Hagaon Hacham Mordechai Eliyahu z.s.l.

The eleventh annual “Subway Shmutz” survey by the Straphangers Campaign revealed that the city’s rail cars are much dirtier on average than they were just a year ago. The worst performing line in the survey was the M, with only 32% of subway cars reported clean. The most improved lines were the 6 and C with 65% of cars rated clean, up from 41% for both lines in 2008. Eleven of the 22 subway lines — fully half — grew worse, while five lines improved and six lines stayed the same.

The 2009 budget contained cuts in cleaning staff, with car cleaners going down from 1,181 with 155 supervisors in 2008 to 1,138 with 146 supervisors in 2009. The 2010 budget for car cleaners is 1,030 cleaners and 123 supervisors.

The Campaign urged transit officials to closely monitor the impact of reductions in resources to cleaning subway cars and expand the use of ‘hand-held’ computers in monitoring subway car cleanliness.