Even though the MTA is distributing its first-ever Rider Report Card one subway line at a time, you can fill out a report card right now for any line by visiting the MTA's website.
We're worried that the MTA is stacking the deck against collecting accurate G train information, because two questions don't address the G train's service plan.
The first question on the online Rider Report Card asks, "Where do you start your trip? Select the station name where you start your trip." For the G's Rider Report Card, the pull-down menu lists only half of the G train's route: the list starts at Smith-9th Street and ends at Court Square station. We all know the G train runs to Forest Hills on weeknights (which doubles the length of its route), and once in a blue moon it's even been spotted serving Forest Hills on weekends. Having an incomplete list of stations is going to affect the G's report card -- no doubt about that.
There's another Rider Report Card question which worries us, though not as much as the fact that half the route is missing in Question #1: Question #6 asks riders to grade "Working elevators and escalators in stations." The G is the only line in the transit system which is served by a "power mover" - that is, by a moving runway of the type found in long airport corridors. Surely there are some riders who will decide to count the power mover as an escalator, for the purposes of the report card; but we think there are just as many busy New Yorkers who won't see the option on the report card and therefore won't answer accordingly. This will make responses to Question #6 incomplete and inaccurate. (For the record, the people mover is a joke. It rarely works and when it does, it doesn't ever reverse direction in the evening rush hour, as it's supposed to.)
Of course, the MTA could make adjustments to the Rider Report Card and correct these inaccuracies before it's the G's turn to be rated by its riders. Will that happen?
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