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Koppell, Rivera Decry Token Booth Shutdown

By JORDAN MOSS

Council Member Oliver Koppell teamed up with Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera on Thursday to lambaste the MTA for closing the token booth at the D-train station at 205th Street and Perry Avenue.

“We are outraged by the closure of this token booth on a permanent basis,” Koppell thundered, gesturing at the darkened booth behind him during a press conference.

Koppell said stations without clerks would be “vulnerable to terrorists and people who are deranged.”

Rivera said that elderly residents would have difficulty with the MetroCard machines.

While there was a customer service agent stationed outside the booth at the time of the press conference, Koppell said the safety of such agents would be compromised.

“Dollars to donuts, these agents are going to be attacked the way they were years ago,” he said, explaining that more secure booths had been built to protect clerks.

The station was one of eight across the city shut down in the latest round of closures. Two years ago, the MTA shut booths at Bedford Park Boulevard and Fordham Road. The agency plans to close a total of 164 booths by next spring.

The token booth at 206th Street and Bainbridge Avenue will remain open.

Koppell suggested that the MTA was targeting poorer communities for the service cutbacks.

“Why is this neighborhood being chosen to have service diminished?” he asked.

One resident said time would tell whether the changes would be negative.

“If somebody is there, that's what counts,” said Eneida Negron, a Post Office employee. “But if he's not there it would be unsettling.”

Koppell and Rivera also pointed to the station’s poor condition. It has been rated among the most dilapidated in the city in at least two studies.

Rivera said the MTA’s current capital plan should be amended to include the station and that she had begun meeting with the agency to discuss the issue.

David Greeene contributed to this story.

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