By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Every pair of eyes and ears counts when it comes to keeping lower Manhattan’s subways safe.
That’s the message City Councilwoman Margaret Chin sent to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority this week, in response to the MTA’s planned closure of several station booths downtown.
The closures “represent a real weakening of our defenses against terrorism,” Chin said in testimony submitted to the MTA Tuesday, prior to a public hearing on the issue that evening. “In the tragic event of another attack in our community, these workers would be crucial in directing passengers to safety.”
Under the MTA’s plan, the Cortlandt Street R station and the Canal Street N/Q/R/J/Z/6 would each lose a full-time booth and face some additional staffing cuts. The Fulton Street A/C/J/Z/2/3/4/5 and the Wall Street 2/3 would each lose a part-time booth.
Chin said she was particularly worried about the Fulton Street and Wall Street stations.
“These areas of lower Manhattan remain prime terror targets, with the subways themselves a likely target,” Chin said in her testimony. “Imagine the grizzly scenario: hundreds of passengers stranded in the subway stops, with no cell phone service — and now no means of communicating with authorities.”
Agents made half a million calls on an emergency broadcast system over the past three years, according to Gene Russianoff, senior attorney at the Straphangers Campaign.
Aaron Donovan, MTA spokesman, said every station would continue to have at least one booth staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He said the MTA works with the NYPD to make all security decisions.
“It's important to have eyes and ears in the subway,” Donovan said in a statement, “but those eyes and ears can be cleaners, construction workers and our customers.”
The MTA planned to close the booths and lay off 460 workers in May, but Transport Workers Union Local 100 sued and forced the MTA to keep the booths open. The MTA still laid off about half the workers but kept the other half on to staff the booths temporarily.
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge ordered the MTA to hold public hearings on the booth closures, which the MTA is doing this week. The agency is also accepting comments online. The MTA board will likely vote on the changes later this month.
