Can you hear me now?

Subway riders in Queens have a higher chance of hearing garbled announcements than in other boroughs, according to this year’s Straphangers Campaign survey.
“It would be hard to say that Queens is getting the short end of the stick, but I’d be willing to venture a guess that riders are not hearing clear announcements,” said Neysa Pranger, Campaign Coordinator for the Straphanger’s Campaign of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).
Of lines that travel into the borough, the W, which runs from lower Manhattan to Astoria, garnered the worst ranking in the city. Only 58 percent of announcements on the line were audible, a drop from 64 percent last year, according to the Straphangers Campaign report. The N’s performance this year was also called a significant deterioration from 2004.
But not all subway lines in Queens fared as badly as the W. On the R, A, C, and E, the Straphangers Campaign noted a significant improvement in clear announcements as compared to last year.
The J/Z doubled its rating this year and ranked best in Queens with 82 percent of announcements being made clearly. Citywide, subway announcements were discernable 77 percent of the time, up four points from last year, but when trains were delayed, riders got the message only 65 percent of the time.