NYC subway: Massive improvement in the past 2 years

Why so much about NYC? Because I am traveling there right now.

Asia has some pretty incredible subway an elevated trains. So good in-fact that when I return to USA I am a bit ashamed of it. To be fair to Chicago / NYC / and Boston, their train systems have been around a really long time, so we have to make some allowances.

The New York subway certainly isn't going to win any awards for cleanliness anytime soon. I'm pretty sure every elevator has recently been peed in and well, it just looks dingy. It is a bit unfair to compare the two but I think part of it is that the Asian subways have very strict rules and actually enforce them (which is ironic since they enforce nearly zero street laws.)

However, i am not here to complain about the NYC train system because it has been dramatically improved since I was here last (which was about 2.5 years.) It is far more user-friendly for non-residents than it was a few years back. Previously, when you would arrive at the NYC airport shuttle that connects to the NYC subway system it stopped being at all helpful immediately after you left the airport grounds.

There would be no indication inside the train about which stop you were at, which direction you were going and which stop was next except for a guy talking on a microphone... and he didn't care if you understood him or not. it would sound like "mmfferrrappherrrmackeraaab" as all the non New-Yorkers frantically look out the windows only to miss their stop.

Fast-forward to today, where most of the trains i have been on so far have a digital system built into multiple parts of the train that show

1. where you are
2. which stops are coming up next
3. which direction the train is heading

Also, on the platforms they have digital countdown that display helpful information. At the moment it is only in English and if that were to change it would likely be for Spanish, but still, this is so much more helpful than the NOTHING we used to receive on these platforms.

They also have digital kiosks where you can receive route information.. These are not everywhere, but they are in heavily traveled tourist areas. Compare this with a few years ago where the most helpful thing i could find was a normally overweight person in a bullet-proof box, who refused to speak into the microphone and wasn't terribly interested in helping me.

Also, there is free Wi-Fi everywhere in the stations with scannable QR codes that can help visitors even more. It doesn't work between stations as of yet.

tl ; dr

The NYC subway probably can't improve it's stations and the overall layout of the tracks and what not because they are entirely too busy, but the helpful electronic changes they are making to the stations are a massive improvement over just a few years ago. Now if they could just convince people to not pee in the elevators.