Pity riders of the C train, named by the Straphangers Campaign as New York's worst subway line for the third year in a row. But the C train was not alone — it tied with the No. 2 train for last place.
Researchers from Straphangers found both lines to be crowded and prone to delays. While riders pay a base fare of $2.25 to ride the lines, the advocacy group rated their value at 90 cents.
Despite those poor performances, the system as a whole didn't fare too badly in this year's report.
Straphangers said the best of New York's twenty subway lines was the J/Z, which runs from Broad Street in Manhattan to to Jamaica, Queens. The J/Z scored above average in trains arriving at regular intervals, seats available during rush hour and miles between breakdowns.
Subway trains in general were more robust in 2010. They broke down an average of every 270,000 miles — a 15 percent improvement over 2009. Cleanliness and the quality of car announcements remained high at 95 percent and 87 percent, respectively, for all trains.
To take one example of best vs. worst from the report, riders on the 6 line could expect a train every two and a half minutes during rush hour; riders on the C waited 9 to 10 minutes throughout the day.
To see how your subway line fared, read the report here.
