As the MTA slashes its station clerks, tourists are lost, customers with luggage or baby carriages can’t get through the “Iron Maiden” turnstiles, and New Yorkers have to wait in long lines as all of the confused people in front of them try to go through the same turnstiles one by one.

But new MTA chief Jay Walder tells the Times that the clerk cuts were necessary, and that “the [MTA] board had to make some very tough decisions to be able to deal with a tough financial circumstance.”

Opportunity #1 missed. No, slashing the clerks wasn’t Walder’s decision — he just started work on Monday. But the real reason that New York has had to cut token-booth clerks is that the clerks make an average of nearly $24 hourly, plus benefits.

The MTA surely could get someone to do the station-booth job for $12 an hour in this economy — or even, say, $15.

If the MTA cut its hourly wage costs for token-booth clerks to $15, it would save $72 million annually — a lot more than the $5.7 million the authority will save with its booth closures.

Walder could have explained to the Times that the booth cuts are a symbol of what’s long been wrong with the MTA. He needs to use concrete examples like this to help the public understand what’s going on.

If he doesn’t, the public still won’t support more money for the MTA’s capital projects, because people see (rightly) that they pay more only to get less service.