Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – New Yorkers waited on trains for Wednesday on busy subway stations. This was a day after a gunman opened fire on subway passengers.

Interviews with riders revealed that they were disturbed by the bizarre attack where a man started shooting shortly after setting off smoke canisters on a subway train. This left 10 passengers without life-threatening injuries.

However, even though there were several incidents of violence this year in stations, the riders stated that they have homes and classes to go to. And the subway in the city is the fastest way to get around.

Matthew Mosk, an N Train passenger, said, “I was cautious, but, hey…we’re back to normal,” just a few days after one of the platforms on which it had been damaged by injured riders had passed through Brooklyn’s 36th Street Station. “NYC strong. It’s as if it never happened.”

New Yorkers of older age said that subways were less frightening than they remember when they first arrived. Graffiti trains made it easy for criminals to get onboard. According to newer visitors to New York, it can be made safer.

While most liked the idea, some were curious about how they would make a difference.

Eric Adams is a former captain of the police force and he took office January 1. He had increased the Transit Bureau’s police to 3,500. This surpasses the original 3,250 officers who were sent last summer to help with a surge. Adams stated that the number would be temporarily increased by two.

No one was seen at Brooklyn’s DeKalb Avenue station Wednesday afternoon.

Lyric Archibald is a Brooklyn teenager who was waiting to fly to Manhattan. There she will teach Double Dutch to students using jump ropes.

Before her bright, graffiti-free Q train ran into the station, she stated that cops are supposed to be protecting us.

The state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which manages the subway system, says serious crimes are rare. However, riders feel less secure when trains and stations are empty, especially after high-profile incidents.

A mass shooting on the subway such as Tuesday’s is almost unheard-of. New Yorkers can go back to the 1980s and find a similar episode. Other criminal activity is mixed in New York Police Department crime data since, due to the pandemic ridership now stands at 60%.

Major felonies committed on subways fell to 383 in 2022 from 524 the previous two months. Robberies dropped to 110, down from 151 in the same period of 2020. Meanwhile, felonious assaults increased to 87 from just 76 in the early 2020.

About 5.5 million trips took place each weekday before the pandemic. However, ridership dropped in the second half of 2020 when COVID-19 soared. New Yorkers, like suburban commuters, began to work from their homes. All tourists have disappeared.

Adams and his predecessor have collaborated with Adams to promote riders returning to the MTA. The MTA relies on road and rail fares to generate about 40% of its revenues. The weekday ridership reached over 3 million last September and averaged 3.3 millions rides every weekday.

Josie Chu (a 19-year old economics student) checked her laptop notes while she was waiting on the DeKalb Avenue Platform platform. Since she moved to Los Angeles from Los Angeles in 2012, Josie Chu has only ridden subways during the pandemic.

She said that it was not safe for Asians, particularly since Michelle Go was murdered by an Asian-American man in Times Square.

Michael Galindez was a 49 year-old electrician waiting in the wings to bring his daughter to an art class. His family was from East New York. He said that he has been riding the subway alone since he was 10 years old.

His words were: “Our society as a whole was unruly back then.” Now things are calmer

However, he felt that the number of officers who ride the train is lower than it was in his youth. He also found an increase in rule-breaking to be irritating. He has even chastised one individual for smoking aboard the train. He also said that there were more people suffering from mental illness.

He said, “A lot people have many issues and there is no one to regulate them.” I don’t like to be, you understand, stabbed by someone telling them to quit smoking.”