MTA Tries to be More Human, But Maybe Just Adds to the Noise

The MTA has asked conductors to stop calling passengers "ladies and gentlemen" and to start announcing holidays and landmarks over subway loudspeakers, according to a memo obtained by WNYC sent to train personnel earlier this month.

The new announcement guidelines are an effort by the MTA to have "more open and honest communications," according to a spokesman. But a former conductor is more skeptical. Crystal Young chairs the conductor and tower division of the Transport Workers Union, Local 100, which represents MTA employees.  

"A lot of the announcements are white noise," she said, adding that increasing the number of announcements will just give riders more to ignore.

The new announcement guidelines are just part of a wide-ranging effort to improve communication with, er, passengers. Earlier this month, the MTA gave iPhones to E Train conductors as part of a pilot project so that they can get the same information on train delays that riders can from Twitter or the MTA website—which, believe it or not, are more up-to-date than what comes over the MTA radio channel. 

More frequent updates won't get the trains running any faster. Still, John Raskin, executive director of the a grassroots transportation advocacy group, Riders' Alliance, welcomes them.

"Being stuck in a tunnel is a lot more tolerable if you have a sense of why you’re stuck and how long it’ll be until you get out," he said. 

"The MTA can seem like impersonal system that’s all metal and rubber," Raskin added, saying the new announcements are an indication that the MTA is trying to change that.