That coffee you slurp every morning on the subway could be targeted by the MTA.

A board member floated the idea of banning food and drink in an effort to combat rats, garbage and track fires, the Daily News reported.

Charles Moerdler said the MTA needs "to think about the availability of food products to passengers, who then discard some or all of it on the tracks, on the platform."

"They're the cause of rats," he went on. "They're the cause of the fires. We have to do something to make it clear that the public has to wake up."

Board member Doreen Frasca said banning eating and drinking in the subways is a "swell idea" but later said she wasn't planning to ask the board to approve such a rule.

The MTA encourages riders not to eat on subways and buses, but it's not against the agency's rules. A proposal to ban beverages was dropped in 2005.

The MTA's NYC Transit division removes about 90 tons of trash from the system a day, according to the Daily News. Nearly 600 trains were delayed in January alone because of track fires.

The talk of a food ban comes days after a video surfaced online of two woman battling about one eating spaghetti on the train.

In Facebook comments on NBC New York's page, tri-staters were divided on the issue.



John G. Schultz said he supports a ban.



"It's just plain disgusting to eat or drink on the subway!!!" he wrote.



Richard Joseph Kutney said people should be allowed to "eat if they are hungry, as long as they don't make a mess."

"The pace of life has been getting faster and maybe that's the only time that hungry person could get to eat," he wrote.