The Straphangers Campaign isn't the only group paying attention to the subway system's details. The MTA is actually quite good at navel gazing too—and even shares what it finds online. So if you are willing to dive into the details, there is quite a bit of info to be found. Want to know why an elevator was out, or what time of day platforms have the most litter? Just check the books. Want to know how many subway pay phones actually work? They've got that data for you too. But you probably don't know want to know the answer...
When we last checked in on the subway pay telephones in 2011, the Straphangers Campaign found that nearly a third of them were out of service. And now the numbers are even worse. The Post today notes that, buried deep inside the latest books out of the MTA (specifically: book two, page 8.19 of this PDF), the MTA lists the the percentage of working public telephones in its system. And that percentage is now a staggeringly low 46 percent, a drop of 36 percent from the MTA's count a year earlier!
At one point the subways had more than 3,600 working pay phones in its 468 subway stations. But that was many years ago, and now the number is set to keep dropping. Pacific Telemanagement Services, which took over Verizon's pay phones, apparently has big plans to keep cutting the phones back. According to the Post the aim is be down to 700 by the end of the year. Thank goodness we've got all that barely existent subway cell service?
Seriously though, how is it appropriate for phones to be taken out of commission in stations when those much heralded MTA "Help Points" have not been installed across the entire system yet?
