Cash-strapped MTA spent $250M on emergency subway intercom system thats overrun with pranksters

Hello, is Seymour Butz there?A damning new probe shows the cash-strapped MTA dropped a mind-boggling $250 million on an emergency subway intercom system where 50% of the calls are pranks — and critics questioned why it’s even needed since nearly everyone has a phone anyways.The MTA’s quarter-billion-dollar boondoggle has attracted mischief-makers like moths to a flame — with thousands of monthly prank calls ranging from attempting to place McDonald’s orders to reporting a plane landing on the tracks of an underground station, according to an investigation by the MTA Inspector General’s Office and sources.“Count me as being not surprised,” Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said of the debacle under the troubled transit agency — which recently helped push through a hated congestion toll in Midtown Manhattan, crying poverty for upgrades and expansions.The MTA’s $252.7 million “Help Point” system was completed in 2018 and includes a network of 3,016 emergency intercoms across all 472 stations in the city’s sprawling subway network.But a newly released audit from the MTA IG revealed that just 28% of the 140,698 calls made through Help Point between May 2023 and October 2023 were from subway riders in need of assistance — and a staggering 50% were deemed “mischief.”Alarmingly, the auditors found that NYC Transit was unaware of the extent of the issues with the system, including nearly 1,200 unanswered emergency calls.Investigators also found a significant number of emergency calls experienced long delays before being answered, in part because of NYC Transit’s practice of answering calls in the order received without prioritizing emergency calls over those just seeking information.“The Help Point system is important for public safety, and an immediate response to genuine emergency calls is crucial,” MTA Inspector General Daniel Cort said in a statement.“This system is in need of significant improvements.”Noting the a...