Queens Subway Lines Among The Dirtiest

The good news, says the StraphangersCampaigns annual subway cleanliness report, is that six Queens subway lineshave shown some improvement, but the bad news is that three lines have shownmarked deterioration.
The report also dramatically shiftedthe ratings of two Queens liens: the Flushing No. 7 fell down from the cityscleanest line to among the dirtiest, while the Astoria M line soared from thesubways dirtiest to its cleanest.
The survey rated 1,000 local subwaycars on 10 Queens subway lines between August 1999 and January 2000. Cars wererated for cleanliness of floors and seats, following the Transit Authoritysstandards for measuring car cleanliness.
The Straphangers attributed theimproved cleanliness to the T.A.s 16 percent increase of car cleanersassigned to "housekeeping" duties (from 958 to 1,112 in 1999). Inaddition, 278 Work Experience Program Participants welfare recipients have also been assigned for station and car cleaning assignments.
"More elbows have meant moreelbow grease, and thats meant cleaner subway cars," said Gene Russianoff,staff attorney for the Straphangers.
In the "clean" category,the highly rated M line, was followed by the N (Ditmars Boulevard), the C(Euclid Avenue), the E (Jamaica), the R (Continental Avenue), and F line (179thStreet).
The report also revealed that QueensG system retained its title as the citys dirtiest line with only 9percent of its cars rated clean. Other poorly rated systems were the 7 (MainStreet, Flushing), the A (Lefferts/Rockaways), the J/Z (Jamaica Center), and Ftrains (179th Street).
The Straphangers report alsocontested the T.A.s claim of a 72 percent cleanliness improvement rate duringthe past year, by substituting a more modest 32 percent.