All types of miscommunication in MTA regarding (2) (3) (4) (5) service

[Lawrence St]

So, while venturing out today I've noticed quite a lot of things that has me disappointed. 

#1. All the transit data still has the  as the Lexington Av Local\Eastern Parkway Local, while the actual  was the Lex Express/Eastern Pkwy Exp. The  was shown as Dyre Av to Flatbush Av, while the actual  was ending at Bowling Green. The  was still shown as going to South Ferry and the  to 14th St while service was operating normally.

#2. Station agents from 14 different stations along the  and  lines all gave me different answers regarding the service pattern. One said that BOTH the  and  were operating to Flatbush Avenue, another one said that only the  was going to Flatbush Avenue, another one said that the  was terminating at Chambers St and the  was ending at South Ferry, another one said that the  was a full Lexington Avenue Local/Eastern Parkway Local to New Lots Avenue, another one said that the  was operating to Dyre and 241st St, another one said that the  was only going to Dyre and the  was going to Wakefield.

#3. A conductor on the  today kept announcing his train as a "14th St-bound " and didn't notice his error until he actually got to 14th St. A conductor on the  signed up her train as "TO SOUTH FERRY" and din't realize her mistake until she got to Chambers St.

I honestly hope there won't be this much miscommunication when the  shuts down...

[Via Garibaldi 8]

10 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

So, while venturing out today I've noticed quite a lot of things that has me disappointed. 

#1. All the transit data still has the  as the Lexington Av Local\Eastern Parkway Local, while the actual  was the Lex Express/Eastern Pkwy Exp. The  was shown as Dyre Av to Flatbush Av, while the actual  was ending at Bowling Green. The  was still shown as going to South Ferry and the  to 14th St while service was operating normally.

#2. Station agents from 14 different stations along the  and  lines all gave me different answers regarding the service pattern. One said that BOTH the  and  were operating to Flatbush Avenue, another one said that only the  was going to Flatbush Avenue, another one said that the  was terminating at Chambers St and the  was ending at South Ferry, another one said that the  was a full Lexington Avenue Local/Eastern Parkway Local to New Lots Avenue, another one said that the  was operating to Dyre and 241st St, another one said that the  was only going to Dyre and the  was going to Wakefield.

#3. A conductor on the  today kept announcing his train as a "14th St-bound " and didn't notice his error until he actually got to 14th St. A conductor on the  signed up her train as "TO SOUTH FERRY" and din't realize her mistake until she got to Chambers St.

I honestly hope there won't be this much miscommunication when the  shuts down...

In my mind, this is by far one of the biggest issues plaguing the  and something that Andy Byford needs to address. I think it's embarrassing that workers don't even know the detour information on planned GOs.  I had a similar situation a little earlier today coming to the City. We were on detour (which I was aware of and had checked the  website).  The driver however provided us with the wrong detour information, costing me an extra 20 minutes, and I was not happy about it at all.  He tells us were going down Broadway, then instead of coming over, he stays on 9th.  WTF!?!??

It's one thing it's an unplanned detour, but for Christ's sake, for planned detours, how hard is it for them to give the right damn information? This has been going on for years now, especially during the summertime, as if people aren't supposed to travel because of detours.  Just awful.  I also wonder if any of these workers actually use the system because how is it that they all have inaccurate information?  I was on a BxM18 a few weeks ago that had a door stuck and we were basically trapped for a while.  The guy is a regular driver and he's been driving the line for YEARS. I had to tell him where we were so that he could relay the information to dispatch.  Meanwhile he makes all of the announced stops.  That's just ridiculous. 

[Lawrence St]

27 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

In my mind, this is by far one of the biggest issues plaguing the  and something that Andy Byford needs to address. I think it's embarrassing that workers don't even know the detour information on planned GOs.  I had a similar situation a little earlier today coming to the City. We were on detour (which I was aware of and had checked the  website).  The driver however provided us with the wrong detour information, costing me an extra 20 minutes, and I was not happy about it at all.  He tells us were going down Broadway, then instead of coming over, he stays on 9th.  WTF!?!??

