms of customer service. Thompson is just a corrupt union lover and would be a disaster for mayor. Vote Bloomberg, he can actually run a city like a business.
Indeed, Bloomberg runs the city like a business that he and nobody else owns. Democracy? Listening to the people? Who needs that?
Some of the station agents are great, and some of them… not so much.
It would be wise of the MTA to not just survey/indict the entire population, but really test out a few things:
-What locations work best? Do agents have the most interaction and benefit at tourist-heavy stations or is it locations with a large family population that needs to use the gate or stations where there would otherwise be daytime farebeating issues?
-What people work best? You want a different kind of person in a tourist-heavy station than in an outer-boro alternate entrance. Some stations will benefit more from having people know the neighborhood or the system. I suspect that individual employee qualities play no role in assignments right now.
-Do agents have the tools they need to do the job well? They may have maps, but do they have other things helpful to giving directions, like pads and paper? Are they trained to not only give directions, but write them down? Are they trained in security-related tactics? Can they get in contact with train supervision and provide service interruption updates?
I don’t like the idea of “lazy” station agents, but I also don’t like seeing good people lose their job. This is definitely a program that could be really, really valuable to customers if the MTA would take some time to make it work.