MTA Boss 'Really Confident' In Subway Safety After UWS Derailment

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Days after a subway train crash on the Upper West Side that injured 26 people, the MTA's top leader said he remained "really confident" in the subway system's safety history.

An investigation into the crash continued Monday, a day after service was restored to the 1/2/3 lines, MTA CEO and Chair Janno Lieber told WNYC's Brian Lehrer on Monday.

"I'm really confident in the safety record of New York City transit, of our subway system, comparatively, it is by far the safest way to get around and we're looking at making it safer," Lieber said.

Despite the "scary" crash, Lieber told WNYC such incidents are extremely uncommon — a similar event happens only once every 10 to 15 million trips, he said.

On Thursday, 26 people were injured after a northbound commuter 1 train hit an out of service 1 train at the 96th Street station about 3 p.m., causing the first car of the commuter train to derail, according to MTA officials.

"The specifics of what went wrong are still under investigation but any time two trains, you know, bump into each other even at super low speed, you got to take it seriously and we're doing that," Lieber said Monday.

"That's a scary experience for some of our customers, and we definitely want to get to the bottom of it and minimize it."

The out-of-service train had been vandalized and had four workers aboard. 26 people, including at least one MTA worker, suffered minor injuries as a result of the incident.

Lieber pointed to one improvement that could help prevent a similar disruption: cameras in subway cars. The MTA plans to install cameras in all subway train cars, ABC7 reported.

"Now, if we have cameras in cars inside the cars, like we're putting in, we're gonna be able to get those people just like we get everybody who commits crimes, major crimes, on the platforms and the mezzanines and elsewhere in the system," he said.