What keeps the trains running in the Big Apple?
Queens straphangers are praying it’s not plastic zip ties.
Dozens of zip ties wrapped around one of the tracks at the Rockaway Boulevard A train station in Ozone Park have been raising eyebrows and making some subway riders queasy.
“Should I be worried?” asked nursing student Kayle Persaud. “If I cut one zip tie, does it start to fall?”
The troubling scene, first reported by amNewYork, shows a long line of the plastic ties along the middle track at the elevated subway station – which one straphanger noted is “not a good look.
“The first time I saw it I thought, ‘Hmm… Is it holding the tracks together?'” said subway rider Eliana Rodriguez. “Even the screws look like they’re not all the way in.”
Another subway rider, who only identified himself as Ibrahim M, agreed it was a tad concerning.
“Even if it’s not actually holding the track together, it just looks awful,” he told The Post on Thursday. “They could have cut it off or painted it the same color. I hope it’s not holding the tracks together for all the money we pay to travel on the subway.”
A track worker told amNewYork that the zip ties are there to prevent the wooden railroad ties from splintering and falling down on the street below, and the MTA confirmed that to the outlet.
A spokesman for the agency told The Post that the zip ties at the Queens station were not cause for concern.
“When inspectors find certain issues, they use ties for temporary protection and to identify locations where following repair crews will make more permanent repairs,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan explained.
But adding to straphangers’ worries was this week’s MTA announcement that the railroad is halting planned capital projects following Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to hold off on the controversial congestion pricing plan.
The MTA anticipated about $1 billion in revenues from congestion pricing – a $15 fee for drivers motoring into Midtown south of 60th Street – to help pay for $15 billion in improvements and repairs.
Even if the zip ties do not signal a major issue, some straphangers called them a “ridiculous” look.
“Hopefully it’s just a sign of laziness,” said New Yorker Rose Mohammed. “We’re supposed to be the greatest city in the world, and we have zip ties around our tracks?”