The D Train Is The Grossest, But Other Local Lines Only Getting Grosser

The Straphangers Campaign released the findings of their most recent “subway shmutz” survey, and it appears that many of our local lines are getting a little gross.

Back in 2011, the group found that 69% of the F train’s cars were clean. In 2013, though, only 37% were observed to be clean. This puts the F alongside eight other lines that experienced “significant deterioration” between the two studies.

The 2 also had a big drop, from 63% clean to just 29% clean, while the 3 went from 63% to 45%, the 4 from 50% to 46%, and the 5 remained steady at 38%.

The G line dropped slightly from 54% to 52%, while the R remained solid at a grimy 36%.

As for the B and Q, in 2011 59% of cars on each line were considered clean by Straphangers standards, but the B dropped in 2013 to a 40% cleanliness rating while the Q dropped to 39%.

The good news? Those are not the worst of the bunch. That crown belongs to the D train, which rolled away with a score of just 17%.

The MTA does its own cleanliness survey of the subways, and during its last in second half of 2013, it found that 92% or trains in service were clean. They argue that the Straphangers’s survey methodology is flawed, telling Metro that they’ll look at 250 cars per subway line over a six-month period, compared to the schmutz survey, which looked at 100 cars on each line in a three-month period.

What are you seeing on your commute? How clean would you say our local trains are?