Hear, hear: Subway service announcements on a roll

Posted September 17, 2013 By Claire Moses

They’re some of the most dreaded words New York’s commuters hear: “We’re being held because of train traffic ahead of us,” followed by the vague promise, “We should be moving momentarily.”

Photo: MTA/Flickr

But at least those messages come through, ungarbled. According to a study released on Tuesday by the Straphangers Campaign of the New York Public Interest Research Group, the MTA has actually been doing much better with these announcements.

“For the third year in a row the Straphangers Campaign found that a majority of subway car announcements of delays and disruptions were clear and accurate,” the Straphangers Campaign stated.

Official transit guidelines give conductors a list of 18 possible delay announcements with detailed reasons. Announcements can range from: “unruly person on the train” to “waiting for connecting train.”

If there’s a delay, a conductor must make an announcement immediately and then every two minutes until the train starts moving again.

The Straphangers’ latest survey, conducted in 2013, subway car announcements of delays were correct, clear and ungarbled 52 percent of the time, in 51 out of 98 delays.

In delays without adequate announcements, 13 percent of the time passengers heard only silence. Nine percent of announcements were inaudible or garbled, and 26 percent were rated “incorrect.”

The L and Q lines offer the clearest and most accurate announcements, the Straphangers Campaign found.

The three lines with the lowest percentage of accurate information were the G (67 percent of the time), C (65 percent) and R trains (56 percent).

The Straphangers Campaign has been conducting the survey for three years now. Before 2011, the campaign said, in “a majority of delays and disruptions experienced by our raters, there was either no announcement — or an inaudible, garbled or incorrect one.”

“We hope Transit officials continue this positive trend, giving riders the information they need when regular service is affected, “ said Straphangers Campaign field organizer Jason Chin-Fatt.

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<h1>Hear, hear: Subway service announcements on a roll</h1>They’re some of the most dreaded words New York’s commuters hear: “We’re being held because of train traffic ahead of us,” followed by the vague promise, “We should be moving momentarily.”
<div id="attachment_12310" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.flickr.com/photos/mtaphotos/9427394830/sizes/h/in/photostream/');" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtaphotos/9427394830/sizes/h/in/photostream/"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-12310" class="size-medium wp-image-12310" alt="R train" src="http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/R-train-300x169.jpg" width="300" height="169" srcset="thenewyorkworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/R-train-300x169.jpg 300w, thenewyorkworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/R-train-352x198.jpg 352w, thenewyorkworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/R-train-500x281.jpg 500w, thenewyorkworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/R-train.jpg 568w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>Photo: MTA/Flickr</div>
But at least those messages come through, ungarbled. According to a <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/straphangers.org/announcements/2013/Survey_of_Announcements_2013.pdf');" href="http://straphangers.org/announcements/2013/Survey_of_Announcements_2013.pdf">study</a> released on Tuesday by the Straphangers Campaign of the New York Public Interest Research Group, the MTA has actually been doing much better with these announcements.
“For the third year in a row the Straphangers Campaign found that a majority of subway car announcements of delays and disruptions were clear and accurate,” the Straphangers Campaign stated.
Official transit guidelines give conductors a list of 18 possible delay announcements with detailed reasons. Announcements can range from: “unruly person on the train” to “waiting for connecting train.”
If there’s a delay, a conductor must make an announcement immediately and then every two minutes until the train starts moving again.
The Straphangers’ latest survey, conducted in 2013, subway car announcements of delays were correct, clear and ungarbled 52 percent of the time, in 51 out of 98 delays.
In delays without adequate announcements, 13 percent of the time passengers heard only silence. Nine percent of announcements were inaudible or garbled, and 26 percent were rated “incorrect.”
The L and Q lines offer the <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/straphangers.org/announcements/2013/Table_Two.pdf');" href="http://straphangers.org/announcements/2013/Table_Two.pdf">clearest and most accurate announcements</a>, the Straphangers Campaign found.
The three lines with the lowest percentage of accurate information were the G (67 percent of the time), C (65 percent) and R trains (56 percent).
The Straphangers Campaign has been <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/straphangers.org/announcements/2013/methodology.pdf');" href="http://straphangers.org/announcements/2013/methodology.pdf">conducting the survey</a> for three years now. Before 2011, the campaign said, in “a majority of delays and disruptions experienced by our raters, there was either no announcement — or an inaudible, garbled or incorrect one.”
“We hope Transit officials continue this positive trend, giving riders the information they need when regular service is affected, “ said Straphangers Campaign field organizer Jason Chin-Fatt.

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