The New York City subway executed its first-ever overnight shutdown early Wednesday. This is what it looked like.
For the first time in its 115-year history, the New York City subway underwent an overnight shutdown early Wednesday. The four-hour interruption in service began at 1 a.m., lasted until 5 a.m., and provided workers a window to disinfect trains and stations. It’s a ritual that the MTA will perform nightly and indefinitely as it aims to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and reassure a city of 8 million that the system is safe.
The subway system shutdown starts tonight (technically Wednesday) at 1am. Follow @s_nessen and @jangelooff who will be out reporting about this overnight — and tune in to @Wnyc tomorrow morning to hear how it went. pic.twitter.com/uVb8cs2ROx
“We’re in an unprecedented moment in the history of our city,” MTA Chairman Patrick Foye said Tuesday night. “The reason we’re taking this extraordinary, unprecedented action is to protect the safety and public health of our customers and our employees.”
The herculean task of cleaning thousands of trains and shuttering 472 stations required the work of roughly 700 cleaners and 1,000 police officers, who patrolled the system during the shutdown. The cleaners sprayed disinfectant on stairs, scrubbed handrails and turnstiles, and wiped down seats.
