THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS STOLEN FROM WOMAN’S BANK ACCOUNT
A 37-year-old woman went to use her bank account online last Monday from inside her apartment on Broadway, when she discovered that her account had been frozen. After contacting her bank, she was informed that an unknown perpetrator went into her bank with fake identification and was able to withdraw $4,500. A second attempt to withdraw more money was denied by the bank. In addition, the unknown person opened up a credit card account in her name. No arrests have yet been made.

A BITING THEFT CASE
A 27-year-old woman went to her place of work at a dentist’s office on Broadway on Jan. 25, and reported there was missing dental equipment, totaling over $22,000 in value. She said the theft had occurred sometime between Jan. 15 and 25. The unknown perpetrator stole eight dental headpieces and four intra-oral cameras. Police do not yet have a lead, but if arrested the charge will be grand larceny.

PUNCHED IN THE NOSE FOR IPHONE
On Tuesday, Jan. 24, a 21-year-old man said he was entering the 79th Street subway when an unknown man started following him. The man said, “Give me your phone,” and then struck his victim in the nose. The assailant snatched the phone and fled. The victim was then taken to the hospital. He did not have a tracking app installed, so the phone was not recovered. The surrounding locations do, however, have street cameras. Police are on the lookout for a Hispanic man around 20 years old and six feet tall, wearing a black sweatshirt and a black doo-rag.

WOMAN HIT UP FOR $1,300 ON 85TH STREET
On Friday, Jan. 25, a 37-year-old woman was walking down West 85th Street when she was approached by an unknown man wearing a mask. The man, while keeping his hand in his pocket, asked, “Am I on 85th Street?” When the woman answered, he said, “Give me all your money; don’t be stupid.” The victim says she gave him $1,300. The assailant then instructed her to walk toward Columbus Avenue and not look back. She complied. Police are on the lookout for a black man wearing a black coat, approximately 5’10” and 35 years old, wearing a dark mask at the time of the robbery.

THIEF BUYS $4,000 WORTH OF AUTO GOODS WITH FORGED CREDIT CARD
A 32-year-old male reported that when he was in his apartment at West 73rd Street on Jan. 23, he discovered that an unknown person used his checking account information to purchase almost $4,000 of auto parts from a local shop. The incident occurred sometime in mid-December. The victim was in possession of his debit card at the time of the theft, so the credit cards were forged. No arrests have yet been made.

By Caroline Lewis

Whether from the news, the subway carolers or your vocal office mate, you’ve probably heard: The MTA pushed through another fare hike last month, which will take effect in March. Highlights include raising the regular fare from $2.25 to $2.50 and charging a $1 surcharge for the purchase of a new MetroCard. The MTA plans to help set off its deficit with “moderate” biannual fare increases, which means another hike will roll around in 2015. Truly, they’re in a bad way. Before incurring an estimated $5 billion in damages from Hurricane Sandy, the MTA was already dealing with a huge deficit and had reached an impasse with MTA workers, who are still working without a contract.In other words, the MTA is that guy running around pantsless on the subway. Will New Yorkers finally look up? Some are quietly playing with their smartphones, others are shaking their heads in resignation, and still others are chuckling, “It’s all part of that subway charm!”

We spoke to people near the Union Square station to see what (if anything) they think of the new fare hike and how they think the subway could improve.

OTDT: What do you think of the upcoming MTA fare hike?
“I’m a longtime NYC resident. I grew up here, and I feel that people are really being pushed to the limits as far as finances are concerned, and an MTA hike is just outrageous. I mean, really I think it’s just mismanagement of money and finances and people really cannot afford to have to pay more.”—Sheri Chard

“Well, I grew up here, but I don’t live here anymore, but I heard about the fare hike and I think we shouldn’t have to pay more for what we get, for the service that’s provided here.”—Davida Scretchings

“Why, is it going up to $2.50? I’m sure the trains will be 25 cents better. And that’s sarcasm.”—Rufus X.

