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The MTA will no longer lecture straphangers about patience every time there’s a train delay.
After a decade of complaints from the public, the transit agency finally realized its infuriating “please be patient” announcements were having the opposite effect, and switched to a more conciliatory tone for broadcasting service disruptions.
Instead of scolding straphangers to keep their tempers in check, the new automated announcements come with an actual apology from the MTA.
Others — like the announcements used when the train is stopped for a police investigation — go so far as to thank passengers for their patience.
Previously, all MTA on-board service announcements — bearing bad news about everything from train traffic up ahead to equipment problems — offered no apology and instead exhorted helpless straphangers to be patient.
“How patient can I be?” griped Deborah Draughton, 47, of Queens.
Considering that her regular route — the problem-plagued F line — recently underwent substantial construction, she pointed out, “We’re already patient as it is.”
Plenty of other harried straphangers agreed with her.
The MTA has been inundated with complaints about the “be patient” edicts since the announcements began in the late 1990s. There’s even a Facebook page titled “NYC Subway Conductor: Stop telling me to be patient. Start being competent.”
It only took a decade and change, but the MTA finally listened.
“Over the years, we have received some complaints from customers, who interpreted the messages as an admonishment,” said Kevin Ortiz, an MTA spokesman.
Because of that, they recently switched to the less accusatory announcements, he said.
“This has been implemented systemwide, although there are probably a few scattered trains that don’t have it,” he said.
Not everyone underground cares for the change.
Joshua Echevarria, 19, a Brooklyn subway rider, noticed the change on the M train recently. He shrugged it off.
“At the end of the day, ‘we apologize, sorry for the inconvenience’ doesn’t make a difference,” he said. “If we’re late, we’re late.”