To prevent fires, T commuters should use trashcans instead of throwing waste onto the train tracks, Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick Frasier said in a public service announcement first aired Friday in T stations by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
The public service announcements are part of a three-phase plan to prevent fires on the tracks after two fires broke out during the week of Sept. 14 at rush hour, forcing Downtown Crossing, South Station and Chinatown subway stations to be shut down, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.
Pesaturo said the MBTA’s biggest concern is not the monetary cost of the damages but the satisfaction of commuters.
‘Trash fires cost customers hours of lost time if service has to be suspended due to a fire on the tracks,’ he said.
An equally important part of the fire prevention agenda, he said, is a plan to replace out-of-date electric cables, a plight that he said greatly contributed to the smoky fires.
According to an MBTA press release, the new cables will be ‘state of the art’ because they will have longer life-spans and produce less smoke if any accident occurs.
The MBTA lastly plans to remind T employees to notify dispatchers if they see any trash building up on the tracks so they can send a clean-up crew to remove the waste over night.
Pesaturo said T commuters usually follow the MBTA’s rules, and Frasier’s announcement is a friendly plea that most passengers simply clean up after themselves.
‘Help us keep the subway clean and safe for everyone by dropping that coffee cup in the trash or newspaper in the recycling receptacle,’ the announcement, played in T stations, said. ‘With your thoughtfulness and cooperation, we can help ensure that everyone’s subway ride is a safe and reliable one.’
Pesaturo said he is confident about the campaign.
‘I strongly believe that the vast majority of T customers want to keep the subway system as clean as possible and help prevent trash fires,’ Pesaturo said.
Paige Reese, a College of Arts and Sciences junior who lives off campus and uses the T to get to class, said the MBTA should put more trashcans at T stations to help solve the littering problem.
‘People are just too lazy to put their trash in trash cans, and when the T stops moving because of it, I’ll be late to class,’ Reese said.
Crystal Lora, a CAS senior and New York native, said she thinks a major metropolitan area such as Boston needs an improved transportation system.
‘It’s definitely annoying that there are so many problems with the T,’ Lora said. ‘The transportation system in Boston needs to be changed. It’s not up-to-date and it’s not effective at all.’
College of General Studies sophomore Xavier Taveras said T litterers who don’t think of other people when they leave their garbage on the tracks.
‘It’s pretty selfish,’ Taveras said.
Jon Lentz, a biomedical engineering research assistant, said he feels it is unfair that the people who litter cause so many problems for other people.
‘Littering [on the T tracks] is unnecessary and stupid,’ Lentz said. ‘Especially when it causes fires, because that puts everybody who rides the T in danger.’
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