Strange that my subway line (the 1), which as I wrote in April was rated the dirtiest in the city, has just been rated the overall best line in the city, according to an article in today’s Newsday that cites the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s annual rider survey.
The 1,210 riders polled rated the 5 line, which is like the East Side counterpart to the West Side’s 1 line, the city’s worst, chiefly because of crowding. In fact, crowding was singled-out as the worst aspect of the subway, with other big gripes including cleanliness, homeless people and stazzzxt annzzzztxskt (station announcements). The most positive ratings were reserved for conductors’ courtesy, safety and temperatures inside cars.
On average, survey respondents gave the system a grade of C-, the same as 1994. On the bright side, if there really is such a thing underground, the grade is better than it was in 1984, when riders smacked the system with a big fat F. Of course, at that time, crime, graffiti and Bernard Goetz were running rampant, and subway cars broke down every 5,000 miles, according to the MTA. Now, crime is way down and Bernie is running for public office, people are riding the subway in numbers unseen since the ’50s, and cars break down only once every 140,000 miles or if you’re running extremely late for work, whichever comes first.
O, New York subway system. Will you ever win?