Monday, December 7, 2009

Roosevelt Island Resident Unhappy With RIOC and MTA's Poor Communication On F Train Subway Disruption This Past Weekend

Image from MTA

A reader sent in this message regarding the lack of notice for this weekend's disruption in F Train subway service to Manhattan from Roosevelt Island:
Poor Communication by RIOC on NO F Train to Manhattan this past weekend

I saw a notice on your blog on Friday that there was no F train service to Manhattan this weekend.

I told my husband and he took the tram on Saturday morning about 8:30.

He overheard a conversation between a woman and a boy, age 6, who was traveling with his dad. The woman said there was no subway service and she had hurried over to make the tram. There was a handwritten sign saying no subway service to Manhattan.

The father replied, "Good thing we came right to the tram, because we might not have made it," gesturing to the three year old boy with him and his son.

When the tram conductor, Greg, got to the tram and closed the doors, the boy asked, "Did you know there was no subway today?"

"No, I did not," said Greg, with a note of surprise in his voice.

When a six-year old boy has to tell the tram conductor there is no subway service, then the residents are in BIG trouble.

RIOC should have someone CALL THE MTA EACH FRIDAY and confirm whether or not there is subway service on the F line and NOTIFY the residents when there is a change in service.

I understand that RIOC is happy to receive the increased revenues resulting from the MTA's suspension of subway service for repairs. But their poor communications with Island residents is inexcusable.

To be fair to RIOC, they usually publish an advisory on their web site when there is going to be a F Train Subway service disruption although I am not sure if they did so this weekend. Also the MTA has a service advisory web site as well. More signage near the subway would be very helpful for future Roosevelt Island subway disruptions - and I am sure there will be more!

Or just read about it on Roosevelt Islander Blog.

6 comments :

Anonymous said...

You can sign up on the MTA web site to get email advisories. They sent one about the weekend service disruption on Thursday. The Wire usually sends one too but didn't this time.

Anonymous said...

I am amazed by this complaint letter. Why does the RIOC have to do our job? The MTA publishes outages in advance on the web site, in form of fliers and posters, on cable channels like NY1, etc. etc. Sometimes even the red bus drivers announce that there are no trains running.

I am sorry but the RIOC is not in charge of babysitting you and your commute needs.

Anonymous said...

FYI: There were 2 Advisories sent out about this weekend. One, a couple of weeks ago with several dates (including this weekend), and one, this weekend as well.

Ask to be put on the RIOC Advisory List and you can receive these notifications too.

Anonymous said...

EIOC should not assume that everyone has computer access and should post advisories at the bus stops as well - just print and paste

Anonymous said...

The advisories are all over the subway station days in advance. I think if you rely on the subway you should pay attention to those all the time.

Anonymous said...

RIOC just sent an email advisory: no Queens bound trains this coming weekend (Dec 12-13).