Metro-North Railroad adds PPE to vending machines at 12 stations
Commuters arrive at Grand Central Station with Metro-North during morning rush hour on June 8, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
NEW YORK - The MTA Metro-North Railroad announced that it has added personal protective equipment to vending machines at 12 stations throughout the system.
Beginning Friday, riders can buy KN95 masks, bottled hand sanitizer, and gloves at the machines at prices running from 75 cents to $9.99 for the masks.
Customers can find the PPE in vending machines at the following 12 Metro-North Railroad locations:
- Croton-Harmon
- Dobbs Ferry
- Fordham
- Hastings-on-Hudson
- Harlem-125th Street
- North White Plains
- Port Chester
- Poughkeepsie
- Rye
- Southeast
- Tarrytown
- Yonkers
The move is the latest in a series of measures Metro-North has taken to keep riders and employees safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The railroad is also continuing with the most aggressive cleaning regimen in its history, disinfecting and cleaning train cars at least once a day, and stations at least twice daily. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Metro-North stations have been cleaned more than 30,500 times and train cars over 50,600 times.
“Having PPE easily accessible for customers at the vending machines is a key part of welcoming more riders back throughout our service region” said Catherine Rinaldi, President of Metro-North Railroad. “We are working tirelessly to ensure their safety by coming up with innovative solutions like this and continuing to aggressively clean our trains and stations. This is a reminder to customers that they must wear a mask while riding with us – and now there is no excuse, if they lost or forgot their mask – they can buy one.”
The agency is also handing out free masks on trains to any rider that boards without one, and has installed touchless hand sanitizer dispensers at stations for customers and employees to use.