The MTA has had some trouble taking out the trash recently and Transit President Thomas Prendergast is fed up.
Prendergast claims subway construction is keeping garbage-collection trains from making all stops to collect trash from platform canisters, AM New York reports.
And adding to the problem, trucks that pick up subway garbage at the street level are often broken down. The New York Daily News reported yesterday that "on an average night, MTA trash trains and garbage trucks don't make it to more than 100 stations that are scheduled for a pickup."
The result is uncovered garbage bags on subway platforms, the use of late-night in-service trains to transport refuse, and a sudden influx of rodents in the subway system-- all of which amounts to a pretty stinky situation that Prendergast calls "unacceptable".
AM has it that the MTA has developed some “out of the box” solutions to remove the trash collected by the 3,500 canisters that are emptied three times each day. And the Daily News reports today that in the short term the MTA will add more metal storage sheds on platforms and in the long term plans to lengthen trash-collection trains with more flatbed cars to increase capacity.