Almost 1,000 of the city's transit workers, and Reverend Jesse Jackson, rallied at Penn Station yesterday against the MTA's layoff of nearly 500 employees. Protesters argued that the lack of security in subway stations will lead to more crime, fare evasion and confused tourists.
For anyone who may be thinking that the station agents don't really do much (except fall asleep), AMNY has a list of things some agents had to deal with last Sunday: They alerted authorities to one rider who was sexually harassed, five who fell and nine who were sick, plus reported four suspicious packages and assisted riders who were stuck in elevators.
One marcher warned, "If they actually visited the stations that they want to change the staff, they would never want to do this." Another says the MTA handled the situation poorly, and didn't give the workers enough notice. The MTA is set to save around $21 million from the layoffs, but an increase in fare evasion could cost them more than the $27 million they're already losing.
