After rehabilitating a number of subway stations serving the New York City transit system, and in anticipation of more station rehabilitation efforts, New York City Transit (NYCT) wished to identify station amenities that are most important to current and potential riders of the New York City subway system.

RSG designed and administered a questionnaire, and also conducted focus group sessions for ten rehabilitated NYCT stations throughout the five boroughs. The topics for the questionnaire and focus groups included typical satisfaction elements of a station, as well as difficult trade-offs, such as whether customers prefer a shorter, complete station closure for station renovation versus a partial closure (with some reduction in service) over a longer duration. Use of both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection allowed RSG to engage in robust research efforts throughout the system to best evaluate subway riders’ satisfaction with subway rehabilitation, and their preferences for how NYCT should conduct future rehabilitation efforts.