By Philip Newman
Transit officials say the subways and buses are Y2K-ready, but when the new millennium arrives, will there be any motormen and drivers to operate them?
The contract between the city and the Transit Workers Union, representing 33,000 subway and bus workers, expires at 12:01 a.m., Dec. 15. A strike would be crippling at any time, but the worst fear of many city officials is a walkout on New Year's Eve in a city jammed with millennium celebrants, including hundreds of thousands of visitors.
The city has been developing a preparedness response to such an eventuality.
Although Matt Furman, a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management, said he could not comment on the details of such plans, some sources said they ranged from vastly increased PATH trains to National Guard-operated food and lodging facilities for those who are stranded, to reversal of lanes on major avenues at evening rush hours as well as more high-occupancy car lanes on bridges and in tunnels.
How would the public get the word of how city officials would cope in the event of the third transit strike in the city
