J & Z Supposedly Show Slight Improvement
Jamaica Center bound J Train entering the Marcy Avenue station. Resized photo courtesy of Eye On Transit.
A new year has pretty much come & gone but the results barely changed for the 
& 
which showed only a slight improvement in their overall Rider Report Card grade. The duo earned a C- in 2007 & finished with a C this year. Lets get straight to the results starting with the:
J & Z Train Riders’ Top 10 Priorities; 2007 priority rank will be in ( ):
01. Reasonable wait times for trains (1)
02. Adequate room on board at rush hour (4)
03. Minimal delays during trips (2)
04. Sense of security in stations (7)
05. Sense of security on trains (3)
06. Cleanliness of stations (9)
07. Working elevators and escalators in stations (10)
08. Cleanliness of subway cars (8)
09. Station announcements that are easy to hear (6)
10. Comfortable temperature in subway cars (12)
———-
Now here is the entire order of J & Z train riders’ priorities 2007 priority rank will be in ( ):
01. Reasonable wait times for trains (1)
02. Adequate room on board at rush hour (4)
03. Minimal delays during trips (2)
04. Sense of security in stations (7)
05. Sense of security on trains (3)
06. Cleanliness of stations (9)
07. Working elevators and escalators in stations (10)
08. Cleanliness of subway cars (8)
09. Station announcements that are easy to hear (6)
10. Comfortable temperature in subway cars (12)
11. Train announcements that are easy to hear (5)
12. Station announcements that are informative (6)
13. Courtesy and helpfulness of station personnel (14)
14. Availability of MetroCard Vending Machines (16)
15. Ease of use of subway turnstiles (17)
16. Train announcements that are informative (13)
17. Lack of scratchitti in subway cars (15)
18. Lack of graffiti in stations (21)
19. Signs in stations that help riders find their way (18)
20. Lack of graffiti in subway cars (19)
21. Signs in subway cars that help riders find their way (20)
———-
Now here is the graded breakdown for all 21 categories; 2007 grade in ( ):
01. Minimal delays during trips C+ (C)
02. Reasonable wait times for trains C (C-)
03. Adequate room on board at rush hour C- (C-)
04. Sense of security in stations C (C-)
05. Sense of security on trains C (C-)
06. Working elevators and escalators in stations C- (D+)
07. Signs in stations that help riders find their way C+ (C+)
08. Signs in subway cars that help riders find their way C+ (C)
09. Cleanliness of stations C- (D+)
10. Cleanliness of subway cars C- (D+)
11. Station announcements that are easy to hear C- (D)
12. Station announcements that are informative C- (D+)
13. Train announcements that are easy to hear C (D)
14. Train announcements that are informative C (D+)
15. Lack of graffiti in stations C (C)
16. Lack of graffiti in subway cars C+ (C)
17. Lack of scratchitti in subway cars C (C)
18. Courtesy and helpfulness of station personnel C (C)
19. Comfortable temperature in subway cars C+ (C+)
20. Ease of use of subway turnstiles B- (C+)
21. Availability of MetroCard Vending Machines B- (B-)
Where do I begin with these results. I guess the first part is to once again note a decrease in the amount of responses received. Last year over 58,000 report cards were handed out according to NYC Transit & they only received approximately 2000 responses. This year the total amount given out was not reported but the response total was. They received only 1,371 responses with 1,304 coming by mail & 67 via the internet.
The next issue I have to question is the model used to come up with the overall grade. How could the & have shown an overall grade improvement when many of the riders’ priorities rose spots this year. The overall wait for trains stayed the same, adequate room on board rose 2 spots, & minimal delays only fell 1 spot. A real concern is the fact that 4 key categories all involving the stations themselves rose 3 spots each from 2007.
The categories in question are security in stations, cleanliness in stations, & graffiti in stations. Yes, the line does not go through the best of neighborhoods & no one would argue that. However even with that in mind, I would be very concerned if I was the MTA in seeing such a sharp rise in the same category. Maybe a shift in priorities is in order to help deal with the station issues.
I am not shocked to see riders feel that the lines need more service & better room on board. I know many who depend on these lines daily & those sentiments are echoed by all of them on a very regular basis. Outside of rush hour, service on the line can be extremely spotty. During the rush, service will sometimes fall into the same patterns which is unacceptable considering the ridership growth. If the MTA wants to help encourage the use of mass transit, they have to do the best job possible in providing the quality of service to match ridership.
Overall I will still question how they feel this line improved. I know that 10 of the 21 priorities showed an improvement from last year in terms of rank. However many of those priorities are not the main ones that mean the most to riders. Riders want better service, & a quality experience in terms of room while getting this service.
While it is nice to see an improvement in train car announcements, that should be a given considering the equipment upgrade on the & from its previous stock. So it will take more than this kind of improvement to bring out the best in the J & Z. So in my opinion I will call b.s. on this grade as the realistic performance & results in key categories say that it has not improved.
In the end, I will have to question whether the MTA should continue doing these Rider Report Cards. The results are not really showing much improvement. I understand that some things are out of the agency’s control in terms of what can be done to make improvements. However with all of that, the riders are just not responding to these report cards. So far every line that has been graded as seen a decrease in the amount of responses. This tells me either of 2 things. The marketing of these cards is not being done correctly or the riders just don’t care. I feel it is more of the former when you really think about it.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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