NYC Subway Bathrooms Fall Short Of Basic Amenities, Cleanliness: New Audit Finds

NEW YORK CITY — A number of bathrooms in New York City subway stations lack basic amenities like toilet seats and paper as well as had at least one deficiency, such as litter, graffiti, or a broken stall lock, according to a recently published audit.

The Office of the MTA Inspector General found that 23 of the 27 bathrooms surveyed lacked at least one basic amenity or had a notable deficiency.

As part of the audit, OIG visited 32 of the 125 bathrooms in the subway system to observe their condition from December 2024 to April 2025.

While 27 bathrooms OIG visited had functioning toilets, 10 of 37 toilets did not have toilet seats, which is a violation of plumbing codes and raise public health concerns.

Other finding from the audit include that NYC Transit was inconsistent with the way it came to categorizing the level of severity of assigned bathrooms needing repairs.

In addition, the OIG criticized NYC Transit for not giving customers adequate detail regarding the locations of the 125 bathrooms and their availability.

On three occasions, OIG arrived at a station to find that the bathrooms were closed, yet that information was not reflected on the NYC Transit website or posted on the locked bathroom doors. There was also little to no signage as to the location of bathrooms in the stations.

OIG made a total of nine recommendations to NYC Transit following the audit. Among those they advised the agency to make sure newly installed toilets has a seat attached and to remedy the ones which don't have one.

Also, NYC Transit should consider the use of posted QR codes so that customers can give real-
time feedback to stations when a bathroom needs to be cleaned or resupplied.

The OIG also called on NYC Transit should reinstruct personnel on how to properly categorize defects commonly found in bathrooms.

You can read the full audit report here.