New York's commuters are up in arms against the five-hour simultaneous closing of all 78 subway toilets from midnight to 5 a.m.

The New York Transit, through spokesman Charles Seaton, defended the new policy implemented the past few weeks, as its way of making the riding public more comfortable by setting exclusive window hours for its maintenance staff to clean the toilets.

Late night and early morning travelers, however, protested that they have nowhere to answer nature's call and most of their other options like bars, clubs, offices and dining establishments have also closed. Relieving oneself on a corner would subject them to penalty.

Herby Campbell, an iron worker from Long Island, asked Newsday, "Where do I go now? Wet my pants?"

Riders said the decision to close the toilets may be NYC's way of refusing access to the toilet, specially for non-riders like the homeless. They questioned also the long time alloted for cleaners to finish cleaning the public toilets.

Meanwhile, the New York Police Department and the Metropolitan Transit Authority are at odds over the addition of another layer of bureaucracy in shutting down the power of the tracks while the NYPD police pursue a bag snatcher. In the past all it took was one call to the NYC Transit's operations center to shut off power and it was immediately done.

With the new policy, such requests need approval from higher authorities who may not always be around while the NYPD are hot on the tracks of a criminal. Transit officials defended their new policy, saying it seeks to avoid inconveniencing thousands of riders. They added the city's crime rate is at an all time low. However, police data showed there was a slight increase in crimes from January to April.