The 1, 7 and L trains tie for the best subway line in New York City in 2015, according to the most recent "State of the Subways" report card released Thursday.
The annual report card, administered by the New York Public Interest Research Group's Straphangers Campaign, evaluates the city's 20 major subway lines based on six criteria: crowding, car cleanliness, quality of on-board announcements, the rate of breakdowns, the amount of scheduled service and the actual regularity of service.
It weighs the last two criteria more heavily than the other four.
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The 1, 7 and L trains all provided exceptional morning and rush-hour service in 2015, per the Straphangers Campaign's review of data collected by the MTA.
Each line had its own strength:
♦ The 1 train was less crowded and cleaner than the average line.
♦ The 7 clocked fewer-than-average subway car breakdowns and earned nearly perfect score for car cleanliness.
♦ The L surpassed most lines in the accuracy and comprehensibility of its subway car announcements.
This is the third year in a row that the 7 train has earned top marks on the Straphangers Campaign's report card.
On the opposite end of the grading scale, the 5 and A trains shared the worst marks for performance in 2015.
Irregular service landed both lines in the doghouse.
The 5 train, which also ranked last among lines in 2014, packed straphangers more densely than any other line except the 4. The A not only offered riders below-average midday service — it also broke down at a greater-than-average rate.
"Passengers on the top lines — such as the 1, 7, and L — hands down get a much better ride for their MetroCard than those on its worst, such as the 5 or A," Straphangers Campaign senior attorney Gene Russianoff said in a statement Thursday.
Across the system, Russianoff's organization found that subway breakdowns were up 7 percent in 2015 compared to 2014; trains broke down on average of once every 131,325 miles, instead of every 141,202 miles. C train riders, we feel for you: cars on your line came to an unintended halt every 61,544 miles in 2015.
Sixteen out of 20 lines saw a year-over-year decrease in regularity of service, a measurement based on gaps between trains and bunching.
But you can take heart in the fact that subways got just a wee bit tidier in 2015, from 92 percent clean on average in 2014 to 93 percent.
See how your line stacks up here.
