MANHATTAN — A man was arrested for beating an MTA train operator and trying to shove him onto the tracks of the Bowling Green subway station Tuesday morning, NYPD officials said.
Michael Vasquez, 27, attacked the 33-year-old employee about about midnight in the station near Broadway and Battery Place, police said.
The worker was able to fend off the worker and never fell onto the tracks, officials said.
Vasquez was arrested on charges of assault and reckless endangerment, police said.
The operator suffered "substantial pain" and was treated at New York-Presbyterian hospital, according to union representatives.
It wasn't immediately clear what sparked the attack, an NYPD spokesman said.
Vasquez hadn't been arraigned as of Tuesday afternoon, records show.
Union preventatives recently sought a pay increase from the MTA because their members are so frequently assaulted, they said. The MTA rejected the raise, union officials said.
"We are on the front lines of a transit system that moves 8 million riders a day to work, school and everywhere else. We take pride in our work but all too frequently we pay a steep price in blood," said TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen.
(TWU Local 100)
A woman was also fatally pushed in front of a train at Times Square in Times Square earlier in the month.
