MTA employees blow $800,000 each year in idling cars: Report
LIRR Vehicles Idling at Forest Hills Station Credit: LIRR vehicles idling at Forest Hills Station (MTA Office of the Inspector General)
MTA employees waste about $800,000 each year by illegally leaving their work vehicles idling while on the job, according to a report released Wednesday.
Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North workers driving highway vehicles kept them running while they were parked for a combined total of more than 20,000 hours each month, the MTA's Inspector General found.
In one incident, investigators found that two trucks in Forest Hills had idled for a combined 25 hours over one weekend.
New York drivers are prohibited from leaving their cars unnecessarily running for more than five minutes.
Inspector General Barry Kluger called the practice "illegal, wasteful, and environmentally destructive."
Kluger's report estimated that the money blown on gas while the cars sat amounts to about 20% of the LIRR's monthly fuel costs and 14% of Metro-North's gas costs.
The MTA said it agreed with the report's recommendations, but said it was "premature" to guess how much money could be saved by turning off cars sooner. The agency said workers have already cut down on the practice.
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