Summer Report Card Shows Improvement On Queens Lines

A "State of Subways" report card, issued by the Straphangers Campaign, had good news for Queens commuters, ranking four Queens subway lines in the city transit systems top five.
The Queens top systems were the #7 line (Flushing), followed by the Q line (Queensboro Plaza), and the J/Z (Jamaica Center). Fourth place was garnered by the M line (Metropolitan Ave.) The B line (21 Ave) rated fifth and the F line (Jamaica) was sixth.
The #7 line has been top-ranked for the last four years, but the M lines citywide ranking soared from last in 1999 to this years fifth place.
The #7 line, the red car transportation system that traverses a route through Queens that has been dubbed the "International Express," has achieved celebratory status in the past year by being named a national landmark (the only physically moving one in the country) and by being the centerpiece of the John Rocker controversy. The Atlanta baseball player ridiculed the mire of ethnic groups that ride the line in an interview in Sports Illustrated magazine, causing a firestorm of controversy and even becoming a part of David Letterman jokes on national television.
The citywide findings were mixed, however, with cars more crowded, arriving more irregularly and having poorer announcements, but also breaking down less often and cleaner.
Straphanger spokesman Vinny Grippo said that subway service has not kept up with an explosive 17 percent ridership increase since 1997. There has been a gain of 630,000 riders on an average weekday, but service has only increased by 4 percent.
The subway lines were rated on frequency, cleanliness, breakdown rates, seat availability, and announcements. The Straphangers Campaign Line Ratings are based on a formula developed in consultation with independent transportation experts and are intended to be a shorthand tool to compare lines. A line could receive a rating of $1.50 the cost of a ride, if it scored, on average, in the top 5 percent on the six measures of service.
Their key findings include:
 For the fourth year in a row, the best subway line is the #7 line with a "Line Rating" of $1.05. The line ranked high because there is much more scheduled service on the #7 than on most lines riders have a greater chance of getting a seat at a peak period; its cars break down much less often than average, and it performed about average on in-car announcements. The #7 runs between Flushing, Queens and Times Square.
The worst subway line in Queens is the N (Ditmars)  with a line rating of 70 cents.
 The overall picture for the subways citywide is mixed: Line Ratings improved for seven of 19 subway lines; ratings declined on six; and stayed the same on six. The seven lines with better ratings are the A, B, D, J/Z, M, Q and R. The six lines with worse ratings are the: 1, 9, 2, 4, 5, C and N. The six unchanged lines are the: 3, 6, 7, E, F, and L. This is better than last years report card, where nine of 19 lines grew worse and only three improved.
 There are great disparities in how subway lines perform. For example, the 4 had the best record on delays caused by mechanical failures: once every 163,227 miles. The R line (Continental) had the worst, experiencing breakdown delays nearly three times as often, once every 56,852 miles.