The results of the Spring 2024 Customers Count survey are in!
The Spring 2024 biannual Customers Count survey was conducted April 18-May 12, 2024. We received more than 79,000 subway line, 22,000 bus route and 5,000 Access-A-Ride evaluations from over 40,000 NYCT customers. The LIRR heard from 17,179 respondents and Metro-North from 14,810.
The survey targeted customers who use any of our modes of transit: subways, buses, commuter rail, the Staten Island Railway, and Access-a-Ride Paratransit. The survey was offered online in nine languages and included a phone option in English and Spanish.
The goal of the survey was to get feedback from our customers on their satisfaction levels and to identify changes compared to previous reporting periods. We also sought to gain a deeper understanding about key drivers of customer satisfaction that influence customer behaviors as well as feedback on their satisfaction with service, our staff, cleanliness, security, and more.
Hearing directly from our customers lets us better understand their biggest concerns and prioritize issues that we need to address, with the goal of bringing more customers back to our subways, buses, and trains.
Here are some of our findings:
Subway
Subway satisfaction fell in the Spring 2024 Customer Counts survey to 47%, a five-point decline from the Fall 2023 survey and the first time subway satisfaction fell below 50% since Spring 2022. After steady increases, the percentage of customers feeling safe on trains and in stations fell to the lowest levels since the Fall 2022 survey. Furthermore, overall station and line satisfaction also declined. However, both remained in line with the Spring 2023 survey, as did most non-safety-related attributes.
Satisfaction with cleanliness onboard trains fell in the Spring 2024 survey. Concurrently, this driver is now more important in driving customers’ overall subway satisfaction. It is now the second-most-important key driver. Of the 50% of customers who were dissatisfied with cleanliness, 77% cited homelessness and 74% cited unpleasant smells as reasons why.
Customers who used recently Re-NEW-vated stations are more likely to be satisfied with station cleanliness, lighting, and safety from crime and harassment. Crucially, these scores did not decline at the same rates as the system overall.
Buses
Overall bus satisfaction (local, limited, and Select Bus Service) was unchanged from the Fall 2023 survey at 57%. At borough level, satisfaction went up or was flat in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, and went slightly down in the Bronx. Service reliability, wait times, and travel times, the three most important attributes to customers, stayed flat or decreased modestly since Fall 2023. About two-thirds (or 67%) of customers were satisfied with their bus routes, 10 points above overall system satisfaction and three points higher than Fall 2023.
On express buses, overall satisfaction declined by five points to 67% in the Spring 2024 survey. Wait times, service reliability, and frequency of delays were cited by express bus customers as critical drivers in their overall satisfaction. At the borough level, satisfaction declined in Staten Island and the Bronx in the Spring 2024 survey while remaining flat in Brooklyn and Queens.
Access-a-Ride
Paratransit satisfaction was steady at 68% in the Spring 2024 survey. Satisfaction has improved by seven points since Spring 2022, and the proportion of customers feeling “very satisfied” was at a record high in Spring 2024. Core metrics that Paratransit customers indicated would increase their satisfaction were service reliability and flexibility, though the proportion of customers indicating that reliability needed to improve to increase their satisfaction dropped seven points from Fall 2023.
The most important driver of overall satisfaction in Spring 2024 was on-time pickups, and customers were six points more satisfied on this metric than in Fall 2023. This improvement mirrors strong performance in recent months and the tightening of how NYCT measures on-time pickups from the industry standard 30-minute window to a higher 20-minute standard.
Long Island Rail Road
Overall, LIRR customer satisfaction hovered at 70%, consistent with Fall 2023 results. Notably, the Port Washington Branch had a 16% increase in overall satisfaction—up to 76% from November 2023—thanks to increased customer engagement and schedule adjustments made last fall. Overall satisfaction did decline on some branches. The West Hempstead Branch saw the biggest decline from the Fall 2023 survey, with an eight-percentage-point decrease.
Across branches, satisfaction with peak service frequency, service reliability, and on-time performance remained consistent from Fall 2023. Satisfaction with seat availability slipped slightly, given the steady growth in ridership from the previous survey period. Among all key drivers of satisfaction, cleanliness on board trains dropped. The LIRR is investigating strategies to improve cleanliness on board trains. Just last month, the LIRR unveiled a new program allowing customers to let the railroad know when bathrooms need extra attention.
New service into Grand Central Madison introduced transfers at Jamaica for many customers—with about 20% of passengers now indicating they routinely transfer. Customers who transfer specifically ask for connections leaving from across the platform, shorter wait times between connections and announcing platforms before arrival. Notably, the LIRR is targeting improvements to on-time performance at Jamaica that will improve the transfer experience and reduce missed connections.
Metro-North Railroad
Metro-North overall satisfaction remained very high, despite a three-point decrease from Fall 2023. 83% of customers reported being very satisfied or satisfied with Metro-North service. Service-related attributes primarily drive this satisfaction, including service reliability, on-time performance, peak service frequency, and seat availability.
Metro-North customers reported decreases in satisfaction with seat availability, thanks to rebounding post-pandemic ridership and fuller trains. Gains were made in satisfaction with on-time performance and frequency of delays from Fall 2023.
We want to hear from you!
Are you a customer who wants their voice to be heard? The next Customers Count survey will launch in Fall 2024. Please provide us with your email address and we will contact you when it is time to take the survey.