The MTA plans to explore “biometric” technology to prevent break-ins to off-limits areas of subway trains, the head of New York City Transit told THE CITY — but in the meantime, will tweak existing locks.

Richard Davey said security devices that recognize unique physical characteristics are among the potential long-term defenses being considered to keep vandals from tresing into conductor and operator cabs in a subway fleet of close to 6,000 subway cars.

The need for better locks follows a string of recent incidents in which unauthorized persons have slipped into the cabs — even taking an out-of-service train for a quick spin in Queens — leading the MTA to fast-track several short-term security measures.

“In the future, we will look at technology — is there an opportunity for locks with a biometric or a code, for example,” Davey said. “But what I wanted was a simple and fast solution that we can implement in weeks, not months or years,  and that’s where we’re headed.”

More immediate fixes that are supposed to be completed in the first quarter of this year, transit officials said,  include adding a second lock to the cabs or reversing keyholes so as to render unusable current keys that MTA officials say have been stolen or sold over the Internet.

The union for conductors and subway operators said transit workers are looking for a heightened sense of security soon.

“We expect management to commit to a date for total implementation so we can give our hip a sense of when they will be safeguarded by these enhancements,” Richard Davis, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, told THE CITY in a statement.

Few Numbers

While the MTA does not keep statistics on how many times the train crew cabs have been broken into, the agency has seen an increase in other forms of subway mayhem, including reports of people riding outside of or on top of trains and of shattered glass.

Davey blamed the cab-tresing incidents on keys falling into the wrong hands because of theft, the duplication of keys and former employees not returning the devices.

“What we’re focused on is tightening up a process that, over time, seems to have had some leaks in it,” Davey said.

The focus on cutting off access to restricted areas of trains comes as the MTA has, in recent years, experienced a surge in social media-fueled subway surfing incidents, along with nearly 1,750 instances in 2023 of pranksters pulling emergency brakes on trains and break-ins to train crew cabs.

“This is yet another stupid thing that some kids probably think is a funny prank,” Davey said.

The most recent subway surfing death came Friday, when police said a 14-year-old boy was killed after being struck by a train he had been riding on top of along an elevated stretch of the F line in Brooklyn.

At the prodding of the MTA, social media companies have taken down thousands of subway surfing posts, though videos remain of troublemakers commandeering conductor cabs and public address systems on trains. 

The transit agency last year launched a public safety campaign aimed at daredevils who mess with trains.

“I implore any teenagers: Find your kicks doing something else,” Davey said. “But vandalizing trains, stealing keys, stealing conductors’ belongings, it’s illegal, it delays thousands of New Yorkers every day and in the instance of the yard movement, could have put one of our employees in danger.”

The Dec. 30 cab-break-in incident in Queens — which officials said occurred on tracks where out-of-service trains are stored near the Forest Hills-71st Avenue station — resulted in the arrest of a 16-year-old boy.

Police said he was part of a crew that entered employee compartments on two subway cars and escaped after moving the train “a short distance.” He is facing charges that include reckless endangerment, criminal tampering and criminal tres.

‘Going on for a Very Long Time’

Tramell Thompson, a subway conductor and frequent critic of the MTA and TWU Local 100 leadership, has warned on social media that the transit agency is “well aware” of transit troublemakers slipping into conductor and train operator cabs.

“It’s just now that the MTA feels compelled to address it because these videos are appearing on social media,” he told THE CITY. “But they’ve been aware that this has been going on for a very long time.”

While Davey said that adding layers of security to the locks on about one-fifth of the subway car fleet is “not an insignificant undertaking, to say the least,” the head of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA praised the effort as an “excellent move” for subway rider safety.

“People clearly have too much time on their hands,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the advisory group. “If someone can get a key to go into a cab or into a place where access is forbidden, that puts every transit rider in danger and this is something the MTA is rightly focused on.”