“I think it’s worth it. You can go a long way for $2.25 now. They had a lot of damage with the storm, it costs a lot to remedy it, and for me to pick up a quarter, I mean, it’s not that much.”—Pique Buford

“It’s going up 25 cents? I’m walking everywhere. But I guess $2.50 to get all these different places is worth it. People need to get to work and go to school, so obviously people are going to spend the money. There’s nothing we can really do about it. But it’s going to add up really quickly.”
—Emma Buford

“Oh yeah, I think it’s disgusting. Well, listen, I mean if you see the economic situation of not only our city, but also the United States—the economic situation is chaotic. I think raising taxes and the fares on trains and ferries is disgusting.”
—Germano Riviera

OTDT: What does the MTA need to improve?
“I feel that the services as far as the timeliness of the subways should be better. I’ve had so many issues where I can’t physically fit my body onto a subway because it’s so crowded during rush hour. And I live on Roosevelt Island, and the F train is just absurd with the crowdedness of the subways.”—Sheri Chard

“I feel that there should be more security in the subways.”—Davida Scretchings

“Infrastructure. So when [a storm] happens, it’s not as debilitating. We’re due to have storms, I’m assuming, in the next 10 years, and the subway’s very old. The infrastructure’s very antiquated. It’s like the gas lines. They break because they’re old and they’re worn and there’s no detecting when it’s going to happen. So we need to rebuild all over the city and in all of those areas, so if it costs me a quarter, I think we can all afford a quarter.”
—Pique Buford

“If you get a $20 MetroCard, they give you the added bonus [of $1.40], and so then you have a weird balance and you end up with an uneven amount. It’s just annoying because you have an insufficient fare, but it’s a significant amount of money.”—Emma Buford

“I think they should start thinking of trying to save a little bit of money for the people that don’t have it, particularly after Sandy. People got displaced, there’s no jobs—I think it’s terrible.”
—Germano Riviera

The Protagonist interviewed several New Yorkers this week with the goal of better understanding the incredibly complex psychology behind the act of subway reading.

Anticipating primarily tales of the embarrassment surrounding reading something too “trashy” or juvenile, or, alternatively, something too pretentious, and how all this is impacted by the omnipresence of e-readers, or even how hard it is to focus on one’s book at all with all these coursing thoughts, I stumbled across a different, more prevalent phenomenon altogether.

While New Yorkers are overwhelmingly most embarrassed to be caught reading the “dorky” stuff, the fact is this: subway reading has gotten too damn sexual.

If it’s not the subway-reading-pickup-game — with book as mere conduit for something much more improper — it’s secret or not-so-secret pornographic reading, a whole universe of secret sex codes, presumptions about others’ sex lives and so on.

Kambri Crews, an author herself, who publicly reads whatever she wants (including Harry Potter) reserves judgment of what others read…for the most part.

“I always notice what others are reading but usually don’t think much of it,” says Crews. “Unless it’s some young kid with fake glasses reading Anna Karenina or something lofty and I think, ‘Yeah, right. Whatever,’ and sprain my eye muscles from rolling them so hard.”

Does anyone show an interest in what she’s reading? “Only men who are looking for action ever comment on what I’m reading,” says Crews.

According to comedian and prolific subway-reader Dan Nainan, “The thought of having to sit on the subway with nothing to do is unacceptable.”

Nainan doesn’t care what people think of his literary choices. “A friend of mine, Steve Chandler, wrote a fantastic book called 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself,” Nainan explains. “One of his tips asks, why should what someone else thinks affect how I feel?”

But then the plot thickens. “I will say that reading Fifty Shades of Grey on the subway has been quite interesting,” says Nainan. “Would you believe that I’ve had a few women start conversations with me about that book? One of these conversations even led to a date.”

Nainan offers an observation: “I see many women reading this book, all of them are reading it on e-readers – I think they are too embarrassed to actually read the physical book itself…some of them glance around furtively to make sure that nobody is seeing them read the book.”

“If a man were looking at pornography on the subway, or anywhere else in public, he would be excoriated,” he says. “Apparently, it’s okay for women to read pornography on the other hand.”

Another subway reader, Emily Glickman, echoes Nainan: “Recently I saw a woman openly reading Fifty Shades of Grey, the physical book, and thought that was a little off.”

