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When New Yorkers complain about the subway, we never actually expect the MTA to listen. That's changing, though: An initiative by the city is giving us a platform to complain directly to some of the MTA’s managers during so-called “office hours.”
Group station managers will hold their office hours twice a month at different stations from 7am-10am and 4pm-7pm, where they’ll open the floor for commuters to air out all their complaints about their subway stations.
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This week, the MTA celebrated the launch of office hours at the 34 St-Hudson Yards 7 Train Station in midtown and is spreading it to more stations. The initiative isn’t new, though: It was first introduced in 2018 by former NYC transit president Andy Byford but paused during the pandemic before it was reintroduced in 2022, per the Gothamist.
The group station manager program is meant to address cleanliness and customer service issues, and each manager will supervise around 25 stations. “Group station managers now have the opportunity to interact with transit customers in a more intimate setting,” New York City Transit Department of Subways Senior Vice President Demetrius Crichlow said in a statement. “These interactions will help us at the MTA better understand how customers feel while they navigate the transit system, and help us make adjustments where necessary.” Previously, MTA station workers had to step out of their booths to help any customers.
This is just another part of a larger effort to improve the ridership experience in the MTA, which has the most stations of any other metro system in the world, including many stations that were built in the last century. “Rebuilding a station takes time and money and we can’t undo decades of underinvestment quickly,” Rachelle Glazier, former Chief Station Officer, said in a video promoting the Station Manager Program. “But what we can do relatively quickly is to manage our stations better.”
Byford introduced the same initiative in the Tube in London and Toronto’s metro system, and in both cases said the initiative led to significant improvements in the cities’ respective transit systems.
Each station will display the contact information of the general manager in charge of that station as well as the office hours on their screens.