Additional 250 National Guard troops will flood subways to keep holiday straphangers safe, Hochul announces

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that she’s deploying 250 more National Guard troops into New York City’s subways to help protect straphangers during the holidays.

The added soldiers will swell the National Guard’s total subway deployment to 1,000 troops, Hochul said during a news conference in the One Vanderbilt entrance to Grand Central Station.

Hochul noted that up to 8 million more people are expected in the subway system during the holiday season.

“I want them to know when they walk through the turnstile they will be safe,” she said.

The governor argued her controversial first deployment of National Guard troops into the subway in March has led to a dramatic drop in transit crime.

“It’s about continuing this strategy that has proven its success,” she said.

“Subway crime is down 10% just since last March,” Hochul said. “Only two years since the year 1970 have we had fewer subway crimes than we had this past year.”