Smelly, dirty bathroom? Metro-North inviting customers to notify railroad cleaning team

Metro-North Railroad would like you to let them know if their bathrooms are stinky.

The commuter rail this week rolled out a pilot program that allows customers to notify the railroad immediately when they encounter a smelly or dirty bathroom.

It works like this.

Posters with QR codes affixed to the walls of select station and train car bathrooms on the New Haven, Harlem and Hudson lines can be scanned for a quick survey.

Survey options include bad odor and toilet, walls, sink or floors that need cleaning or are out of toilet paper, towels or soap. Each bathroom has its own QR code and customers can add photos.

The response is relayed to the railroad’s cleaning team and a return email lets customers know Metro-North’s cleaning team is on it.

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“Creating a superior customer experience is a priority at Metro-North ,” said Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi. “This pilot program gives our customers the opportunity to inform us, in real time, if there’s a problem with a bathroom and allows our employees to resolve it as quickly as possible.”

The information is catalogued so the railroad can adjust cleaning schedules and increase coverage.

Metro-North’s sister commuter rail, the Long Island Rail Road, introduced an identical system in July.

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Thomas C. Zambito covers energy, transportation and economic growth for the USA Today Network’s New York State team. He’s won dozens of state and national writing awards from the Associated Press, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Deadline Club and others during a decades-long career that’s included stops at the New York Daily News, The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Record of Hackensack. He can be reached at tzambito@lohud.com.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Smelly, dirty bathroom? Metro-North inviting customers to notify railroad cleaning team