Video renews MTA debate on food on subway

Stand clear of the closing doors, please. Don't ride between cars. No more sub sandwiches on the subway?

Two members of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board started a food fight Monday when they suggested it was time to put restrictions on subway dining. They said eating on board can be messy and unhygienic, and it can contribute to track fires and the presence of rats.

MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin on Tuesday said the agency is not seriously considering a food ban right now.

The topic came up after an Internet video surfaced that showed one subway rider complaining about another eating spaghetti on a train. The argument escalated until the dining passenger threw her food at the other train rider.

Rustan Lundstrum, 28, an Oyster Bay restaurant manager who rides the subway on his weekly business trips into the city, said he agrees that fellow subway riders shouldn't be wolfing down meals.

"It's obnoxious: all that loud eating, and slurping and drinking," Lundstrum said. "Candy bars, apples, bananas -- finger food -- that's OK. Maybe an egg sandwich."

Some subway riders at Penn Station on Tuesday said eating on board isn't an issue for them unless it gets too messy.

"I don't have a problem with it as long as people get rid of their garbage," said Tom Ratto, 57, a plumber from Sayville who has been riding on the No. 7 line for 25 years.

After all, it's just another example of the lack of personal space on trains.

"I try not to look at anybody when I'm on the train -- avoid all eye contact," Ratto said, laughing.

Some meals, however, are hard to ignore.

"It all depends on what they are eating," said Lou Ardolino, 40, of Milford, Conn.

"McDonald's . . . you smell it right away. It's the ketchup. It's hard to zone it out," he said.

Underground dining is simply unsanitary, said Patrick Christ, 49, a carpenter from West Islip.

"Just think about all that dust and dirt," he said as he consumed his McDonald's meal in the passenger lobby of the Long Island Rail Road at Penn Station.

Christ said "candy and gum and mints are fine" on the subway, but if you're going to eat a meal, he suggested doing so on the LIRR -- he said it's cleaner.

As for enforcing a no-eating rule on the subway, that would be difficult, Floral Park resident John Keenan said.

Keenan, 63, said he prefers "if people were just courteous and pick up after themselves."

To Ardolino, passengers who chow down are a lot more tolerable than those who conduct another personal habit on the ride.

"And then there is the sound -- that clipping sound," he said.

"You know the sound I'm talking about -- the clipping-fingernails sound. That really bothers me."

With Alfonso A. Castillo and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher