The Straphangers have released their annual Subway Shmutz survey for 2006, and the E and M lines have the dirtiest cars! If you remember last year's survey, the 1/9 was the worst, and the year before that, the C was grossest, so Gothamist can only imagine that the Subway Shmutz survey will cycle around to name all the lines the worst - at least the ones with the old subway cars.
Anyway, the Straphangers feel that subway are getting dirtier, with 15 lines having significant deterioration (2, 7, A, B, C, D, E, G, J/Z, L ,M, N, R, V and W; amusingly, the F's status stayed the same.) This is probably because the NYC Transit Authority cut its cleaning budget in order to save money, so naturally the Straphangers' suggestions include "devote more resources" to cleaning up cars the way the NYCTA does stations and tracks (sometimes, we think).
Have you noticed your subway cars getting dirtier? It's rainy days like these where you see the grossness of the floors - which makes us wonder what kind of highpowered cleaners they use for when the train cars are in the yards.
