By Philip Newman
Although transit officials have temporarily put on hold a plan to shut down dozens of subway station token booths around the city, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has appealed a court order blocking the closings.
Under the original MTA plan, eight token booths were to be closed in Queens and hours at three booths in the borough were to be reduced.
Arthur Schwartz, co-counsel in a lawsuit against the closings filed by the Transport Workers Union and transit activists, said Tuesday the MTA had appealed to the State Court of Appeals in Manhattan
“A few days ago, I received notice of intent to appeal and today, they informed us that they had appealed the case,” Schwartz.
“The next step would be for them to ask the court for a stay of Justice Lebedeff's order,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz was referring to State Supreme Court Justice Diane Lebedeff, whose Aug. 21 decision said public hearings would have to be conducted prior to any such closings.
Transit Authority spokesman Mark Groce said the World Trade Center disaster had resulted in a lower priority for the plan to remove clerks from many token booths and reduce operating hours at some others.
“We are concentrating at this time on getting the N and R trains back into normal service and restoring the No. 1 and No. 9 lines,” said Groce.
He said bringing back those lines, knocked out or damaged by the Sept. 11 disaster, along with other concerns meant the token booth shutdown plans had been set back.
The Transport Workers Union along with a coalition of 125 transit activist groups and community organizations had sued to stop the closings.
At a hearing conducted by the City Council in July, activists protested that the closings would leave passengers vulnerable to crime with no one on duty to telephone police in empty stations. They said handicapped people as well as women carrying infants or people hauling bulky items would be unable to get through floor-to-ceiling turnstiles in the absence of clerks who buzz such subway riders through service gates.
Several people testified at the hearing how token clerks had notified police and saved lives when crimes were committed in or near stations.
Christine Balance told of a token clerk who called police after Jeffrey Wright of Jamaica ran down and overpowered a man suspected of raping her just moments earlier in the Canal Street station in Manhattan.
TA President Lawrence Reuter said his agency did not want to jeopardize anyone’s safety. He said the TA planned to use displaced clerks as roving agents to help customers with vending machines and keep an eye out for crime.
The Transit Authority contends the need for the clerks has greatly diminished since more than 85 percent of straphangers now use the MetroCard rather than tokens.
Reach reporter contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 136.
