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News Release
Group Applauds Bill Creating Subway Safety Panel And Imposing Three-year Moratorium on Subway Station Booth Closings Urges Governor Pataki To Sign Bill Into Law The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign today applauded the state legislature for passing a bill to halt the closing of subway station booths for up to three years. The bill passed in the last hours of the legislative session in Albany last Friday. The bill would create a seven-member subway safety advisory panel with responsibility for reviewing ways to fight terrorism and crime in the subways. The panel has three years to issue its final report. Until the report is issued, no subway station booth may be closed. "If Governor Pataki wants to protect four-and-a-half million daily subway riders, he will sign this bill into law," said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign. "A veto would make the subways less safe." Russianoff noted that the MTA voted in March to close up to 62 station booths, despite strong opposition to the closings. As a result of the lawsuit filed by the Straphangers Campaign in May, no booths can be closed while the case is on appeal. The campaign congratulated the bill's sponsors, State Senators Guy Velella and Martin Golden and State Assembly Member Keith Wright. The campaign also congratulated Local 100 Transport Workers Union for their leadership on winning the measure. The entire bill -- A. 9020, S. 5473 -- is located online at http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=S05473. -30- _____________________________________________________________ |
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