New York, NY – The key to the subway is plenty useful aboveground, too.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
After revealing that scammers are selling fare-beaters a $27 key that opens subway emergency exits, the Daily News found the key also controls elevators at thousands of city buildings.
The FDNY confirmed the “firemen’s service” key – used in emergencies – can call all elevators to the lowest floor and hold them there.
Thousands of firefighters have the keys, which the FDNY has been using for many years, FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon said.
They work in “tens of thousands of buildings” – including all commercial high-rises, he said.
The News got a key from a Brooklyn man who said he paid a transit worker $27 for a copy, which he used to avoid paying the $2.25 train fare.
A second man busted by cops recently for having one of the keys told the Daily News he bought his copy from a transit worker for about $50.
NYC Transit President Thomas Prendergast said the agency may have to replace the locks on the system’s 1,412 gates, which would likely cost more than $1 million, he said.
The agency will talk with the NYPD and MTA police before making such a move, he said.
“If from a security standpoint, and in the interest of protecting the system, its employees and the customers, we have to make that level of expenditure, we will do it,” Prendergast said.
Fare-beating costs NYC Transit an estimated $27 million a year.
About 50 people have been arrested since January 2009 for unauthorized possession of the keys.
When NYC Transit installed emergency exit gates in the subways in 2006 and 2007, FDNY officials requested they open with the “firemen’s service” key.
City Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens), chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said he was even more concerned knowing the key also can be used to control elevators.
“That’s not a key I want in unauthorized hands,” he said. “We know terrorists are planning attacks on our subways and buildings, and we don’t need to have keys that could help them in the wrong hands.”
Gribbon downplayed security concerns.
Using a firemen’s service key in a commercial high-rise triggers an alarm, Gribbon said.
When all elevators are held in the lobby, firefighters can use the key to maneuver individual elevators, but it requires some know-how and training, he said.
If they bought the key from a transit worker, how will rekeying them help? They will just sell the new key. And this is a sign of the incompetent MTA management.
any key that “thousands of employees” have will always have some illegal copies ,changing the locks wont help
THE SECURITY RISK is the “DAILY NEWS”
That and $2.50 will get you a seat on the subway…
What they need to do is put CCTV cameras at all the entrances. That way the culprits will be caught or at the very least there will be a photo and record of them.
They (the MTA & firemen service key) need to have a Kaba system. (google it) It is used all over Europe. The locks are unpickable & the keys are virtually uncopyable by the public. Each key & lock is registered and a copy of the key can only be ordered from them. It may be more expensive but it is the safest & most secure. In fact, I recommend it for anyone who wants a secure lock on their home. A little more expensive but certainly worth it.
Does this even matter, given the new “emergency exits” are now simply another turnstile, just noisier?
Maybe if the didn’t raise the fairs so often this wouldn’t be happening….
These gates/doors in subways should be secured with a magnetic key card and biometric scan combination. That is the most effective way to stop this nonsense.
As for the firefighter keys used for elevators, require that the emergency alarm be sounded whenever a key is inserted. Nobody will want to draw that kind of attention to themselves, but in a real emergency nobody would mind the noise.
Simple solutions to simple problems. Why do other people always make it so difficult?
27 million in losses but one million to fix the problem? Go for itMTA!
I would also suggest thstat everyone that gets caught stealing fromt he MTA has to pay a 5,000 fine plus 5 years in jail and this would guarantee nobody will ever jump the turn style or walk through the door again!
Do something extremely liberal and our mayor may grant you the key to the entire city!
all the yankee players have keys…
NYC Transit President Thomas Prendergast said the agency may have to replace the locks on the system’s 1,412 gates, which would likely cost more than $1 million, he said.
that is more then $700 per lock!!
and u wonder why the city is bankrupt, and the MTA has to keep raising fare?
give the locksmith a metro card, and let him ride the subway all day, getting out at every station to change the locks. if he does only ten a day, 5 days a week, shouldn’t take more then half a year. tell me one locksmith who would be willing to do that for 250K!?!?!