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Q1 2019 Customer Commitment

Our quarterly customer commitment is our way to show you we are accountable to progress and transparent in our efforts to do better.

Read about what we accomplished in Q1 2019 to improve your trips, including several new resources to check out below. We’d love to hear your feedback. You can get in touch by submitting a comment online, using #FastForwardNYC, @NYCTSubway, @NYCTBus, or calling 511.

Onwards,
Sarah Meyer
Chief Customer Officer, New York City Transit

A train conductor uses a speed gun from inside a subway car.

What we promised and delivered in Q1 2019: January–March

Subway

❌ Re-calibrate slow-clearing signals on the 1, 6, J, M, Z, Q lines, and re-train staff on optimal operating techniques to maximize safe speeds.

  • We re-calibrated signals on the 1, 6, J, Z, and Q lines between January and March. While we completed our initial round of signals on the M in December, we plan to address more in future quarters.
  • We’re continuing to make sure train operators have all the tools they need to travel at the safest possible speeds – hope you’re holding on, because we’re speeding up!

✔️ Increase speed limits at 40 locations throughout the system. Speed limit increases are only implemented when deemed safe by a review panel of safety and service delivery leaders.

  • We changed or removed speed limit signs in 53 places so far this year, with more to come.

✔️ Continue to repair our most problematic switches, as part of a focused effort to reduce the number of trains delayed.

  • We repaired switches at 19 locations, including several terminals and yards, which are critical for us to run service as frequently as possible. Here’s the list for Q1:
    • Three switches at Harlem-148 St (3)
    • Three switches at 149 St-Grand Concourse (2, 4, 5)
    • 207 St Yard
    • Two switches at the 239 St Yard
    • Van Cortlandt Park 242 St (1)
    • Two switches at 33 St-Rawson St (7)
    • 34 St-Herald Sq (N, Q, R, W)
    • 34 St-Hudson Yards (7)
    • Two switches at 36 St (M, R)
    • Two switches at 4 Av-9 St (F, G)
    • Two switches at 57 St (N, Q, R, W)
    • Avenue X (F)
    • Burnside Ave (4)
    • East 180 St (2, 5)
    • Two switches at Main St (7)
    • Nostrand Av (3)
    • Queensboro Plaza (N, W)
    • South Ferry (1)
    • 219 St (2,5)

✔️ Restore service at three stations that were deteriorating and in need of structural repair: 167 St (B, D) 39 Av (N, W) Broadway (N, W.

✔️ Replace 2,000 feet of track bed, repair track and other track bed components, and remove conventional signaling equipment near Grand Central to improve reliability on the 7 line.

  • We are already seeing the benefit of this work, paired with the installation of CBTC: weekday on time performance on the 7 line reached 91% in March, a 35.5% increase from March 2018.

Bus

✔️ Roll out 150 new buses in all five boroughs.

  • 157 new buses are getting you to your destination today.

✔️ Announce the third borough to participate in a borough-wide bus network redesign.

  • You’re up next, Queens! Our public feedback sessions — which create the foundation for the new network design — will start this spring. We will keep you posted here.

✔️ Publish our analysis around population density, travel patterns, future developments, ridership, and service quality in the Bronx. This report, along with input from customers and community leaders, will inform the Bronx bus network redesign.

✔️ Increase off-peak service on the S93.

✔️ Launch two new Staten Island express bus routes: The SIM11 is a midtown route serving customers near Mill Road/Tysens Lane, and the SIM33c provides new off-peak and weekend service to Mariners Harbor.

✔️ Report on NYPD’s bus lane enforcement efforts across 12 priority routes. We will build on this initiative to deliver additional improvements on other routes.

  • In addition to increased citywide enforcement, these routes saw a speed increase of 4.1% during rush hour in Q1, on average: B25, B44, Bx5, Bx27, M2LTD, M7, Q6, Q10, Q43, Q44-SBS, S79-SBS, S61.

Accessibility

✔️ Advance accessibility throughout the subway system: Begin elevator installation at Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum (2, 3, 4); continue construction at 13 stations; finish design for two stations; and finish accessibility studies of 40 stations.

  • In addition to the elevators currently under construction (below), we finished design for three stations: 149 St-Grand Concourse (2, 4, 5); 170 St (4); and Livonia Av (L).
    • 1 Av (L)
    • 57 St (N, Q, R)
    • 59 St (N, R)
    • 8 Av (N)
    • 86 St (R)
    • 62 St (D)
    • Astoria Ditmars Blvd (N, W)
    • Bedford Av (L)
    • Bedford Pk Blvd (B, D)
    • Chambers (J, Z)
    • Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum (2/3)
    • Greenpoint Av (G)
    • Gun Hill Rd (5)
    • New Utrecht (N)

✔️ Open applications to our Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility (ACTA), a network of people in the disability community who will provide consistent feedback and input into Transit projects.

  • Applications closed on March 31, and we are in the process of reviewing applications and will schedule interviews with qualified applicants. The first ACTA meeting is currently slated for June.

✔️ Create a tailored accessible subway station map and update the accessible station wallet guide to help people with disabilities plan travel more quickly and easily.

✔️ Develop an accessibility dashboard to help us better measure and track meaningful indicators of system accessibility.

✔️ Launch accessibility sensitivity training for all NYC Transit employees.

✔️ Host a community event to gather input on the next 50 subway stations to be made accessible.

  • Nearly 100 in-person attendees and hundreds of YouTube viewers joined a frank, productive conversation about the options and challenges of making various stations accessible. Input from this event will be one factor that helps us prioritize stations for accessibility, along with the systemwide feasibility study to be completed in Q4 and a host of other data points we have collected on each station.

✔️ Upgrade accessible boarding areas in five accessible stations to minimize gaps between the platform and train for easier boarding by customers who use wheelchairs.

  • We raised platform edges at:
    • 21 St Queensbridge (F)
    • 34 St-Penn Station (2, 3)
    • 72 St (2, 3)
    • Lexington Av/53 St (E, M)
    • Sutphin Blvd Archer Av (J, Z)

Customer Service

✔️ Keep you informed of the changes to the L project every week in our newsletter, and on our project page.

❌ Launch a pilot program to replace paper “Planned Work Directories” with more targeted information on digital screens.

  • As we’ve tightened our budget on non-operating functions, our technical development capacity has become even more limited. We are continuing to push to provide you relevant information about your travel. Bear with us as we work to complete this.

❌ Install PA systems at nine more stations that don’t currently have them..

  • We finished installation at five stations and will complete outfitting the subway system with PA systems before the end of the year.
    • 86 St (N)
    • 104 St (J, Z)
    • 121 St (J, Z)
    • Avenue U (N)
    • Kings Hwy (N)

✔️ Install customer information screens at 20 more stations, expanding the ways you receive real-time service information so you can make better informed travel decisions

  • Most of these stations are on the L, J, and G lines so we can keep you informed when the L project launches in April.

✔️ Expand lost and found contact hours to 6 a.m. – 10 p.m., seven days a week (up from limited availability, Monday – Friday).

  • Give us a call at 511; we'll be there from 6 a.m. – 10 p.m. every day.

✔️ Equip 400 buses with on-board customer information screens that announce the next stop, both visually and audibly, and show other service information.

  • Clearer stop announcements are now being made on 600 more buses! We've equipped 1,600 total buses since we began installing these screens.