NEW YORK — Subway crews and New York City Transit need to better communicate with passengers to address instances of risky “self-evacuation” by passengers during delays, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Inspector General Daniel Cort said in a report issued on Thursday (May 1, 2025).
An investigation by the Office of the Inspector General found 46 instances of self-evacuation onto subway tracks — after delays of as little as two minutes — between 2015 and 2024. The audit found crew members should make better announcements about the dangers of walking along the tracks, and that passengers need to remain on board for their safety, and to prevent additional delays.
“It’s alarming that passengers are going onto the tracks, where they risk electrocution or getting hit by trains,” Cort said in a press release accompanying the report. “Evacuation between stations should be an absolute last resort and only after receiving instructions and guidance from New York City Transit personnel or first responders.”
The audit was prompted by a Jan. 4, 2024, collision and derailment on the 1/2/3 line in Manhattan that injured more than 20 people [see “New York subway trains collide at low speed …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 4, 2024]. Among other results, it found that most NYC Transit personnel were unaware of a requirement that train operators must make announcements during an emergency if the conductor is unavailable to do so.
The audit report offers six recommendations as to how NYC Transit can better address the self-evacuation problem. NYC Transit accepted four of those recommendations — including one to re-instruct staff and crew members about the announcement requirement — and is assessing two others. The agency said it already has messaging addressing the danger of entering subway tracks and has procedures in place regarding emergency announcements, but will assess its current messaging and procedures to determine if they need to be enhanced.
What we need is a firm court decision that the MTA is NOT responsible for injuries and/or deaths to any self-evacuees. Same thing for anyone who tries to ride the outside of a subway car.
Ludicrous on the face of it. The motorman doesn’t know he/she should say something if the train makes an unsked stop in the tunnel and the conductor can’t ? Are they hiring mimes as motormen ? And the IQ of the passengers reflects todays society. Probably trying to get cell reception for their ‘smart phones’.