For Your Ears Only: Subway Message Tells Riders To Quiet Music

NEW YORK — The MTA has a message for music lovers: Keep it down. The transit agency reportedly reminded subway conductors last week to tell straphangers that tunes coming through their headphones shouldn't bother anyone else.

Conductors have to periodically play an announcement telling riders to keep headphones quiet enough that no one else can hear, according to a March 14 bulletin published on Twitter by the nonprofit news outlet THE CITY. They're also supposed to deliver the message whenever they get a report about loud devices or observe them firsthand, the bulletin says.

"Hello. You can help everyone have a great trip. Please use headphones at a volume only you can hear," the announcement tells riders. The MTA gave Patch the announcement's script but did not share a copy of the bulletin.

The MTA says the announcement was first introduced about a year ago, when Chief Customer Officer Sarah Meyer and her staff developed several new messages for the system. Bulletins like last week's are issued routinely, the MTA says, though the agency said it has anecdotally seen more frequent reports of loud music lately.

Some riders wondered why transit officials aren't targeting the scourge of straphangers playing music straight out of their speakers without headphones at all.

"Loud headphones are not the problem these days," Dan Bianco said on Twitter. "The problem is either people on their phones scrolling through Instagram and letting videos play with the sound on... or psychopaths that just listen to music on the phones without headphones."

MTA rules do generally bar riders from blaring any "sound production device," though they are allowed to listen with headphones as long as others can't hear.