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And all along we thought W meant "Whenever Train"! The Straphanger Campaign released a survey of subway car announcements and found that the W train was the worst when it came to announcements, deteriorating having 69% adequate announcements in 2004 to only 58% last year. While the subway system overall seemed to improve (from 73% to 77% in 2005), there are still problems, like this:
In 65% of delays and disruptions experienced by our raters, there was either no announcement - or an inaudible, garbled or incorrect one. Of the 65% inadequate delay or disruption announcements, 45% were not made at all; 13% were inaudible or garbled; and 42% were rated “incorrect,” such as meaningless announcements that “we have a red signal” ones lacking key information such as, “This local is now an express” (with no explanation), or ones with jargon such as, “We have a schedule adjustment.”The "This local is now an express" announcement is such a classic (the "red signal," which meaningless, does make you think the train is supposed to stop so it doesn't hit something). Lord knows how many "A police investigation is being conducted" are used as code. But at least we know what "excessive vandalism" means. And Gothamist admits that even though we can't hear announcements in some train cars, if there are seats open, we'll usually stay up.
Here are PDFs of the survey findings by line and from best to worst; naturally the 4, 5 and 6 trains have the best announcements, as they are the newest trains.
Photograph from gak on Flickr
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I agree that missing or unintelligible announcements are frustrating, but the red signal and local to express announcements are fine...i don't really have a desire to know why, since all the first means to me is that we aren't going right now (and i have time to switch cars if necessary), and the later just means that people need to adjust accordingly...the explanations why are irrelevant.
sweet. gothamist is now crediting photographers for images of letters of the alphabet.
I once saw a NYCTA publication with suggested announcements and when to use them. Perhaps it is online somehwere?
And I love when they make the annoucement that the train will be running over another line when it pulls out of the station, since that usually means you have to get off at the next stop and back track or worse.
The red signal is actually something important. Because of the age of our antiquated subway signaling system, the driver doesn't know if there's a train right around the bend or quite a bit away. The traffic controller only knows this much as well, so they have a "safety distance" between trains. It keeps the trains from smashing into each other, leading to death and destruction. But it sucks if you're late to your party, right?
Great headline!
I guess the Straphangers' point is that information is power - what if knowing that something at a subway station a couple stops away could encourage a rider to get out earlier, because waiting and waiting might be too much of a time expense?
And gak's photo is also part of the Flickr "One Letter" pool.
Personally, I hate the 4/5/6 electronic, Deputy Dawg -sounding, boringly repetitive announcements. Also, they get lost sometimes, and worse, provide absolutely no nuance except the usual claptrap about "moving shortly". Completely Disney-fies NYC subways into just another bad amusement park ride.
How much more NYC-style would it be with:
-- local accented speakers
-- random NYC celebs (emphasis on random)
-- pure machine beat-box
Makes me miss the irish-jamaican announcer on the A. Really made you feel like you were part of a global village. Now I feel like I'm just another cog in someone elses lousy-running machine.
Of course, this Gothamist mention of the W is because of the 'service disruptions' this morning due to broken track on Lex., right?
The announcement was something like: We are being held momentarily due to broken track on Lexinton Avenue. There will be no service to Queens on the N/W/R lines. For service to Queens (insert ridiculously long series of transfers and shuttles).
I sat on the train for several minutes thinking... well, I don't need to go to Queens. By "held momentarily", do they mean minutes, or will this train just sit here until dinner? Then, I got off and caught the F.
(F as in - 'F' it! I'm getting off the F'in W.)
and here's one of the many reasons the TWU does not deserve most of their demands! they suck.
My favorite canned announcement is "We apologize for the unavoidable delay. We will be moving shortly."
Bullshit. No delay is unavoidable if you try hard enough.