Archive for the ‘Dirtiest’ Category
- In: Cleanest | Dirtiest | New York City | NY | Subway | Survey | Trains
- Leave a Comment
Wet, sticky spots on the train floor, chicken bones, nut shells, spilled coffee, hot dogs and “lots and lots of rolling bottles” often greet subway passengers on the E and the Q trains — rated the dirtiest lines in the New York City subway system in the latest survey by a rider advocacy group.
Riders on the L line, however, are getting the cleanest ride, according to the group, the Straphangers Campaign, which released its findings on Tuesday.
It concluded that the fruits of a New York City Transit program to assign additional cleaners to the L and the No. 7 lines from September through January helped the L line pull ahead.
The No. 7 line tied with the No. 1 line for second place and was among the most improved lines since the group’s survey in 2005.
“Clean trains are a priority,” said Gene Russianoff, the Straphangers Campaign’s staff lawyer. “It’s what the riders care about.”
Mr. Russianoff said that under the new program, cleaners are now stationed at both ends of the L and No. 7 lines to go through each train, picking up litter and mopping.
Charles Seaton, a transit spokesman, said the agency added about 60 car cleaners each to the No. 7 and L lines last year. Each line previously had fewer than 20 cleaners. The annual cost of the program is about $10 million, according to the transit agency.
In December, the L and the No. 7 lines were also used to test a new management initiative that appointed general managers to tackle pressing problems on the lines and to assign workers and other resources with greater independence than elsewhere in the subway system. Mr. Russianoff said that effort may also have contributed to the improved cleanliness.
Poppy Mardliah, 35, a Queens resident, often sees the worst and the best of the system. She frequently takes the J train, ranked next to last in cleanliness, and then transfers at Broadway Junction to the L.
“The L train is a much better train,” Ms. Mardliah said. She added that there was a marked difference between the two lines when it comes to cleanliness and that it affects the quality of her ride. “It makes me feel that the commuters are more respectful,” she said.
The Straphangers Campaign said that from September through January, it had volunteers inspect 100 train cars on each subway line. The inspectors used the same cleanliness rating system that New York City Transit uses, giving each car a score from 1 (cleanest) to 4 (dirtiest).
Cate Contino, who supervised the survey for the campaign, said the surveyors judged the level of dirt, grime, spills and food on the train floors and seats, but generally did not focus on litter like discarded newspapers.
The campaign’s volunteers found that 88 percent of cars on the L were clean (scoring a 1 or a 2). In the campaign’s survey in 2005, 61 percent of the cars on the L were rated clean.
The E and the Q lines tied for last place, with 29 percent of cars from each line rated clean. The E also ranked last in the 2005 survey, with 2 percent of cars rated as clean. In the previous survey, 69 percent of cars on the Q line were rated clean.
Overall, the survey found that 50 percent of cars in the subway system were clean, compared with 47 percent in the 2005 survey.
The results differed from a similar survey conducted by the New York City Transit. In a recent systemwide survey, the transit agency rated 87 percent of cars clean. In the agency’s survey, the No. 3 train was rated the cleanest, with 97 percent of cars considered clean, and the M line was rated the worst, with 70 percent of cars found to be clean.
Steven Feil, the senior vice president for subways at the transit agency, said in a statement that keeping trains clean was one of the agency’s “top goals.”
Mr. Russianoff, who held a news conference in the Union Square subway station, was asked if the cars on the cleanest lines were clean enough to eat off the floor. Mr. Russianoff said he would not recommend it.
Maria Alvarez contributed reporting.
Valleywag - valleywag.wordpress.com 
Recent Comments