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The agency has started collecting detailed data on the No. 4 line — the Lexington Avenue express — and another poor performing line, the No. 2, to get at the root of the delays.

The No. 4, which runs from Woodlawn in the Bronx to Crown Heights and Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, reached its destination on time in only 70.1 percent of its runs in May, the new figures show. That was nearly a 12 percent decline from the same month the previous year.

The average on-time performance for the rest of the system was 91.5 percent that same month, a 1.62 percent decline from the previous May, according to the agency.

The No. 4’s average on-time performance for the year was slightly better, at 79.7 percent, a 4.8 percent decrease from the previous 12 months. Over all, the system had a 12-month on-time average of 92 percent, a 1.64 percent decrease from the previous cycle.

Gene Russianoff, staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, a rider advocacy group, said the agency’s on-time numbers probably don’t reflect how late trains are at busier stations. That’s because trains often make up time in less-crowded stretches before reaching the end of the line, where the number is measured, he said.

No. 4 riders say delays are worst between Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan and Union Square.

“It’s getting slower and slower,” said Brian O’Connell, an undergraduate student at New York University who takes the No. 4 to his job as an intern with the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. “One day we stopped at Bowling Green, they told us there was a power outage, we waited 30 minutes and then they said we’re not going anywhere.

“I had to walk to the A-C at Fulton,” he said, referring to the Eighth Avenue line. “That’s an extreme example, but there are delays all the time.”

At the Bowling Green station on Monday, riders let out gasps of frustration and amusement when a station agent’s voice came over the intercom. Because of a stalled train at 59th Street, the agent said, their train would be delayed “16 to 30 hours.” Riders were relieved when the train started moving about six minutes later.

But passengers said those kinds of delays and ambiguous messages were common.

“They tell us to be patient, I have no choice but to be patient,” said Glenva Brown, 46, who takes the train from the Bronx to Bowling Green on weekdays.

Harvey Johnson, 43, an actor, takes the train to a temporary job in the financial district. “There are delays and then there are times when it slows or stops on the tracks and they tell you there’s congestion or track work,” he said. “But you’ve been standing on the platform and you know there hasn’t been a train for 15 minutes, so where’s the congestion?”

Transit officials cite track work, customers holding doors, sick and unruly riders and signal trouble as the leading causes for the delays, based on reports from train crews.

One mystery: Why have delays on the numbered trains, remnants of the city’s former IRT system, increased at nearly double the rate of lettered trains, 30.3 percent versus 15.5 percent?

“It’s almost as if we’re operating two systems,” Mr. Roberts told the board.

A board member, Mark Lebow, called the increases “astonishing,” and asked for quick action.

“I don’t think you can blame increased ridership, because the commuter railroads have the same increased ridership percentages as the subways do, and they seem to be dealing with it,” Mr. Lebow said. “Their on-time performance is at least as good as it was before and sometimes better.”

Mr. Lebow said the problems pointed to a “management issue.”

The distance subway cars travel between mechanical problems was also down a total of 24.75 percent in May, and 5.19 percent over the last 12 months, a downward trend that has continued since 2005 despite older cars being steadily replaced by newer models.

Mr. Roberts attributed part of the problem to cuts to the agency’s maintenance program. Officials did not have specifics Monday on those cutbacks. But Mr. Roberts said the agency was determined to protect maintenance programs.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Subway Delays Rise, and the No. 4 Line Is the Biggest Laggard. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

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assistant: Subway Delays Rise, and the No. 4 Line Is Slowest