Metro

Subway announcements are getting clearer, more frequent during delays: study

It no longer sounds as if Charlie Brown’s teacher is making subway announcements.

The vast majority of subway announcements are clearer and more frequent during delays, especially on the 4 train, according to a new analysis of two years of data.

Eighty-six percent of routine announcements — like which stop is next and “stand clear of the closing doors” — in 2011 and 85 percent in 2012 were easily understood and accurate, The Straphangers Campaign report found.

The 4 line ranked the highest this year, with a 100 percent score.

Four other lines — the L, N, Q and 6 — tied for second, with a 99 percent rating in the survey, which was conducted between Jan. 17 and April 29 this year. The M and the 2 train tied for third.

The worst line was the R, which had only a 56 percent good-announcement rating.

The 7 train also fared badly, with only 64 percent of announcements rated clear and accurate.

A group of 69 volunteers analyzed 12,000 in-car subway announcements in both 2011 and 2012 to reach their conclusions.

In a separate survey, the Straphangers Campaign also analyzed subway announcements detailing service disruptions and delays.

More than half — 59 percent — of the 116 delay announcements the group heard in 2012 were correct, easily understandable and in line with the MTA’s policy for detailing service disruptions.

That policy requires announcements to be made immediately after service stops, and again after two minutes

This year’s score was up from that in 2011, when 51 percent of delay announcements were rated as correct and understandable.

Three percent of delay announcements were garbled in both years, down from 7 percent in 2010.

Only 40 percent of the delay announcements got good ratings for clarity and correct info in 2010.

This year’s survey found that no announcement was made 14 percent of the time during delays, while 24 percent were deemed incorrect or unhelpful.

Unhelpful announcements include ones that give riders no sense of what the problem is and how long it will take, said Cate Contino of the Straphangers Campaign.

Under MTA policy, conductors are allowed to say the train is being held for reasons like “sick passenger,” “fire/accident/police activity” or “held by dispatcher.”

Surveyors found conductors sometimes said unauthorized things like “red signal,” “schedule adjustment” or just “change in service.”

“When they say we’re stopped because of a red signal, that’s like saying we’re stopped because we’re stopped,” Contino said.

Telling people the reason why they are being delayed goes a long way toward easing underground anxiety, she added.

“As soon as you tell a New Yorker why something’s happening, they’re fine with it,” she said.

The MTA credited newer trains for the survey’s improved findings.

“Customers will see further improvements once we start taking delivery of the more than 300 news cars on order starting next year,” it said in a statement.