Details on the upcoming overnight closure and MTA Essential Plan Night Service are available below:

Overnight Subway Closure

Effective on the early morning of Wednesday, May 6, New York City Transit personnel will close all 472 subway stations at 1 a.m. Customers should reference the MTA Essential Plan Night Service schedule for the last trip they can board at their station prior to 1 a.m. After 1 a.m., all stations will be exit only. Customers are encouraged to plan their trip in advance using MTA.info or the MYmta app.

Any person remaining inside stations will be asked to depart; enforcement will be performed by the NYPD in collaboration with the MTA Police Department. Officers be deployed to all 472 subway stations from 1 to 5 a.m. to make sure their critical work goes on uninterrupted. The MTA will continue to work in partnership with the NYPD to connect more homeless New Yorkers with access to the medical care and social services they need and deserve. The NYPD has intensified patrols and presence at all stations. Shuttle buses will be strategically placed at select stations to help transport unsheltered New Yorkers.

Members of the public may notice some out-of-service trains continuing to operate between the hours of 1 and 5 a.m. These trains will be transporting transit employees performing functions such as signal maintenance, moving station cleaners from station to station, performing other safety functions and preconditioning for return to service. These trains will not be in passenger service.

Cleaning

To more effectively combat the spread of coronavirus, the MTA is undertaking a new cleaning program unprecedented in its history, covering both public and employee facilities. Crews will further enhance cleaning of all MTA rolling stock through around the clock disinfecting, including poles, seating, floor, ceiling, doors and walls. Every car in passenger service will be disinfected at least every 24 hours through three primary activities:

• Daytime Terminal Car Cleaning: After each train reaches its final destination, crews will remove trash, clean spills and bio hazards, and spot clean seats, floors, and other surfaces. Trains will also be disinfected at terminals during particular hours over the course of the day.
• Overnight Yard Cleaning: Trains in service during daytime hours but out of service at night will receive a more comprehensive cleaning every night in yards. Crews will remove garbage and graffiti, clean spills and bio hazards, mop floors, clean seats cleaning, and disinfect surfaces.
• Overnight Terminal Car Cleaning: Trains that remain in service at night will receive cleaning that is identical to the yard cleaning above, except at terminal stations.

The MTA is also investigating innovative methods to eradicate traces of COVID-19. Currently, three antimicrobial biostats are being applied to the interior of MTA rolling stock (buses and subway cars) and in control rooms and crew quarters. The antimicrobial biostats are applied after the surfaces are cleaned and disinfected with an EPA-registered disinfectant. These products lay down a protective colorless, odorless barrier on surfaces that does not allow germs to grow.

There are a number of methods of how these products are applied: traditional squirt bottles and clothes, mechanical sprayers, floggers and electrostatic sprayers. These antimicrobial biostats are being used in electrostatic sprayers in a pilot across New York City Transit for improved 360-degree coverage.

Additionally, ultraviolet (UV) light is an efficient, proven, and effective technology for eliminating viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, from surfaces including hospital operating rooms. This pilot will focus on the use of UVs to eradicate SARS-CoV-2 from our rolling stock (subway cars, buses, rail cars, transit vehicles) and fixed locations (break rooms, technology centers, operation centers, offices, etc.). In March, MTA worked with Columbia University and an innovative UV startup to successfully demonstrate the efficacy of UV technology in our subway system. MTA will to pilot this technology in our transit and railway vehicles in the second week of May, but will focus on subway and buses.

Free Enhanced Bus Service; LIRR and Metro-North to Cross-Honor

The MTA is significantly enhancing bus service under the new MTA Essential Plan Night Service. Beginning Wednesday at 1 a.m., New York City Transit and MTA Bus have added 1,168 trips – a 76% increase – and 344 buses on top of the 235 that currently run during these hours – an approximately 150% increase in the operational fleet.

The MTA has enhanced service on 61 bus lines, including 11 interborough express routes with additional stops (five routes in the Bronx, three each in Brooklyn and Queens), and 13 new routes that normally don’t offer overnight service (17 in Brooklyn, 13 in Queens, 10 each in the Bronx and Manhattan). Thirty-seven routes will have added overnight service.