MTA Bans Shopping Carts to Reduce Homelessness at Subway Station

MTA board members voted, on Wednesday, in favor of enforcing rules that help cops remove homeless people from subways.

The rules were legislated back in April, they prohibit bringing any wheeled carts greater than 30 inches into a station or onto a train and requires riders to remain inside a station for no more than an hour.

The changes were instituted in April after complaints about homelessness soared amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

"The rules are designed to improve the safety and cleanliness throughout the system," MTA general counsel Thomas Quigley said. "This is especially important as we strive to keep the trains, buses, stations, and terminal clean and sanitary throughout the pandemic."

The action was taken not to marginalize homeless people, but to protect transit workers and riders from catching and spreading COVID-19.