
The New York City subway system will shut down every night for the remainder of the pandemic between the hours of 1am and 5am for every train to be disinfected.

Essential workers who need to use the transport system during those hours will be given free bus riders or Ubers, Lyfts and Vias that the MTA will pay for.

The shut down will begin at 1am on May 6 and will last for however long the pandemic does, Cuomo said.

It came after outrage over the conditions on the subways where homeless people have taken over entire cars.

MTA workers spoke out to condemn the government for not doing more to make sure the subway system was safe.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement on Thursday at his daily coronavirus briefing where he praised Mayor Bill de Blasio for 'stepping up in a big way' by agreeing to the shutdown.

Subway ridership has decreased by 90 percent as a result of the pandemic.

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Police wake up a homeless person on the A train on Thursday morning. From May 6, the subway system will be entirely shut down between 1am and 5am for cleaning

Since the pandemic, subway ridership has decreased by 90 percent. Homeless people have all but moved onto the empty cars but it has worsened the public health risk for them and for the MTA workers

Officers direct a woman who was sleeping on the train to an exit at the 207th Street Station

Police officers wake up a sleeping woman on the A train at 207th street on Thursday

It has left around 10,000 people still using the subway between the hours of 1am and 5am, Cuomo said.

'The MTA will launch what they call the essential connector program.

'They will have buses, dollar vans and, if necessary, we will provide for hire vehicles to transport a person... Uber, Lyft, Via etc, at no cost to the essential worker during those hours to provide transport.

'People who need transportation during 1am and 5am can have it, will have it, even to the extent of a for hire vehicle paid for by the MTA,' he said.

All subway trains will be disinfected along with the trains of the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North Railway.

'It's a heck of an undertaking by the mayor. I applaud him for stepping up and taking this on It's always easier to say no, I cant do it.

It's always easier to stay status quo, not to try to raise the bar. It's easier just to say no.

'This is all we can do. that's not what the mayor is doing here , he is stepping up and he is stepping up in a big way,' he said.

It came amid growing outrage among MTA employees that they were still having to go to work when the system was not being thoroughly-enough disinfected.

There has been a spike in crime on the network of trains which includes complaints of nudity, sexual activity, human waste and even arson.

On Wednesday, Cuomo instructed the MTA to present him with a plan for how to clean every train on the network nightly.

NYPD and MTA officials woke up the passengers and either directed them out of the station or sought help for them

One man who was found at the station had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance

A social worker guides a person by the hand out of the 207th Street Station on Thursday morning

A man was put in handcuffs after attempting to jump in front of a moving train at the station. It is unclear if he was arrested or given medical care

An NYPD Homeless Outreach Unit officer prepares to wake up sleeping passengers on a train and direct them to the exits at the 207th Street A-train station, Thursday, April 30, 2020, in the Manhattan borough of New York

Homeless outreach personnel assist passengers found sleeping on subway cars at the 207th Street A-train station, Thursday, April 30, 2020

MTA officers and homeless outreach advocates escort a rider found sleeping on a subway car towards the exit at the 207th Street A-train station, Thursday, April 30, 2020

NYPD officers wake up sleeping passengers and direct them to the exits at the 207th Street A-train station, Thursday, April 30, 2020

A homeless person sleeps in the station near police tape. The governor has ordered that every train must be disinfected every night

He said it was not safe for the homeless people on the network to be there without protective equipment, nor was it fair to the essential workers who rely on the trains to get to work.

Cuomo called the situation 'disgusting' and said the homeless, who he'd worked with 'for years', should be in shelters.

'That is disgusting what is happening on those subway cars,' he said on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, he went further, saying: 'Crimes are up in the subways even though ridership is down by 90 percent.

'The trains are filled with homeless... to let homeless people stay on the trains in the middle of a global health pandemic with no masks, you're not helping the homeless by letting them endanger their own life and the lives of others.

'It's not helping anyone,' he said.

In just ten hours on Monday, MTA officials received reports of arson, a person smothered in human waste and lewd activity on the subway system.

One incident involved a man masturbating on a 6 train in The Bronx at 1.13am.

At 10am, in Flatbush, Brooklyn, police were called to remove a man from a train who had covered himself in human feces.

At 11am, a homeless man was arrested for lighting pieces of cardboard on fire at the Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum station in Brooklyn.

Sarah Feinberg, interim NYC Transit president, said the city had failed the homeless population and was forcing the MTA to act as social services.

'The city has failed our most vulnerable who are in desperate need of mental health care and housing services.

'NYC Transit will continue to do everything in our power to address this important issue, including working closely with all partners, but it is outrageous that a transportation agency is conducting social services in place of the city,' she said.

On Wednesday at around 1am, cops hauled people off of a Q train at the 96th Street Station.

They were given the choice of going to the hospital or going to a homeless shelter.

'The city is stepping up and realizing they have to do something for these folks who live in a way that is not healthy. No one should be living like that. And no one should be living on a train for 10 years,' MTA chief safety officer Pat Warren told the New York Daily News.

Transit workers who are still forced to go to work have shared videos of what is happening to try to bring it to an end.

MTA conductor Torry Chalmers, 48, posted clip Tuesday to demonstrate that every carriage on the 2 train contained several people who appeared to be sleeping or have slept on New York City transit.

Many of the people filmed are seen alongside boxes, luggage items and bags. Several are splayed out across the seats.

'This is what they making me do, transporting the homeless and the virus at the same time thru every Borough of NY,' Chalmers wrote in a caption for the footage shared on his Facebook page.

'Transit workers need Hazard Pay ASAP. The Gov, Mayor or High official Transit personnel don't care about us. Make these videos go viral, maybe we can stop the spread of this killer virus.'