It's one thing it's an unplanned detour, but for Christ's sake, for planned detours, how hard is it for them to give the right damn information? This has been going on for years now, especially during the summertime, as if people aren't supposed to travel because of detours.  Just awful.  I also wonder if any of these workers actually use the system because how is it that they all have inaccurate information?  I was on a BxM18 a few weeks ago that had a door stuck and we were basically trapped for a while.  The guy is a regular driver and he's been driving the line for YEARS. I had to tell him where we were so that he could relay the information to dispatch.  Meanwhile he makes all of the announced stops.  That's just ridiculous. 

Smh, and this is the SUBWAY for crying out loud.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Smh, and this is the SUBWAY for crying out loud.

It's even worse with the subway. A few weeks ago I was at 59th street (Columbus Circle).  They had ONE person patrolling the ENTIRE local platform telling customers that no trains were coming Southbound on that track. I guess they couldn't put up any notices saying the same thing?? What you described has been happening now for some time. I'm Downtown a lot on weekends and am very familiar with the detours you mentioned.  It's really inexcusable for you to receive the incorrect information you received. 

Another one that pissed me off some weeks ago was track work with the  and  . When the  terminates at 145th, the  according to the  website is supposed to stop at 155th.  Well what they leave out is that apparently select (A) trains will stop there (not all of them), but the passenger has no way of knowing which  trains will stop there and which  trains will skip the stop.  I got burned royally by that one and filed a complaint.  I checked the website the following week and didn't see any change about how service to 155th was being ran, but I really wondered if they still had only select  trains stopping there or what.  

[Caelestor]

Honestly, I don't really understand why the service advisories posters haven't been replaced by a large Weekender map that's way easier to understand. Riders and transit workers will both benefit from having a quick visual guide.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 hours ago, Caelestor said:

Honestly, I don't really understand why the service advisories posters haven't been replaced by a large Weekender map that's way easier to understand. Riders and transit workers will both benefit from having a quick visual guide.

They could also further use those NYC Link kiosks or whatever you want to call them instead of them just reading "Good Service".

[Lawrence St]

6 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

They could also further use those NYC Link kiosks or whatever you want to call them instead of them just reading "Good Service".

Oh did I mention that an conductor also forgot that the  G.O was cancelled yesterday so he kept making announcements on how to get to bypassed stations and once we were past Burnside, he came over the PA system again and said, "Oops never mind folks."

[Lance]

12 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

So, while venturing out today I've noticed quite a lot of things that has me disappointed. 

#1. All the transit data still has the  as the Lexington Av Local\Eastern Parkway Local, while the actual  was the Lex Express/Eastern Pkwy Exp. The  was shown as Dyre Av to Flatbush Av, while the actual  was ending at Bowling Green. The  was still shown as going to South Ferry and the  to 14th St while service was operating normally.

#2. Station agents from 14 different stations along the  and  lines all gave me different answers regarding the service pattern. One said that BOTH the  and  were operating to Flatbush Avenue, another one said that only the  was going to Flatbush Avenue, another one said that the  was terminating at Chambers St and the  was ending at South Ferry, another one said that the  was a full Lexington Avenue Local/Eastern Parkway Local to New Lots Avenue, another one said that the  was operating to Dyre and 241st St, another one said that the  was only going to Dyre and the  was going to Wakefield.

#3. A conductor on the  today kept announcing his train as a "14th St-bound " and didn't notice his error until he actually got to 14th St. A conductor on the  signed up her train as "TO SOUTH FERRY" and din't realize her mistake until she got to Chambers St.

I honestly hope there won't be this much miscommunication when the  shuts down...

I get muscle memory, but this is really ridiculous. The conclusion of the Clark St service change has announced for 06.24 since early May if I'm not mistaken. The employees, both on the trains and on the platforms should've been well aware of the switchover. Even more so with the transit data, since I'm sure that only requires a few key strokes to update.

3 hours ago, Caelestor said:

Honestly, I don't really understand why the service advisories posters haven't been replaced by a large Weekender map that's way easier to understand. Riders and transit workers will both benefit from having a quick visual guide.

I've been saying that for years, to no avail. The mega service advisory posters keep getting bigger but no more understandable than the mosaics of service change posters we used to have scattered at every station. In all fairness, they have made some progress on this front by contracting the service change design out to the Vignelli successors (their name escapes me at the moment), who have been including some illustration of the more impactful service changes. There's still much left to do however.

18 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

They could also further use those NYC Link kiosks or whatever you want to call them instead of them just reading "Good Service".

