Now hear this: Subway service announcements are a train wreck, survey finds

[Harry 1,090]

Subway announcements about delayed or rerouted trains are garbled, incorrect or nonexistent more than half the time - and even that's a big improvement.

 

A Straphangers Campaign survey out Monday found that 55% of the time when train service is disrupted, no announcements are made or they contain inaccurate information or are unintelligible.

 

Believe it or not, that miserable performance is better than the 65% failure rate during the last study four years ago.

 

Eugene Ashe, who lives on the upper West Side, wasn't surprised by the low ratings on the train, which he was riding Sunday.

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/04/05/2010-04-05_subway_announcement_system_a_train_wreck.html#ixzz0kFTH0HKr

[QM1to6Ave 2,029]

What's really funny is the way this story is being told on the other news outlets. 1010 wins, for example, describes the results as being totally positive (the website title for the story is "NYC-Subway-Car-Announcements-Accurate" and begins by saying that 80% of basic announcements are clear and wonderful). I guess everyone has their own take on it

[NX Express 292]

Why am I not surprised?

[Nova RTS 9147 79]

What's really funny is the way this story is being told on the other news outlets. 1010 wins, for example, describes the results as being totally positive (the website title for the story is "NYC-Subway-Car-Announcements-Accurate" and begins by saying that 80% of basic announcements are clear and wonderful). I guess everyone has their own take on it

 

CBS did a story where they recorded perfectly audible announcements on the and then had the reporter say "WHAT?!" as if she couldn't hear it.

[NX Express 292]

CBS did a story where they recorded perfectly audible announcements on the and then had the reporter say "WHAT?!" as if she couldn't hear it.

 

Fail. And then they complain that everything is the (MTA)s fault.

[Rockaway Express 14]

The MTA shhould have kept doing human announcements.(M2)

[error46146 1,007]

CBS did a story where they recorded perfectly audible announcements on the and then had the reporter say "WHAT?!" as if she couldn't hear it.

 

that is just the nature of the american media. every station caters to its own audience, every station has their own agenda, so of course no surprise they will twist the story around to fit their own needs

[Nova RTS 9147 79]

that is just the nature of the american media. every station caters to its own audience, every station has their own agenda, so of course no surprise they will twist the story around to fit their own needs

 

Its not to say that all the announcements are fine, but they miss that the MTA has been gradually improving the PA systems on trains. While the MTA may not be the best run agency on the world, its not the bad monster of all agencies either.

[Bill from Maspeth 1,989]

Why did it take the strappies 8 months to analyse this? Isn't that a bit long?

 

Maybe if the passengers took the music out of their ears they can hear the announcements.

[Guest lance25]

I guess the Straphangers' Campaign runs on MTA time: a couple of weeks to them equals nearly a year for the rest of us

[Kingsbridge Bus 193]

I believe all of the announcements are programed according to the Timetable & are not reprogrammed during service changes or delays