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Study: 60 Percent Of Subway Delay Announcements Are A Mess
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Mar 30, 2011
Modified Mar 30, 2011
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Mar 30, 2011
Modified Mar 30, 2011
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The Straphangers Campaign released their annual survey of subway announcements today, and while the MTA performs well when there are no issues, they seem to cave under pressure. According to the survey (below), taken from January 26th to June 25th last year, found that 83 percent of basic announcements (like upcoming stops) were clear and accurate. A one percent improvement over last year! However, that number drops when there's a delay. The survey found that 60 percent of announcements about delays or disruptions were unclear, inaudible or just inaccurate.
Naturally, all of the lines with the clearest announcements use automated announcements, and the B train had clear basic announcements just 55 percent of the time. But the clearness and accuracy of delay announcements dropped drastically since last year, from clear announcements 55 percent of the time to just 40 percent. "A failure to make delay announcement means more stress and confusion for riders," said Jason Chin-Fatt, Campaign field organizer. MTA policy also says if there is a delay, conductors "must make an announcement immediately [and again] within 2 minutes after that."
Sometimes, the announcements were just meaningless, like, "we have a red signal" or, "the local is now an express" without further explanation. What about that one time we got, "It is raining outside. Don't leave the subway" on the Q train? That was accurate!
2010_Announcements_survey_full
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