NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – More subway car windows were smashed on the 7 line on Friday night as the MTA deals with a rash of similar incidents that have left the transit agency's window supply greatly diminished and cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs.
The MTA said Saturday that there were two more window-smashing incidents on the 7 line overnight.
The agency said 21 windows were broken in all; 18 on one train and three on another, amounting to $10,000 in damage.
One of the trains was discovered vandalized at the Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue station, while the other train was found vandalized at the 103rd Street–Corona Plaza station.
MTA Chief Safety and Security Officer Patrick Warren said some 400 subway train windows have been broken on multiple lines since April, costing the MTA upwards of $300,000 in repairs. Much of the vandalism has been on the 7 line.
"This is occurring while the train is in motion to the best of our understanding of it," Warren said of the vandalism. "It is happening inside the trains. Somebody is taking what appears to be some kind of blunt instrument—could be a hammer, could be a pipe, could be a baseball bat—and breaking the windows from the inside."
Warren said the broken windows aren't only costly, they're an inconvenience for riders.
"For that period of time—whether it takes us a couple of hours or three hours or whatever it takes us to repair those windows—that train's out of service, which means at that point in time our customers are inconvenienced with longer wait times and/or potentially more crowding on the platforms," he said.
Warren said the agency is already struggling financially amid the pandemic, so "it's a big deal to us."
"It should be a big deal for everybody in New York too, because this is your money," he said.
The MTA is working with police to increase surveillance and find the person or people responsible.