Brooklynite Shelley Chapman, who says: “Electronics nowadays emit levels of radiation that can bother [her] after a while,” to explain her support of physical books, is not afraid to advertise her presumptions about others based on what they read.

“If I noticed someone reading a book titled My Baby Daddy Part 3, I’d wonder how in the heck they even managed to read Part 1 and 2,” says Chapman.

“Admittedly, there are a few books depending on the cover illustrations that I won’t as readily read on the train,” she says. “Such as my books on Tantra.”

With all the judgment, it’s no wonder some readers are a little self-conscious. Dustin Nelson remembers reading Nicholson Baker’s House of Holes on the train and feeling “a little weird about [it.]”

“I thought someone was going to see one of the chapter titles sitting next to me, since the chapter titles there are pretty dirty,” Nelson explains. “Maybe they’d think I was coming onto them with my book.”

Hunt Ethridge, on the other hand, isn’t afraid to confess his literary interests aren’t exactly pure: “I subscribe to the Erotica Center on my Kindle and on slow, cold days, I may read something spicy on my way home. That’s when it’s the best!” Others agree they use e-readers if they plan to read something a little personal, like a self-help book.

Hashim Locario, a dating coach and author, has even more aggressive intentions. Locario wrote a book for men called How to Have Sex with 2 Women a Day.

“When I first got the hard copies of the book printed I would read it on the train so people could see what I was reading,” says Locario. “Women would give me strange looks and men would always ask me where I got the book.”

“I actually sold a couple on the train that way,” he says.

Locario adds: “I actually used to pick up girls by approaching them and asking them about what they were reading.”

In fairness, some New Yorkers interviewed also had far more innocent intentions when they sparked up a conversation about books, or approached subway reading in general.

Christina DiRusso says she “love[s] giving out recommendations and always asks for ideas back.”

Bob Madison and his husband often read aloud to each other on the subway.

“This can sometimes raise eyebrows when it’s something like Tik-Tok of Oz,” he explains. “Just a couple of weeks ago we were reading Fer-der-lance, the first Nero Wolfe mystery on the train, and found a bit that was so smartly written and so funny that we were howling all the way to Chambers Street.”

Madison adds: “Then my husband was reading The Gods of Mars, an old adventure novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and he read a particularly over-the-top bit to me that I’m sure must’ve raised the eyebrows of anyone listening.”

While using books to pick up dates is far from a new phenomenon, The Protagonist is left wondering if the ubiquity of e-readers puts a damper on the process, or facilitates it further. One thing is for sure, e-readers make it more difficult to form an assumption based on what’s being read, though as some point out — at the very least they do make a statement about someone’s disposable income level.

Whatever the motive, it’s safe to say, when people idly read on the subway, they usually aren’t just idly reading. And the people casually not looking? Well, you know.

The East River Ferry (via nycedc.tumblr.com)

The closure of the flooded subway system frustrated commuters earlier this month but it was a godsend for the East River Ferry.

Over 7,400 commuters crowded into the boats on Nov. 1, a number more than double the average ridership for the season. The weekend saw heavy ridership numbers as well, with 5,000 on Nov. 3, 3,000 on Nov. 4, and more than 7,700 people on Tuesday, Nov. 6, one of the highest totals of the year. When the L train returned on Friday, Nov. 9, some 3,200 people rode the ferry over the East River, an average figure for this time of year.

Ferry officials say that the high figures show the service is a necessary transit alternative for the city. “The return of the East River Ferry service was a significant step in providing a quick and safe transit option for commuters heading back to work in the wake of Hurricane Sandy,” said Paul Goodman, CEO of Billybey Ferry Company.

To read more New York political coverage, visit cityandstateny.com.

An older male friend allegedly sexually assaulted a young woman on Nov. 3 when she invited him to her West 81st Street apartment for a drink. The pair had been with other friends at a bar earlier in the night and returned to the 23-year-old’s apartment around 2 a.m. According to the victim, the 35-year-old began to make advances on
her against her consent. He removed her clothing and forced her to perform various sexual acts. The man reportedly left the apartment saying he would call the victim later in the day. The victim declined to give police her friend’s identity, as well as refused transportation to the Manhattan special victims office for further investigation.

