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There are always going to be delays on the train. Sick passenger, a crime at a station, someone on the tracks. etc. There is nothing the MTA can do to prevent certain delays. The closer you live to work, the more likely you are to be able to get there in a reasonable time frame. So live close to work, and make sure you are in the habit of getting to work early and you are okay unless something freak happens that shuts the system down for hours.
With that said, you can now call your job or whoever you need to call if there are delays on the train in all the stations now. They had been working on this for awhile, it's good to see it working everywhere.
As for noisy cellphone conversations, if you can't stand to hear people talking then don't take the train and don't live in a crowded city.