State of the Subways
Yesterday, the Straphangers Campaign released its annual State
of the Subways report card, rating the 7 the best line and the A, B,
and M lines worst. Nine lines received lower ratings than in last year's
report card.
The report was based on extensive review of statistics on subway performance
during the second half of 1998.
The 50-page report used six performance measures to grade service quality
on each line. A line could receive a rating of $1.50 if it scored, on average,
in the top 5% on the six measures of service. The six measures were: amount
of service, percent of trains arriving at regular intervals, breakdown
rate, chance of getting a seat, cleanliness, and adequacy of in-car announcements.
Among the report's key findings:
- Line ratings grew worse on 9 of 19 lines, improved on three and stayed
the same on seven. The lines with worse line ratings are the 2, 5, 7, A,
B, E, F, M and R. This is in stark contrast to last year's report card,
where 14 of 19 lines had improved.
- Despite a massive increase of 590,000 riders per day since 1997, there
has been virtually no increase in scheduled service. As of March 1999,
there were 590,000 more riders using the subways each weekday compared
to March 1997. Yet, there's been virtually no change in the scheduled intervals
between rush-hour trains over the last two years. (Transit does plan to
add a modest amount of rush-hour service in October 1999 to five lines
- the A, B, L, N and R).
- System-wide in the last year: subway cars grew dirtier and announcements
poorer; chances of getting a seat during rush hour improved slightly; car
breakdowns occurred less often, but on 11 of 20 lines, car breakdowns increased.
The report follows two previous Straphangers State of the Subways reports,
which rated performance in 1996 and 1997. The annual study was prompted
by severe cuts to the subway operating budget in 1994. The entire report
- including all 20 subway line profiles, can be found at the Straphangers
web site.