GOODBYE TO WALLET

A 62-year-old smooching with her boyfriend on Friday evening ended up with a missing wallet. The couple stopped around 7:45 p.m. for an intimate moment on the steps of the Lincoln Center plaza. After a bit of kissing, they resumed their romantic evening, but realized later that the woman’s wallet was missing from her bag. According to the woman, two of her credit cards were used to purchase MetroCards, totaling $250. She canceled the cards, but the perp remains at large.

RUDE AWAKENING

A 34-year-old reported being struck on the forehead by a lamp in her West 70th Street apartment last Thursday, Nov. 8. The attacker was her 38-year-old boyfriend. The exact details of their interaction were not given, but the attack happened at about 9:30 a.m., shortly after the victim woke up. The boyfriend, who did not live in the apartment, fled the scene in an unknown direction. The victim developed a small bump on her head but sustained no serious injuries.

SUBWAY BRAWL

A dispute ended in bruises on the platform of 66th Street Station on Friday. At around 6:45 in the morning, a 31-year-old commuter who was sitting on a bench while waiting for the train got into a shouting match with a 51-year-old man. The argument escalated, and the verbal dispute turned physical when the older man decided to end the fight by smacking the younger man with an unidentified blunt object on the back of his head. The attack cut the victim’s head, and he was taken to a nearby hospital. Police arrested the attacker and charged him with assault.

SAD HOMECOMING

An elderly couple returned to their Broadway apartment after a vacation at their California summer home to find that they had been robbed. They stayed on the West Coast sun from the end of August to mid-October, and realized only last week that valuables from a white storage box in the 77-year-old wife’s closet had gone missing. The items stolen were an antique gold snake necklace with rubies and emeralds, an Egyptian white and yellow gold necklace, a ruby and diamond rope necklace, a diamond ring that was a family heirloom and $4,000 in cash. The items’ total monetary value was unreported. The victims told police they had allowed four close friends to stay in their apartment during their vacation, and also gave keys to a cleaning woman and a gardener for tending to the home in their absence.

IDENTITY THEFT

A West 49th Street resident reported that an unknown perp stole over $1,000 from her by creating a fake ID with her name and address on it. The perp used her information to get a debit card to her bank account, which she only used for deposits. The bank provided the perp with a pin number for the card, and the perp used the card to make several purchases throughout October. Police have not found the thief.

Inside the Second Ave. subway excavation. Via Wiki Commons

On the otherwise calm afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 21, what was supposed to be a controlled underground blast blew rocks and debris into the streets at East 72nd Street and Second Avenue, terrifying residents and damaging a storefront. The explosion occurred as part of the Second Avenue Subway construction, and the next day, MTA officials said they were putting a moratorium on all work at that site until the contractor could provide a new standard operating procedure and a thorough safety review had been conducted.

This week, the MTA announced that construction at the site is resuming, but blasting will not continue at this time.

“What happened yesterday was completely unacceptable and should not have occurred,” Michael Horodniceanu, the president of MTA Capital Construction, the agency in charge of the project, said at the time. “I’m really upset and angry that whatever happened put the residents in the area in [this] situation. We are continuing our investigation into exactly what happened.”

Horodniceanu said that preliminary findings show that the blast, which was designed to create an elevator shaft, got out of control because the 1,800-pound, 6-foot-by-10-foot steel plate covering the tunnel above the explosives was not properly secured at its edges.
“The holes that were drilled in the rock outcrop that was blasted were diagonal. Normally we will do it in a vertical fashion,” he said, although the MTA has used this diagonal drilling at several other sites. “When you drill vertically, the energy that is created would go laterally. In this case, it went vertically and actually aimed directly to the deck, to the southeast corner of the 72nd Street deck. The decking lifted and allowed rock to actually spread into the street.”

Aside from a few broken windows at the Kolb Art Gallery, there was no structural damage to the street or nearby buildings, and no one was injured at the site, though the blast definitely rattled residents

The MTA plans to take a number of steps to ensure that this won’t happen again, Horodniceanu said. They will be adding protective rubber matting on top of underground blasts to further prevent the spread of debris, he said, and will also be expanding the areas from which they ban pedestrians surrounding a blast site. They are also hiring an independent safety consultant and will be employing a blasting consultant more frequently, he said.

