Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘The MTA Has a Message for Television Watchers’
Ever since the Metropolitan Transportation Authority began its “If you see something, say something campaign,” I have asked myself “how and to whom” [New York, “The MTA Has a Message for Television Watchers,” July 18, 2007].
Of the 2,000 tips received by the MTA, how many were made from elevated platforms or after people reached their destinations? Despite its ability to do so, the MTA has not made it possible to use cell phones in the subways. Pay phones are rare, and when they are found they do not work. The MTA once proposed intercoms on trains but that has never come to pass.
If you are underground in a train car and see a package, you must get out at the next stop. It is unlikely anyone will bother to do so or succeed in giving a warning.
If you are on a subway platform there is usually nobody to tell until the next train pulls into the station.
Most people upon seeing a suspect package simply get off at the next stop.
On my first trip to Israel 20 years ago, I sat on a bench at a bus stop. I was reprimanded by an elderly Israeli already sitting on the bench for not checking under the bench for a “suspect package” before I sat down. I just hope that the MTA figures out a method by which New Yorkers can call in reports in real time.
I hope it does not take a tragedy for the MTA to do more than offer slogans and a phone number.
Steven Mostofsky
Brooklyn, N.Y.
