NYPIRG Straphanger’s Campaign released its 2007 Subway Shmutz report yesterday and found the L line to be the cleanest.

(New York, New York) – The number of clean subway cars improved slightly since 2005, according to the ninth annual "subway shmutz" survey by the Straphangers Campaign, released today.

The
best performing line was the L, with 88% of its cars rated clean, up
from 61% two years ago.  Tied for second best line was the 7, with 78%
clean cars up from 22% clean cars in 2005.

Both the L and 7 are in a new car cleaning initiative.

Starting
in mid-September 2007, "additional cleaners were deployed at both
terminals for these lines, working in multiple shifts to provide
24-hour coverage," according to MTA New York City Transit. Beginning on
December 10, 2007, two new "line general managers" were appointed with
greater authority to run the L (Greg Lombardi) and the 7 (Lou Brusati).

The survey was conducted on 2,200 subway cars on 22 subway lines between September 20, 2007 and January 11, 2008.

Campaign
surveyors rated 50% of subway cars as "clean," a small statistical
improvement from 47% of cars rated clean in a survey conducted in the
winter of 2005. (No survey was released for 2006 so as not to rate New
York City Transit’s new administration too early.)

The
worst performing lines were the E and Q, with the smallest number of
clean cars at 29% each.  The E performed worst in our survey two years
ago, with 2% of its cars rated clean.