Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), the Transportation Committee’s chairman, said that he believed that cellular phone service in subway stations is long overdue. Pressing the issue further, he added: “It’s inevitable that people will also want cell phone service on the trains and not just in the stations. The planning must begin now so that the wiring of platforms today will not create more difficulties in the eventual wiring of the tunnels in the future.”
Providing evidence of riders’ demand for wireless communication service on trains, Liu spoke of the hundreds of passengers on No. 7 trains, that travel above ground through Queens, who talk on their cellular phones and send text messages and e-mails daily.
Although the hearing was called to address only the specifics of the MTA’s current plan, Michael Harris, the executive director of the Disabled Riders Coalition, took the opportunity to press Liu’s point further.
He said that full cellular phone service underground will help all travelers be safer, “but particularly those with disabilities who are more prone to encountering problems, emergencies or other situations.”
Some riders in Queens would, like Harris, welcome the expansion of the plan.
ýIt would be difficult (to have a telephone conversation in a subway car), because of the noise,” said Jose Coriano, at Queens Plaza. But Coriano, a Web site administrator who spends roughly an hour-and-a-half each weekday commuting between Manhattan and Long Island City, said that it would be convenient to be able to communicate with colleagues and friends while on the train. “There are more pros than cons.”
Almost all of the City Council members who spoke at the hearing listed as one of these pros that passengers could report suspicious activity while on trains.
But some see potential downsides.
Sasha Feldman, a Flushing woman who rides the subway to Hunter College in Manhattan, said: “Sometimes I just want to read a book or study or just relax” on the train. Being surrounded by gabbing travelers, she said, could put an end to this.
Melissa Colon, who commutes on the subway between St. Albans and Long Island City, said that riders should only be able to make cellular phone calls from trains in cases of emergency. “I could really see it bothering some people.”
William Guild, chairman of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, suggested that New York City Transit initiate a public advertising campaign to “enlighten and inform” cellular phone users about the importance of courtesy should service be extended onto trains.
Councilman G. Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx), suggested that subway trains could feature quiet cars, as some commuter trains currently do.
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