Daily News from New York, New York • 416

CLASSIFIED BEGINS ON BACK PAGE Bronx and North Manhattan Daily News. Friday, January 9. 1981 TA bracks. down on subway vandals Suspects may repay TA for repair costs rather than be sent to prison By MARVA YORK As punishment for kicking out windows and locked doors on Bronx subway trains, the city Transit Authority is kicking subway vandals where it hurts in their pocketbooks. Since it was started Nov.

3, the TA's Vandalism and Graffiti Unit, headquartered at 180th St and Morris Park Ave in the Northeast Bronx, has made 265 arrests for subway vandalism. The arrests were made by 24 plainclothes and uniformed transit police officers who were assigned to patrol the IRT Number 6 Pelham Bay line. The line covers 37 stations and about 15 miles of track between Pelham Bay in the upper Bronx and the wmmmmmm I it 8L JACK SMITH DAILY NEWS Broken piece of safety glass held by Transit Police officer (left, photo above) and missing fire extinguisher (right, photo above) are some of the reasons trains (below) are removed from Brooklyn Bridge in lower Manhattan. MOST OF THE ARRESTS were for broken windows and smashed-in doors. The unit focuses on windows and doors because of service disruptions they cause In lieu of jail sentences, many convicted vandals will be allowed to reimburse the TA for the cost of repairs necessitated by their crimes.

In the 265 arrests by TA police in two months, all but four suspects were juveniles. They were charged with criminal mischief or criminal tampering. Half of those arrested were under 16; one-fifth, or 53, were under 14. The youngest suspect was 8, according to Deputy Inspector Alfred Oliveri, head of the unit Vandals may be sentenced to three months to a year in prison for crimes involving $250 or less. Vandals convicted of crimes with a damage estimate greater than $250 may be sent to prison for one to three-and-a-half years.

According to Oliveri, however, some subway vandals will be allowed to pay for the damage and forego the prison term. In the case of juveniles who are unemployed, parents may pay for the vandalism, he said. He added that restitution paid by parents serves a See WINDOW Pago 3 e0aires ww.wsw soolbwa seimie By DON WEINBRENNER there was admittedly a departure that day from the usual five-minute headway to a 20-minute headway between northbound trains because of a problem at Dyckman St Also, vandals had cut the public address system wires at the 137th St station, making platform communication with passengers impossible. "Unacceptable," Eisland retorted. "Passengers up and down the line standing on platforms with address systems that do work were left in the cold and not told the reason for the delay.

"That's because there was no real delay," she asserted "Service is routinely infrequent on Bronx lines during rush hours, but neither Kalkof nor any other transit official admits it BETWEEN 7 AND 11 A.M., according to one spokesman, 21 trains travel northbound to the Bronx. "That would figure out to an actual eight-minute headway," confessed another official. "Admittedly, even our own schedule wouldn't back up our original five-minute claim," said spokesman Rand Burgner. "Tell them to check again," said Eisland. "Five or eight it's paper headway, not reality.

It's closer to 20 and 45 minutes." Said Eisland. "We're at war. Volunteers can call me at 549-0158." Issues call for volunteers to tally northbound trains The skirmish began last month during a City Council transportation committee hearing when committee member Eisland demanded statistics from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that would withstand the inadequate-service claims of her constituents and other transit passengers. "They failed to produce a straight answer," she said. "I had demanded to know why certain riders on Dec.

4 were dropped off along Broadway below 137th St, ushered from- the train by conductors who yelled 'everybody off but who failed to explain why." She said, "Train lights were abruptly turned off and the passengers dismissed to wait for an unknown period of time, because there was no communication with the passengers through the public address systems. Although we inquired about this specific date, the question is a general one because these incidents occur daily." CHARLES KALKOF, RAPID transit general superintendent, replied to Eisland on Dec. 17 that Aiming to put a sizable chink in the armor of Transit Authority claims that the Bronx is dealt a fair share of northbound subway trains during rush hours. City Councilwoman June Eisland angrily responded with a call for volunteers to count those "ghost" Broadway IRT rush-hour trains. "No way is the Bronx adequately served the way transit officials claim, and I'll recruit volunteers to prove it," she said.

She added, "Transit Authority officials stick to false assertions that only a five-minute headway exists between northbound rush hour trains. It's actually a daily 20 to 45-minute wait for thousands of passengers who are treated to one abuse after another." EISLAND SAID SHE receives complaints "daily from passengers enroute to high schools, colleges and jobs in many Bronx factories and other industries who are stranded, mistreated and left to peer up and down platforms for trains that the transit people say indeed run, but trains the passengers can't hear or see go by. Ghost trains," said Eisland..