So there are new subway cars running on the N line. These cars are known as the R-160 and offer a bunch of neat technological features like a totally electronic route map.  The problem is that the crews don’t seem to know how to properly use the features of these new trains.

When trains are behind schedule, they might send an N train express from Astoria Boulevard to Queens Plaza.  When this happens, the conductors have no idea how to modify the route map to reflect the express route of the train.

The first time I experienced this, we got to Queens Plaza and the annoucement was “This is a Manhattan Bound N train, the next stop is Astoria Boulevard.”  People boarding the train had NO idea what was going on.  Was it going to Manhattan?  Was it going back to Astoria?  Realizing that the announcement was due to operator error I just told people that it was going into Manhattan and that it was a problem with the automated announcement.

Today, same situation.  Express train from Astoria Blvd. to Queens Plaza.  First, the conductor turns off the route map.  Then he turns it back on, but it says we are not stopping at Queens Plaza.  Then the route map goes off again.  Then it’s back on again.  Then off.   Then on for good measure.  During the ride from Queens Plaza to Lex/59th, the automated announcements told us that we were stopping at 57th street and 49th street all while under the East River!

Seems like some conductors need a refresher course on these new trains and how to control the route maps when their train is given orders to take a diverging route.