And What’s More, They Start Track Fires
The Post gladly reports how the MTA is pointing the finger at those free morning newspapers for the increased number of track fires during 2005:
Posted: February 28th, 2006 | Filed under: New York Post, Well, What Did You Expect?All those thousands of free newspapers being handed out at subway stations are to blame for a huge jump in track fires, transit officials said yesterday.
“The papers get put down on the platforms and then, due to the vacuum effect of the trains, get pulled into the tracks,” said Michael Lombardi, MTA senior vice president for subways.
While they’ve all been minor blazes, the number of fires increased by almost 20 percent in 2005 to 1,673.
Although NYC Transit added 116 cleaners and the agency is cleaning the tracks more systematically, the volume of trash is hard to overcome.
The aggressive distribution of the free dailies, such as amNewYork and Metro New York, along with increasing ridership, have caused the daily garbage haul to grow by 15 tons, Lombardi said.
Discarded food and other trash is also to blame.
The newspapers say they do not deserve to be blamed for the fires, and transit advocates and elected officials agree.
