MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye appeared on MSNBC with Ayman Mohyeldin to discuss the MTA’s ongoing response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

A transcript of the interview appears below.

Ayman Mohyeldin: The coronavirus pandemic is leading to something almost unthinkable here in New York City – the shutdown of the entire subway system. Starting next Wednesday all 472 stations will be closed for deep cleaning and disinfection overnight between one and 5 am. City workers will help homeless New Yorkers relocate to local shelters. The unprecedented move is part of the city’s efforts to try to reopen for business. I am joined now by Patrick Foye, Chairman and CEO of the MTA, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Chairman Foye, it is good to talk to you. Thanks for coming back and talking to us. This is obviously an enormous challenge facing the MTA and tell us a little bit about why you feel the need to take this unprecedented move to shut down the system overnight and how long this is expected to last?

Patrick J. Foye: Thanks for having me on, look, in the 116 year history of the subway system going back to 1904 it has never closed as it will Wednesday morning at one o’clock. There has been Superstorm Sandy and other natural acts of God, natural disasters, where the system’s been closed for a day or two, never this, why are we doing this? We need to close the system from 1 am to 5 am in order to disinfect every subway car, and every bus. Right now, we are disinfecting stations twice a day and subway cars and buses on a rolling 72 hour period. We believe we’ve got an obligation to our employees, to our current riders, and to our future riders to take every step we can to assure public health, and that our system has been disinfected. This four-hour period will allow us and obviously it’s a tremendous inconvenience to about 10,000 to 11,000 of our current customers. And I’ll tell you in a second of the alternative service plan but this will enable us to disinfect every subway car. So every missed period beginning Wednesday morning, we will be running regular bus service – we will supplement that bus service if necessary that will be the primary mode of moving the potential 11,000 customers that we know travel in the 1 am to 5 am period in the currently significantly depressed subway ridership. We will also be looking to livery cab companies, taxis and for-hire vehicles to supplement a significant bus service which we will examine closely. We have very granular data as to the number of customers, where they come from in the one o’clock hour, two o’clock hour, etcetera, and where they go. And we are prepared to put this program into place at one o’clock on Wednesday.

Mohyeldin: Let me ask you about another big component of this and that is the relocation of homeless New Yorkers during the shutdown times. Talk to us a little bit about how you will ensure their safety as well as the safety of the folks who will be forced or asked to relocate them?

Foye: That is a great question. So, Governor Cuomo announced this change of subway service in Albany yesterday. Mayor de Blasio was Zoomed into the meeting and is fully supportive of the program. One of the key things to making it happen is the robust and sustainable presence from the NYPD, which the Mayor and the Police Commissioner have committed to. We do have 472 stations as you noted and it’s critical when the stations, when the systems, the subway system closes at one o’clock that public safety of every one of our passengers is protected. Every passenger, everybody who is not a police officer, or a transit worker, or an MTA police officer will have to leave the system – that includes everybody, including the homeless. And frankly we believe that this will give the city which is responsible for providing homeless services, including shelter, an opportunity to provide medical and mental services as well as shelter in a hotel room that the city had rented – more than the existing homeless shelter – so we think it’s extraordinarily important in advancing that goal.

Mohyeldin: You and I have been speaking over the past couple of weeks a few times and we’ve been seeing this drastic increase in the number of folks killed – the transit workers – that number now is more than 80. Talk to us a little bit about the continued sacrifice the MTA workers are making as essential personnel during this crisis.

Foye: Well there is no question, transit workers working on subways, buses, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, Bridges and Tunnels are heroes moving heroes. The reason this transit system hasn’t closed is because first responders and essential workers: nurses, doctors, utility workers, people working in grocery stores, pharmacies, transit workers themselves need the subway and bus and commuter rail system to get back and forth to work. There has been a tragic toll obviously in New York City and New York State and across the nation but, at the MTA 98 of our colleagues have succumbed to the virus. That is a tragic loss of life, we grieve and mourn the loss of every one of our colleagues. I’ll note that our board last month unanimously approved a family benefit for those who succumbed to the virus and we’re working in furthering the public interest at the MTA and will provide a $500,000 family benefit – first in the nation to do that and I, and our Board, thought it was the right thing to do under the circumstances.

Mohyeldin: Alright, Chairman, Patrick Foye, of the MTA, thank you very much, sir, for joining us and look forward talking to you in the weeks ahead.