A Slight Improvement But…..
So the MTA saw a slight improvement in the results from their latest rider report card but it is nothing to brag about considering the money invested so far.
Later today, the MTA will release the full results of the rider report card for the L train. However some sources such as AMNY & the NY Times’ City Room blog have released some of the details.
The L train’s overall grade was a C which is a slight improvement from the C- grade the 7 train received earlier this month. So far here are the details we know about the L train’s grade:
- The lowest grade was a D for “adequate room at rush hour”
- The highest grade was a B which was achieved in 5 different categories including helpful subway car signs and station personnel courteousness
- A C grade was given out for station announcement clarity & a C- for the announcements being informative
One would think just looking at some of these grades must be very sad for the MTA who has invested $17.6 million dollars on the line’s customer information system. However you might find New York City Transit President Howard H. Roberts Jr. singing a different tune. According to him he is “not totally surprised” by the C grade mainly due to the L having “seen more than its fair share of service interruptions over the past few years”. He also noted that the L “has also seen unprecedented ridership growth, growth we didn’t fully anticipate and have been unable to respond to as quickly as we would have liked.”
This growth is mainly contributed to the continued gentrification in neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Greenpoint, & Bushwick. The gentrification has contributed to a 20% increase in L train ridership since 2000 compared to the average of 9% system wide. The increase being over double the average says a lot & I expect that number to grow as Bushwick continues to grow.
The Straphangers Campaign offered their opinion on the results. Straphangers lawyer & main spokesperson Gene Russianoff had this to say:
Getting a C overall means there’s lots of room for improvement. Riders give the line a D on ‘adequate room at rush hour.’ That mirrors the chief complaint of L riders: taking the line during the rush turns you into a sardine. This is the key area in which they are looking for relief. The L has mostly modern new technology cars, which riders appreciate.
The main 3 points that L train straphangers want to see improvements on are more room on board during peak hours, fewer delays during trips, & shorter wait times for trains. The MTA still plans on implementing extra trains on the L as this had already been in place. The results of the report card will most likely speed up the process though.
As far as actual numbers go, the MTA shared statistics on the number of graders. According to the MTA, they handed out 42,000 report cards to to riders over a 3 day period last month. During the grading reply period they received 4003 cards back (2,762 via postal mail & 1,241 online).
Personally these numbers seem disappointing as I expected a bigger turnout. Quite frankly how can straphangers expect changes to be made if they don’t take the time to make their opinions heard? Hypocrisy at its finest…………….
Get with it people or keep your mouth shut about anything that involves your commute. You have the choice so which will you choose??????
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