None of these measures is expected to greatly increase the cost of the project or delay its December 2016 completion date, according to Horodniceanu.

“I truly would like to apologize to the residents of the area that have been exposed to numerous problems throughout the construction of this project, and I pledge to them that we’ll do our best for something like this not to occur again,” Horodniceanu said.

Assembly Member Kellner’s office said that they have received a few concerned phone calls about the incident and that he is working with the MTA to make sure that communication is better going forward.

“The MTA must be accountable to the community for the actions of their contractors. To date they have failed to do so,” Kellner said. “The MTA must explain in detail what new safety measures they will put in place during blasting to assure East Siders are never put in danger.”

The MTA has assured the community that blasting won’t resume at the site before additional safety measures are implemented.

Courtesy of Antony Lopez via Flickr

—Compiled by Adel Manoukian

Train Thefts Persist
The NYPD reports that the number of thefts on trains and train platforms is increasing, so riders be warned or you might end up like the following unlucky cases. Having just gotten off a southbound N train, a 23-year-old NYU student was walking on a train platform when her phone vibrated. When she reached for her pocketbook to get it, she noticed the zipper was open and several items were missing, including her $100 wallet that contained $100 in cash, a $40 metro card and a credit card. A few days later, a 24-year-old man was holding his $500 iPhone in his hand as he stepped off a southbound N train at around 3 in the morning. As he was getting off, a thief snatched his phone and took off.

Good Samaritan Helps Arrest Thieves
The saying in this city goes, “If you see something, say something.” Luckily this woman was in the right place at the right time and did exactly that. The Good Samaritan witnessed two young males come up to a 21-year-old man on Dutch Street and demand he give up his money and iPhone. When the victim refused, they punched him in the face in concert. As the man was being mugged, the witness called the police and two suspects, ages 19 and 18, were caught and arrested a few blocks away. The man’s $200 iPhone was recovered.

Water Street Business Robbed at Gunpoint
A 58-year-old woman was unlocking the door to her check-cashing business on Water Street last Tuesday, when a man pushed his way into the store, displayed his semiautomatic pistol and announced that he came to rob the place. The man, who donned a ski mask and sunglasses, had the woman disable the alarms and unlock the door to the rear counter area that contained a safe. As soon as she complied, the thief forced her down on the ground and handcuffed her. The perp placed a whopping $150,514 in cash in his black knapsack and allegedly shouted to an accomplice outside the front door. Unfortunately, the victim never had a chance to see the other person. The robber fled in an unknown direction. Police are still investigating.

Keep Your Bags in Sight at All Times
In these blotter pages, we often report on unattended bags being stolen, yet these crimes still persist. A 30-year-old man was standing on the corner of West Broadway and Lispenard Street early Sunday morning when he placed his bag down to make a call. As he was talking on the phone he noticed a group of people pass him, but the unsuspecting man took no further note of them. When he finished his call a few minutes later, he noticed the bag he had set down next to him containing his $1,700 MacBook and $80 in cash was gone. A few days later, a 21-year-old tourist set her bag down behind her to take a picture with one of her cameras. When she turned around to pick it up a few seconds later, it was out of sight. The bag contained her $1,000 MacBook Air and a $250 Olympus camera. Unfortunately, the woman did not see or hear anything and there were no witnesses. At the time of the occurrence, the visitor only had two more days left in New York City.

Community Board 6 Chair Mark Thompson said that while the board hasn’t taken an official position on the rezoning proposal, they are generally supportive of it. The biggest problem, he said, is that the city wants to plow ahead with the plan before allowing adequate time to answer the community’s questions and figure out how a potential business boom in Midtown would affect other city systems. Thompson said the board is concerned that the city isn’t giving enough consideration to ancillary factors like sidewalk crowding, an influx of subway and bus passengers and the impact on the electric grid and sewer systems that would come along with a rapid upward expansion of Midtown office buildings.

