The Straphanger’s Campaign has released its ninth annual “Subway Shmutz” cleanliness study. The survey revealed that subway cars are slightly cleaner than in 2005, and that the L train, with an 88% cleanliness rate, is the pick of the, well, litter.

“Passengers on the L and 7 are riding cleaner cars, thanks to more cleaners and better use of them,” said Gene Russianoff, campaign staff attorney. “We congratulate New York City Transit and hope that riders on the other lines will soon be seeing cleaner subway cars.”

The study looked at 2,200 subway cars between September and January, with surveyers tasked with noting a car’s cleanliness. Exactly half of the inspected cars were deemed “clean”, a slight bump from the 47% in 2005.

The worst performers were the E and the Q, both with 29% of their cars considered clean.  But the E can take heart–that’s quite a jump from the 2% clean rate it posted in 2005. (The Straphanger’s Campaign did not do the study in 2006, when it decided the NYC transit administration was too new to put to the test.)

The Subway Shmutz study’s results were vastly different from the Transit Authority’s own study; both use similar methodology, but the Transit Authority decreed that 87% of its cars were clean, compared to the Straphanger’s Campaign’s 50%. (The Campaign is part of NYPIRG.)

While the L train took top honors, the biggest improvement came from the 7 train, which jumped from 22% clean in 2005 to a whopping 78% in 2007–good for second overall.

So pop a little champagne on the 7 train…but be a dear and clean up after yourself.

In today’s commuter news, L train riders will wait until 2010 until an expansion of the L fleet is fully operational, and Yankee fans get their very own Metro-North stop near Yankee stadium around June 2009.

The new station will be a 10-minute walk from the Yankees’ new home, which is currently being built, and will cost around $91 million–about how much Roger Clemens makes while driving his Hummer to the ballpark (metaphor runner-up: About what Jason Giambi spent on human growth hormone from 1998 to present.)

The station isn’t quite a perfect fit for Westchester residents, who as Caren Halbfinger of the Journal News points out, will take the train to 125th, then catch the Yankee train and head back up to the stadium.

Still, it makes raising young Met fans in the borough a little more challenging.