Sources: MTA to lay off more than 1,000 workers

Grim finances are forcing the MTA to lay off more than 1,000 workers, an unprecedented move for the agency, according to transit sources.

Officials are expected to announce Tuesday that they plan to lay off 500 subway station agents who provide customer information and keep watch on the system. The MTA was letting the workers go through attrition, but now plans to boot them by the summer, sources said.

"It's significant. We don't have any money," an MTA official said.

Additionally, the MTA plans to lay off up to 18 percent of administrators by the summer, with possible cuts of about 700 workers, sources said. Down the road, officials also might remove some newly hired bus drivers.

The MTA declined to comment. A union spokesman said they had not heard anything definitive about layoffs.

In other news, the agency is using $700 million in existing funds to rehab parts of 130 stations in five years, triple the number officials originally pledged to tackle. The original plan was to completely overhaul fewer stations.

"We need to . . . have the biggest bang for the buck," NYC Transit chief Thomas Prendergast said.