Home Asides The accuracy of the advisories

The accuracy of the advisories

by Benjamin Kabak

Every Friday, I post the MTA’s weekend service advisories, and every weekend, I notice that the MTA’s official announcement of the weekend changes are either incomplete or flat-out wrong. Sometimes, trains go over bridges when they shouldn’t; they run local when they should run express; signs that promise service advisories are wrong while trains run different routes with no signs in sight; and nary a conductor says anything about it.

I’m not the only one picking up on this; my buddy Chris over at East Village Idiot noted this problem today as well. Disgruntled straphangers, he notes, have taken to editing the MTA’s signs to better reflect the true nature of service changes. As the MTA works to increase communications between HQ and riders, NYC Transit should look to beef up those weekend service advisories. Traveling around on the weekends is tough enough as it is.

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7 comments

Jacqueline July 7, 2008 - 10:24 pm

I noticed this several weekends back. I was going to Brooklyn to work from the UES and put my trip into HopStop and into the MTA TripPlanner. The TripPlanner basically said I couldn’t do what HopStop said I could because of the service changes. When I actually got to the train, I found out that HopStop was right and that the MTA’s TripPlanner was wrong. I learned then never to trust the MTA’s own website when it came to transit changes.

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Thomas July 8, 2008 - 12:50 pm

It’s true – private transportation, i-pods and cell phones have all removed us from a community of individuals to hostile individuals within a separate community.

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Yahmeela July 8, 2008 - 1:09 pm

Not only are the signs posted on the station wrong, but if you live in Queens, you will notice not just that no signs are posted at all at the stations, but random trains just show up without a clue. Not to mention the conductors on these same trains have no clue as to the changes and the a-holes at the token booths who refuse to talk to the passengers and are totally belligerent for not goddamned reason, have no clue what’s going on during the weekends.

The other day I went to take the E train on Sunday (7/6/08) and to my surprise the R train was there, running on the V line, which normally doesn’t run on weekends. Not a sign or a clue by an MTA employee as to why the train was running and where it was making the transfer either back to the R line and where was the forsaken E train.

Besides the changes, the screwed up service and unreliable schedule, the workers at the MTA serve no purpose and have no clue as to what’s going on. They’re always bothered by someone asking them help, and god forbid you ask them for direction, they start flipping off as if they just got off their medication.

Traveling on the weekends is so bad that it doesn’t make it worth for anyone to promote going “green” when you spend hours communting less than 5 miles away.

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jordi July 8, 2008 - 1:31 pm

I have tried to complain to the MTA using their report form about the fact that the A train is NEVER reported to be running as an above ground shuttle bus of irregular occurrence when it in fact does so nearly every weekend.

The form is useless, as far as I can tell it never reports anything because there is some invisible log in mechanism that won’t let you report if you ARE logged in… fairly obtuse.

The “weekly list of subway changes” is rarely complete and since way up here we are reliant on the A train I have to walk up to the station and look for yelow tape before I can tell visitors how to get here.
Try explaining that to the MTA using their form. Not gonna happen, alas

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Lex July 9, 2008 - 12:38 am

Jordi-

I would try calling 311. I recently had a problem with the express bus north from manhattan to bronx running on a sunday schedule July 4th instead of the announced saturday schedule and when I called 311 I was patched to the correct compaint line. I have to admit, i was satisfied with my reply. GL

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Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog » Blog Archive » The latest service advisories July 12, 2008 - 12:54 am

[…] we’ve got a pretty busy weekend for service advisories. Who knows how reliable they really […]

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Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog » Blog Archive » Combating incomplete service advisories July 18, 2008 - 4:01 pm

[…] the last few weeks, we here at Second Ave. Sagas have noted the inaccuracies of the MTA’s official service advisories. A few readers have left updates in the comments of unposted service changes, and a few media […]

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