Only ‘human’
MTA flips script for train messages
“LADIES and gentlemen” got on a subway train bound for oblivion this week.
Along with the formal, dated and gender-specific greeting, the MTA has bid adieu to canned and jargony messages.
Train conductors have been told to steer clear of stiff, off-putting language in a nine-page memo that outlines new ways they can talk to riders that’s “empathetic” to their “frustrations.”
The Nov. 3 memo, which the Daily News obtained, offers lines that can make conductors sound “more human,” as part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s effort to move toward more informative and “cheerful” announcements, said MTA Chairman Joe Lhota.
“Canned messages just don’t work in the world we’re in today,” Lhota told The News. “Let’s explain why there’s a delay.”
The changes to conductors’ scripts cover greetings, routine announcements and delays.
Conductors will also be reminding rude riders about courtesy on the subway “to ask them to partner with us” in making the commute better, like taking backpacks off, staying clear of doors and keeping stations clean of litter, the memo says.
They’ll even play tour guide — the memo has a list of 61 landmarks they can mention at stops, from the Apollo Theater to Yankee Stadium. But only two landmarks can be mentioned in a shift.
“The more information they share, the (more) we’ll be at ease,” said Agustine Diaz, 29, from Astoria, Queens. “This is heading in the right direction.”
Nathalee Yarde, 29, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, said she finds it helpful when conductors tell riders how to get around delays.
“It will help a lot of people, (rather) than to stop conductors and ask conductors what to do,” the Brooklyn woman said.
Riders have already heard changes in the way conductors make announcements.
They were reminding people Tuesday that it was Election Day. On Saturday, they’ll tell straphangers to thank a veteran for Veterans Day, MTA officials said.
The refresher for conductors is part of an agencywide update in how MTA employees such as social media staff and dispatchers communicate with each other about what riders are experiencing, MTA officials said.
“When you hear a live conductor come on and tell you something, there is a sense that somebody’s in charge and somebody cares,” said Andrew Albert, a rider advocate on the MTA board.