Four days after Sunday’s snowstorm, city workers are still working to clear snow and ice from bus stops around the city, where a full day of plowing left walls of snow two to three feet high and created challenges for commuters trying to get from the sidewalk to the bus.
All of the city’s 3,400 sheltered bus stops — stops with structures meant to shield waiting passengers from the weather — had been cleared by Thursday afternoon, a Department of Transportation spokesperson told the Daily News.
The city department, which is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure supporting the state-run MTA bus lines, subcontracts management of the shelters to advertising firm JCDecaux — which cleans the shelters on a regular basis. JCDecaux work crews were tasked with salting the stops ahead of the storm, clearing them of snow after, and removing any buildup from subsequent plowing.
According to the DOT, the firm had cleared all of the city’s sheltered stops by 4 p.m. Thursday, and had crews on hand to make sure they stayed clear.
But the overwhelming majority of city bus stops — some 11,000 of them — have no shelters. In those instances, they are treated like any other section of sidewalk: as the responsibility of whoever owns the property to clear it of snow.
On Monday, however, the city sanitation department — which is responsible for the vast majority of plowing in the five boroughs — decided to step in and start clearing unsheltered bus stops to ensure commuters stayed safe, Sanitation Department Press Secretary Vincent Gragnani told The News Thursday, an effort that remains ongoing.
As of Thursday morning, according to the Sanitation Department, a little more than half of those 11,000 bus stops had been cleared of snow.
MTA chairman Janno Lieber said, at meeting of the transit agency’s board on Wednesday, that his office was in touch with City Hall on the snow-clearing, asking that it happen faster.
“We’re closely coordinating,” Lieber said. “We’re continuing to emphasize to the new City Hall team that this needs to be a priority from the beginning of the storm, not just waiting until the end.”
Another winter storm system currently over the Atlantic Ocean could bring more snow to Gotham this weekend.
