NEWS RELEASE

YEARLY "STATE OF SUBWAYS" REPORT CARD ISSUED

BEST LINE: THE 7, WITH LINE RATING OF $1.05;
A, B, AND M TIE FOR WORST, WITH A RATING OF 65 CENTS

RATINGS FALL FOR 9 OF 19 LINES; 3 IMPROVE, 7 REMAIN THE SAME

The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign today issued its annual "state of the subways" report card, rating the 7 as the best line and the A, B and M lines as worst. Nine of 19 major subway lines received lower ratings than in last year's report card.

The 50-page report is based on an extensive review of official data on subway service, much of it not released before on a line-by-line basis. It includes detailed one-page profiles of 20 of the city's 23 lines and a Straphangers Campaign "line rating" for 19 of the lines. (See attached materials.)

"Our report shows that the subways are struggling to handle the flood of new riders," said campaign staff attorney Gene Russianoff, who noted there has been an increase since 1997 of nearly 600,000 more riders a day.

The profiles report six measures of service, based on recent data from MTA New York City Transit, largely covering the last half of 1998. The measures for each line are: the amount of scheduled service and the regularity of train arrivals; delays caused by mechanical failures of cars; the chance of getting a seat at the most congested point; the cleanliness of cars; and the adequacy of announcements.

The Straphangers Campaign line ratings are based on a formula developed in consultation with independent transportation experts and are intended to be a shorthand tool to compare lines. A line could receive a rating of $1.50 if it scored, on average, in the top 5% on the six measures of service.

This report is a follow-up to the campaign's last two state of the subways report cards, which rated performance for the last half of 1996 and of 1997. Our key findings include:

1. For the third year in a row, the best subway line is far and away the 7--although its line rating dropped from $1.20 last year to $1.05. The line ranked high because there is much more scheduled service on the 7 than on most lines; riders have a greater chance of getting a seat at rush hour; and its cars break down much less often than average. The line rating dropped since last year because the line's performance worsened on four measures: fewer miles traveled between breakdowns, fewer clean cars, more crowding and worse announcements. The 7 runs between Flushing, Queens and Times Square.

2. The worst subway lines are the A, B and M, replacing the N as the worst line since our last report. The lines received the lowest line rating--65 cents--because:

• The A runs irregularly; has a frequent breakdown rate; and has a large number of dirty cars. The line operates between Far Rockaway, Queens and Upper Manhattan.
• The B has long scheduled waits during rush hour; and below average chances of hearing adequate subway car announcements and getting a seat during rush hour. The line operates between Coney Island, Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan.
• The M has long scheduled waits during rush hour; and breaks down more often and has a larger number of dirty cars than the system average. The line runs between Coney Island and Middle Village, Queens.

3. Line ratings grew worse on 9 of 19 lines, improved on three and stayed the same on seven. The lines with worse line ratings are the 2, 5, 7, A, B, E, F, M and R. This is in stark contrast to last year's report card, where 14 of 19 lines had improved. The three lines with better ratings in this report card are the C, N and Q. The unchanged lines are the 1/9, 3, 4, 6, D, J/Z and L.

4. Despite a massive increase of 590,000 riders-a-day since 1997, there has been virtually no increase in scheduled service. As of March 1999, there were 590,000 more riders using the subways each weekday compared to March 1997. Yet, there's been virtually no change in the scheduled intervals between rush-hour trains over the last two years. (Transit officials do plan to add a modest amount of rush-hour service starting in October 1999 to five lines--the A, B, L, N and R.)

5. System-wide in the last year:

• subway cars grew dirtier and announcements poorer. The findings on announcements and dirt mirror independent surveys by the Straphangers Campaign.
• there was a slightly greater chance of getting a seat during rush hour. However, the report likely underestimates the impact of recent increases in ridership. The only available figures for crowding are taken from a one-day count conducted in fall 1997, just after the start of free subway-to-bus transfers and before unlimited-ride passes and the "11 for 10" bulk purchase discounts. The information for 1998 is not yet available.
• car breakdowns occured less often. However, on a majority of lines--11 out of 20--car breakdowns increased. The improvement for the whole system was largely due to big improvements in several lines, especially the 4, B, F and Q.
  

6. The most improved line is the N, with its overall line rating going from 65 cents to 80 cents. The N showed improvement on four measures: greater regularity, a lower car breakdown rate, less crowding, and cleaner cars. The 7 line had the biggest drop in performance, going from a line rating last year of $1.20 cents to a $1.05 rating.

7. There are great disparities in how subway lines perform. For example, the 4 had the best record on delays caused by car mechanical failures: once every 162,718 miles. The R line had the worst, experiencing breakdown delays nearly four times as often: once every 43,826 miles. Similarly, the C was the cleanest line, with only 9% of its cars having moderate or heavy dirt, while 84% of cars did on the E, the dirtiest line. The same wide disparities among lines could be seen for all our measures.

"The profiles and line ratings are intended to provide riders, officials, and communities with easy-to-use measures to understand how their lines perform compared to others," said Matt Glomski, the Straphangers Campaign analyst who crunched the numbers for the state of the subways report card.

Straphangers Campaign's work to rate the quality of subway and bus service is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which is a leader in supporting the assessment of government services.