The board will be sending a letter to City Council Member Dan Garodnick requesting a meeting and his assistance in getting the DCP to steady the pace as they continue, and is working in conjunction with Community Board 5, which shares their concerns.

Renewed Calls for Pedicab Restrictions
Upper East Side Council Member Dan Garodnick, chair of the consumer affairs committee, has consistently called for stricter regulations of the pedicab industry, citing the high number of complaints that his committee has received from customers who feel they were ripped off. The New York Post reported earlier this week that one visiting family from Texas was charged over $400 for a 10-block ride in Midtown recently—and that the charge was completely legal. Garodnick introduced a package of bills last year that passed the Council and now require pedicab drivers to clearly post their rates someone in their cab, but the city doesn’t place any restrictions on how much pedicabs can charge, and some are getting around the rule by posting their rates in tiny lettering and not directing their passengers’ attention to it. Now Garodnick, along with many in the pedicab industry who don’t want their profession given a bad name, are calling for additional laws that will require drivers to state the charges clearly at the beginning of a ride, instead of springing a huge bill on riders when they reach their destination.

Summer Streets on the East Side
If you’ve always dreamed of zip-lining through the streets of Manhattan, your dreams may soon be fulfilled. The Department of Transportation will continue the fifth annual Summer Streets program for the next two Saturdays, Aug. 11 and 18, on the East Side, closing down Park Avenue from Foley Square downtown all the way up to East 72nd Street from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cars will vanish and the avenue will be free to roam on foot, bike, scooter, rollerblades or hoverboard, with activities like the zip-line, a rock climbing wall and a picnic food stand area from Whole Foods at various rest stops along the way. There will also be interactive art projects and a fire hydrant sprinkler, perfect for parched kids. Complete info at nyc.gov/summerstreets.

A Comic Consolidation
The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) announced this week that it will be consolidating its collections with that of the Society of Illustrators, located at 128 E. 63rd St. The two art institutions will merge their assets and become a single institution dedicated to celebrating illustration, comics and animation. The Society will continue to host the MoCCA Fest, an annual independent comics festival, and will dedicate one of their galleries to MoCCA’s permanent collection and draw from the collection for curated shows.
“The Society of Illustrators has a long, proud history of promoting the art and appreciation of all genres of illustration,” said Executive Director Anelle Miller in a statement. “We are honored to be able to spearhead the expansion and growth of the incredible foundation that MoCCA has created over the past 10 years.”

East Siders’ Ideas to Boost Second Ave.
While the businesses on Second Avenue near the subway construction have suffered in the past years, with foot traffic down by 30 percent in some spots, local residents say that they try their best to support those businesses and have ideas of how they can do even better, according to a survey conducted by Council Member Jessica Lappin’s office. Out of the 990 people who responded to the survey, 78 percent said that they shop in stores or dine in restaurants along Second Avenue. An overwhelmingly number—86 percent—also said that they’d be inclined to spend on the Avenue more frequently if merchants offered coupons or deals.

“Businesses have been hit hard by Second Avenue construction, so it’s wonderful that East Siders are supporting them,” Lappin said in a statement. “This survey also makes it clear that shoppers are looking for bargains. In this economy, who isn’t? So, going forward, this is something we can work on with Second Avenue merchants.”

The survey also found the best thing the MTA can do to help people who live around the Second Avenue construction is to provide better information for the community about what’s going on. Survey respondents chose that option 40 percent of the time, more than keeping the work spaces cleaner and being less noisy.

C Tops the List as the Worst Line in the City
Have a favorite subway line? So does the New York Public Interest Research Group, whose Straphangers Campaign released its annual State of the Subway report last week.

The Q line came out on top, with major points for a low breakdown rate, regular service, seat availability and cleanliness. Apparently, this line also has the best announcements in the system. It ranked relatively low, though, on the actual amount of scheduled service.
Probably to few New Yorkers’ surprise, the C line came in last. For the fourth year in a row, its notorious grimy cars, frequent breakdowns and infrequent appearances kept it at the bottom. It ranked second to last on in-car announcements.

by Paul Bisceglio

Have a favorite subway line? So does the New York Public Interest Research Group, whose Straphangers Campaign released its annual State of the Subway report last week.

