Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement at a news conference on Monday.
From 22 February, the overnight closing hours will be adjusted from 02:00 to 04:00, instead of 01:00 to 05:00.
“The COVID numbers are lower, so we are adjusting, we have adjusted the dining room inside, the evening clock, today we are going to discuss the MTA and increase the capacity,” Cuomo said.
The governor said the trains would still be cleaned and purged during that overnight stay.
“CDC says it, health experts say it, the COVID virus is not transmitted as much as they initially suggested on surfaces, but it can still be transmitted,” Cuomo said. “You want to be safe in the MTA system against crime and COVID. If you’re as old as I am, the trains have never been as clean as they are now.”
The decommissioning of the metro has been going on for almost ten months. Interim president Sarah Feinberg said adjustments to the overnight closure were beginning to return to normal.
“We were planning our own reopening and return to overnight service, and we determined that a shortened overnight closure is an important step forward for the return of the 24-hour service,” Feinberg said. “To be clear, we will continue our cleaning program, we will clean and disinfect our system 24 hours a day.”
Feinberg said the MTA is confident it can maintain the cleanup and disinfection it has been able to do so far.
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