Again, something I've been pushing for a while now, especially with the ones in the stations. The current static map is almost useless on weekends and late nights with all of the various service changes in effect. Using those kiosks for something besides advertising the Museum of Sex would be a boon to off-hours travelers, giving them an easy way to discern the routes and services provided on a semi-live basis instead of being forced to use third-party apps like Transit to get around, or worse, trying to decipher the aforementioned big wall of service changes.

10 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Oh did I mention that an conductor also forgot that the  G.O was cancelled yesterday so he kept making announcements on how to get to bypassed stations and once we were past Burnside, he came over the PA system again and said, "Oops never mind folks."

See previous. I get not being up to date on every service change impacting every line in the system. However, I'd very much expect the train crews to be familiar with their own line, especially when service changes get cancelled at the last minute. As the stations are probably peppered with service change posters for a GO that is no longer in effect, the job of informing the riders now falls on the train crews. It does very little if they're still unaware of the new developments.

Fixing these communications problems is such an easy task. The fact that they cannot seem to do even this is quite telling of how badly things are being run at the agency. As I said in another thread, I'm cautiously optimistic that Byford can improve things on the city transit side, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Around the Horn]

How possible would it be to have RCC send announcements to play in the NTT trains, the same way they can make announcements play over the PACIS in stations?

The Victoria Line in London has a similar feature and its quite nice.

@0:55 "This is Euston. Change here for London Overground and National Rail services. This is a Victoria Line train to Brixton. The Northern Line is suspended due to planned engineering works. Please use alternative routes." 

[N6 Limited]

"All Change Please" Talk about futuristic! They have the automated announcements asking for money! isn't the Oystercard enough? 

[Abba]

SubwayTime showed (2) (3) (4) (5) according to Right terminals and stops according to what I saw .

[CenSin]

20 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

In my mind, this is by far one of the biggest issues plaguing the  and something that Andy Byford needs to address. I think it's embarrassing that workers don't even know the detour information on planned GOs.  I had a similar situation a little earlier today coming to the City. We were on detour (which I was aware of and had checked the  website).  The driver however provided us with the wrong detour information, costing me an extra 20 minutes, and I was not happy about it at all.  He tells us were going down Broadway, then instead of coming over, he stays on 9th.  WTF!?!??

It's one thing it's an unplanned detour, but for Christ's sake, for planned detours, how hard is it for them to give the right damn information? This has been going on for years now, especially during the summertime, as if people aren't supposed to travel because of detours.  Just awful.  I also wonder if any of these workers actually use the system because how is it that they all have inaccurate information?  I was on a BxM18 a few weeks ago that had a door stuck and we were basically trapped for a while.  The guy is a regular driver and he's been driving the line for YEARS. I had to tell him where we were so that he could relay the information to dispatch.  Meanwhile he makes all of the announced stops.  That's just ridiculous. 

I’m offended when conductors and train operators give me an earful for trying to help a lost tourist telling me not to do “their jobs” for them. I turn over the tourists to them and as soon as they open their mouths, they start blabbering the wrong information… Stupidity and superiority complex are not a good combination.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

7 minutes ago, CenSin said:

I’m offended when conductors and train operators give me an earful for trying to help a lost tourist telling me not to do “their jobs” for them. I turn over the tourists to them and as soon as they open their mouths, they start blabbering the wrong information… Stupidity and superiority complex are not a good combination.

I don't even bother anymore.  I was given wrong information yesterday and I was not pleased, so I reported the driver.  It's quite sad when you have people working at the  and some of them don't even know what the damn fare is, let alone directions. I mean how can you be that obtuse?  The guy makes a point of telling us where he's going then goes a completely different way. Dude, Broadway is not 9th Avenue.   It's not the first time either. The person tells you they're on detour then they don't even know what the detour is.  I had that happen with another driver. I ask him what the detour is and he tells me he doesn't know. How do you not know but you're on detour?  It's a planned detour! I reported him too. Either he was dense or just giving me a hard time.  Either way when this crap happens it costs me a significant amount of time getting to my destination, and I'd say well I can go off of the  website, but the detours always vary from what's stated online, so that's useless as well.  

The subway re-routes are equally messy. The  going via the  line for example, and running right after the  so then you have a nice long wait in between trains.

