A recent rash of violent Big Apple subway attacks has straphangers riding in fear again — even as MTA brass blames the Trump administration for fanning the flames.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority member Gerard Bringmann complained Monday about US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s depiction of the subway as dangerous and crime ridden.
“Personally, I’m just getting tired of hearing all this from Secretary Duffy about how unsafe our system is and yet the testimony here is we’re bending over backwards to make our system as safe as possible,” Bringmann said during an MTA public safety meeting. “Apparently they’re not getting the message,”
But while transit agency bosses maintain the subways are among the safest urban systems in the US, everyday New Yorkers told The Post it’s the MTA that’s not getting the message.
Debbie Fuchs, 68, from the Upper West Side has been catching the subway for 30 years, and said crime is worse than ever.
“I’m scared s—tless catching the subway,” Fuchs said Monday. “I’m always looking around for the crazies. You’re never relaxed on the train. I’m afraid of being shoved on the track.
“I don’t stand near the edge of the platform. I’ll stand by a pole and I’ll hang on to it. I don’t trust anybody on the subway,” she added. “Crime on the subway has been getting worse for the past two years.”
Another Manhattanite who asked not to be identified said thanks, but no thanks.
“I used to catch the subway every day. Crime got a lot worse and I stopped catching it entirely,” she said. “There’s enough crime above ground without exposing yourself below ground. I would go back on the subway if I had a great, big bodyguard.”
Duffy has been another critic, and quipped last week that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s congestion pricing plan, which aims to push more New Yorkers onto a risky subway system, was “liberal insanity.”
“She doesn’t ride the subway, she’s got a detail that drives her around,” Duffy snapped. “So she may not care about the experience of MTA riders, but she should.”
In a report over the weekend, The Post revealed that felony assaults in the transit system are up 9% so far this year, and a staggering 55% over the same period in 2019, according to NYPD data.
In one of the latest incidents, a 29-year-old man was shoved into the side of a No. 2 train at a station at West 96th Street and Broadway, sending him to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The suspect fled the station and hasn’t been to court, law enforcement sources said.
But on Monday MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said crime is under control in the New York City system, which he said is much safer than many other major cities.
He said the agency sent Duffy a 20-page report detailing safety and security improvements.
“Contrary to some of the stuff that’s thrown around, the MTA on a per capita basis is among the very safest transit systems in the United States,” he said. “You’re nine times more likely to be the victim of a felony crime in the Houston of Minneapolis or Dallas system. I think it’s eight times more in the Chicago system. We’re not in competition.
“We’re not putting anyone down but you have to look at the stats,” he added. “And by those standards New York is very safe. We have made that point time and time again.”
MTA Police Chief Thomas Taffe said overall crime in the city subways is down 2.2% since March and down 18% so far during this quarter.
Taffe said there are now more than 135,000 surveillance cameras across the transit system, including trains, subways, bridges and tunnels — 17,000 more than in February 2024.