New York City transit chief Sarah Feinberg blamed the media on Sunday for the low rides on the subway – claiming that news outlets sparked fears of contracting COVID-19 on trains.
[The subway system] was really badly served by some of the early coverage of the pandemic, ”Feinberg, the MTA’s interim transit chairman, said in an interview with ABC 7, referring to news footage of the subway trains crowded.
“So I think people started to think, the last place I want to be is on a crowded subway,” she said.
Feinberg said data shows that – despite more than 28,000 COVID-19 deaths in the Big Apple in the past year – public transportation is not a hotspot for transmitting the virus.
“Well, a year ahead, there’s now study after study showing that the subway system, the transportation system, not just in New York but really everywhere, is really not a place that causes the virus,” she told the station – without referencing to specific studies.
Her comments came when the number of New York City subway riders dropped to about 70 percent of that in February 2020 and the number of city buses dropped 50 percent this month.
The plunging of strap hangers also comes amid a series of metro attacks that last week killed two homeless riders and injured countless others.
The loss of jobs could also be related to the decline in the number of riders – with more than 550,000 New Yorkers losing their jobs in the past year and others switching remotely.
Transit officials, including Feinberg, have also cut back on metro lines such as the C and F trains and cut back hours in the past year.
A study commissioned by the agency has predicted that metro riding will not return to pre-COVID-19 levels until 2024.