7 Train Is City's Most-Improved Subway Line This Year, MTA Says

QUEENS, NY — The 7 train is this year's most-improved subway line in the city, thanks to its fancy new signal technology, the MTA said Monday.

According to the transit authority's own metric, a new measurement called "running time," the 7 and 7 express trains saw the biggest improvement between this year and last year when it comes to how long trains take to travel between stations.

The 7 train's running time was about 3.5 minutes faster last month than it was in November 2018, and about 4.5 minutes faster for the express line, according to the MTA.

"The data doesn't lie," MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick Foye said in a statement. "Our subway service has truly turned around."

The MTA noted in a press release that it installed a new signal system along the 7 line at the end of last year, though officials didn't directly credit that tech, called communications-based train control, for the improvements.

It's the same signal system that snow has already snarled twice this month, though NYC Transit President Andy Byford says the blame lies not with the technology but with Thales, the company that provided the equipment.

In those cases, snow and slush covered transponders on the 7 line's elevated tracks and thwarted their ability to communicate the exact location of several trains, MTA officials said.