Photograph by unlisted sightings on Flickr
On the day we learn the MTA wants to raise fares again, there's finally data to confirm what we all knew: NYC Transit offered up statistics that show on-time subway performance has gotten worse.
The least on-time line is the 4--for the year ending with May 2008, the 4 was on-time only 79.7% of the time, compared with a systemwide average of 92.0%. And in May, the 4 was on-time only 70% of the time, compared to 80% in May 2007. One rider told the News, "Sometimes I have to wait and wait and then I'm late for work." Another rider detailed one memorable delay to the NY Times, “One day we stopped at Bowling Green, they told us there was a power outage, we waited 30 minutes and then they said we’re not going anywhere...I had to walk to the A-C at Fulton. That’s an extreme example, but there are delays all the time.”
Apparently NYC Transit can't quite figure out why delays have increased; per the Times, "Information about those delays comes mainly from reports by train crews, a method that authority officials acknowledged may not be adequate." While NYC Transit suggests that record levels of ridership and other issues are why delays are up (in April 2008 the #2 for delays was riders holding doors), some MTA board members think it's more about management, since the commuter railroads have been dealing with higher ridership just fine.
The Sun reports NYC Transit is considering skipping stops on crowded lines. After the jump, a list of the on-time performance for all the lines, in descending order of timeliness:
