New York Times: Chaplains in the MTA

From Diana Kruzman, writing for The New York Times:

Ms. Morton occupies a rare niche — the M.T.A., which runs New York’s subway, buses and two commuter rails, is one of the few transit agencies in the country to have a chaplaincy program. In a typical year, it helps employees deal with stresses like abusive passengers or deaths on the tracks, as well as more personal problems.

But the pandemic was something else entirely, ravaging the nation’s largest transit agency, emptying trains and buses and sickening and killing its workers at a devastating rate. More than 160 workers have died from Covid-19 and thousands more have contracted the virus.

Compounding the crisis, about 60 people were fatally struck by trains last year, about the same number as the year before, even though ridership plunged. And there were concerns over potential layoffs before an infusion of federal aid helped rescue the M.T.A. from a financial free fall.

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