[N6 Limited]

21 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

The subway re-routes are equally messy. The  going via the  line for example, and running right after the  so then you have a nice long wait in between trains.

And they be so quick to close the doors in people face and leave the station when the next train is supposed to arrive in 15 min.

This happens a lot late night when you have two local services (like the  and  ) and they're both on 20 min headways but they come in pairs, like 1-5 mins apart.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 minutes ago, N6 Limited said:

And they be so quick to close the doors in people face and leave the station when the next train is supposed to arrive in 15 min.

This happens a lot late night when you have two local services (like the  and  ) and they're both on 20 min headways but they come in pairs, like 1-5 mins apart.

I really wonder who is the genius that schedules trains like this. It's definitely not an accident because it happens on the  and line all of the time. I'd argue that it's one of the main reasons for overcrowding because it leads to uneven loads.  

[N6 Limited]

8 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I really wonder who is the genius that schedules trains like this. It's definitely not an accident because it happens on the  and line all of the time. I'd argue that it's one of the main reasons for overcrowding because it leads to uneven loads.  

Yeah those two take forever sometime, it's real noticeable when you have other services Like the  coming several times in a row before either of the two show up. I'm not sure how the is on 4th Ave with the   and   as I barely use that line.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

2 minutes ago, N6 Limited said:

Yeah those two take forever sometime, it's real noticeable when you have other services Like the  coming several times in a row before either of the two show up. I'm not sure how the is on 4th Ave with the   and   as I barely use that line.

Yeah it's like SIX  trains sometimes and TWO trains before either a or  comes, and I wish I was exaggerating when I say that, but I'm not. Smh

[Deucey]

11 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

They could also further use those NYC Link kiosks or whatever you want to call them instead of them just reading "Good Service".

They oughta be ashamed at the fact they have signs telling passengers "Right now we don't suck."

[P3F]

3 hours ago, N6 Limited said:

And they be so quick to close the doors in people face and leave the station when the next train is supposed to arrive in 15 min.

This happens a lot late night when you have two local services (like the  and  ) and they're both on 20 min headways but they come in pairs, like 1-5 mins apart.

Twice I've seen a northbound  conductor close the doors right before the doors open on a connecting  at DeKalb, and the next  is 13 or 15 minutes away. Like seriously, if you hate the idea of cross platform connections, there's the !

[N6 Limited]

1 hour ago, P3F said:

Twice I've seen a northbound  conductor close the doors right before the doors open on a connecting  at DeKalb, and the next  is 13 or 15 minutes away. Like seriously, if you hate the idea of cross platform connections, there's the !

That alone drops someone's opinion of the MTA immediately. It's really easy for them to improve customer service scores, but they chose not to.

[Around the Horn]

4 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Yeah it's like SIX  trains sometimes and TWO trains before either a or  comes, and I wish I was exaggerating when I say that, but I'm not. Smh

They need to do a real deep dive, like a trip by trip study, to figure out how these big gaps open up cause its clearly not a fluke anymore...

[Deucey]

9 minutes ago, Around the Horn said:

They need to do a real deep dive, like a trip by trip study, to figure out how these big gaps open up cause its clearly not a fluke anymore...

So every morning I take S52 to the ferry. Bus comes roughly between 6:51 and 6:54 am.

Normally, we have a female driver who does her damnedest to get us there in time to get on the 7am ferry - we have to run/power walk, but whatever.

Every Monday, we get a male driver who manages to get us there at 7:02, so we're stuck waiting for the 7:15 ferry - which may not be a big deal to most, but if you're due in Midtown at 8am, you're now 15 minutes late; if you're due at 8:30, you're not getting your Pret or Starbucks.

So I really wonder why it is that two different drivers get two different results on timeliness. Seems to me it comes down to morale and pride in performance, since folks who give a damn do their damnedest, and folks who just collect paychecks mess it up for everyone else.

That's not to say T/Os and CRs are in the latter, but if you have these gaps then bunches consistently, that deep dive should've been done by management already.

(OAN, the 7:30pm S42/52 driver I complained about since February is no longer on that trip, so complaining incessantly with documentation works.)

[46Dover]

On 6/25/2018 at 10:06 PM, N6 Limited said:

That alone drops someone's opinion of the MTA immediately. It's really easy for them to improve customer service scores, but they chose not to.

Because they consider themselves too big to fail...