Food ban being discussed by New York City Subway officials

More woes for New York metropolitan area transit, and this situation certainly provides food for thought for anyone who travels using the city’s subways.

On Monday, nine people were treated for smoke inhalation after a track fire in Harlem jammed up the early week work commute for thousands of straphangers.

What caused the fire? Evidently, according to officials, garbage on the tracks was the culprit, and the resultant track fire caused the entire B and C lines to not run, and it also impacted the A and D lines in both directions north of 125th Street.

Why anyone would throw garbage on the tracks is a mystery in and of itself, but due to this continuous problem that has been going on for decades, if not generations, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is studying a proposal to simply ban food in New York City subways.

The food isn’t the problem, but the resultant garbage related to wrappers, bags and other refuse related to eating on the subways is what has caught the MTA’s ire.

According to MTA reports, subway fires caused 844 train delays in April, just more than 1.1 percent of the total number of delays for the month.

If this measure passes, how this goes over with straphangers is anyone’s guess.

More important, how do you police eating on the subway? What foods will be OK, what foods will be illegal, or will all munching and drinking be banned?

Other questions arise if a ban was put into place. Do you assign extra transit police to monitor this action? Will you get a ticket if you eat on the subway? For how much?

MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said that if it would come to a ban, he favors less messy, packaged snacks such as protein bars over Chinese takeout. The former would be fine, the latter would not.

In lieu of a ban, he said the agency may try an educational program on “appropriate subway foods” instead of an out and out ban. It would focus on the consumption of light snacks rather than cooked and prepared foods.

And it isn’t just food on the tracks that has caused headaches for the MTA. Food left on subway cars attracts rodents, making many subway cars unsafe.

A straphanger wolfing down a breakfast burrito on the subway because they need to get to work is objectionable on several levels, but should it be against the law?

And on another level, what about the vendors who feed off straphangers’ need to munch? What impact will it have on their business if subway riders can’t eat a candy bar or drink a can of soda in the subway?

Since a ban on eating on the subway is being contemplated, subway riders are on notice. Simply put your trash in a garbage can, because if this behavior continues, the “privilege” of eating on the New York City subway will not exist anymore.