The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye announced that the authority today launched a new “Hate Has No Place in Our Transportation System” public awareness campaign aimed at combating hate crimes.The new campaign will appear on digital screens across subways, buses, and commuter railroads promoting kindness, respect and solidarity.

The NYPD Transit Bureau investigated 75 hate crimes in 2019, an increase of 42 percent over the 53 investigated in 2018. The number of hate crimes investigated by the MTA Police Department held steady in 2019, declining three percent to 26 hate crimes investigated on the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad and Staten Island Railway, from 27 the prior year.

The campaign was launched on the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The launch of the campaign follows the abhorrent attack on a transgender woman on the line in Harlem over the weekend.

“New York is built on diversity, openness and inclusion,” said Foye. “Every New Yorker should be able to travel free of harassment and feel safe while riding with the MTA. We want to do what we can to put a halt to these despicable crimes. We hope that our campaign will not only help reduce bias activity but will remind everyone of the core New York values of kindness, respect and solidarity.”

The ads will appear on more than more than 4,000 Digital Screens Across the NYC Subway, 2,600 screens on buses and 550 screens on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad.

All ads feature iconic signage associated with the NYC Transit system, LIRR and Metro-North and share the message that “hate has no place” in the MTA network. The ads provide information on how to report hate crimes, concluding with the tagline: “New York rides together.”