The report ranks subway lines from best to worst by compiling MTA New York City Transit data from 2011 in six categories: amount of scheduled service, regularity of service, breakdown rate, chance of getting a seat, interior cleanliness and in-car announcements. The list includes 19 of the 20 major lines across the city — all except the G, for which reliable crowding data is unavailable, says the report.
The Q line came out on top, with major points for a low breakdown rate, regular service, seat availability and cleanliness. Apparently, this line also has the best announcements in the system. It ranked relatively low, though, on the amount of scheduled service.
Probably to few New Yorkers’ surprise, the C line came in last. For the fourth year in a row, its notoriously grimy cars, frequent breakdowns and infrequent appearances kept it at the bottom. It ranked second to last on in-car announcements, which tend to sound like the conductor is speaking cyborg from a mile away while gargling marbles.

The 7 took second place, despite having the worst announcements on record, and the J and Z’s clockwork-like regularity helped win it third. The 4 and 5 were third and second to last, respectively, both weighed down by heavy crowding.

The MTA released a tepid reply to the rankings, emphasizing that progress was being made across the board.

“While we appreciate the positive results of the Straphangers’ latest survey, those results do not tell the full story,” they said in an official response. “We believe that NYC Transit’s Key Performance Indicators methodology, reported monthly in the Committee Agenda, offers a fairer and more complete assessment of subway service and includes information gleaned from actual customer surveys taken from the passengers’ point of view.”

They also noted that service frequency for each individual line is affected by other lines that share the same track. “The Straphangers report would be more relevant if it viewed service by corridor rather than by individual train line,” they claimed.

Nevertheless, they acknowledge that there is work to be done. “Continuing our commitment to improving service, 300 new subway cars are currently on order for lettered line routes, and their arrival will help further modernize our car fleet by allowing us to retire C Line cars (R32s), which are the oldest in current operation.”

The new C line cars will not arrive until at least 2017, so it’s likely that the C is not at the end of its losing streak.

This year's winner (photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).

Have a favorite subway line? So does the New York Public Interest Research Group, whose Straphangers Campaign released its annual State of the Subway report this week.

The report ranks subway lines from best to worst by compiling 2011 MTA New York City Transit data on  in six categories: amount of scheduled service, regularity of service, breakdown rate, chance of getting a seat, interior cleanness and in-car announcements. The list includes 19 of the 20 major lines across the city — all except the G, for which reliable crowding data is unavailable, says the report.

Here’s how things stacked up:

The Q line came out on top, with major points for a low breakdown rate, regular service, seat availability and cleanliness. Apparently it also has the best announcements in the system. It ranked relatively low, though, on the actual amount of scheduled service.

Probably to few New Yorkers’ surprise, the C line was last. For the fourth year in a row, its notorious grime, frequent breakdowns and infrequent appearances kept it at the bottom. It ranked second to last on in-car announcements, which tend to sound like the conductor is speaking cyborg from a mile away while gargling marbles.

The 7 took second place despite having the worst announcements on record, and the J & Z’s clock-like regularity helped win it third. The 4 and 5 were third-to-last and second-to-last respectively, both weighed down by heavy crowding.

MTA released a tepid reply to the rankings, and emphasized that progress was being made across the board.

“While we appreciate the positive results of the Straphanger’s latest survey, those results do not tell the full story,” said their official response. “We believe that NYC Transit’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI) methodology, reported monthly in the Committee Agenda, offer a fairer and more complete assessment of subway service and includes information gleaned from actual customer surveys taken from the passengers’ point of view.”

MTA also noted that service frequency for each individual line is affected by other lines that share the same track.  “The Straphanger’s report would be more relevant if it viewed service by corridor rather than by individual train line,” they claimed.

Nevertheless, they acknowledge that there is still work to be done: “continuing our commitment to improving service, 300 new subway cars are currently on order for lettered-line routes and their arrival will help further modernize our car fleet by allowing us to retire C Line cars (R32s), which are the oldest in current operation.”

The new C line cars will not arrive until at least 2017, so the C may not be at the end of its losing streak.