Reports of 'soiled' subway cars rises sharply

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - The number of incidents over 'soiled' subway cars has risen sharply in the past two years.

There have been 1,623 reports of soiled subway cars through August of this year.  There were only 1,504 in the entire year of 2017.

The MTA claims the number of reports is up simply because of the accuracy in reporting and coding those types of incidents has been improved.  The MTA says is encourages riders to report dirty cars to they can "quickly isolate and clean the car and return it to service" as soon as possible.

The MTA says the number of reports is actually small considering the number of subway cars in service and the number to trips per day each subway car takes.

Only about one percent of subway delays are blamed on the MTA having to deal with a soiled or dirty subway car.

The MTA says terminal car cleaners are equipped with buckets, mops, and disinfectants, and are trained to dispose of human and biological waste.