When the MTA unveiled their latest iteration of the subway map a few years ago, they did so with a caveat. The confusing service status box, detailing various changes at different times of day, disappeared, and the map was intended to represent peak-hour and midday service during the week only. A short-lived Night Map was available, depicting overnight service, and weekend changes are handled via signage and The Weekender. Last week, though, the status box made a triumphant and streamlined, albeit still flawed, return.

As many have noted and as I photographed last week, in addition to the reopened Montague St. Tunnels, the September printing of the subway map also contains a new guide to weekend and overnight service. Using subway bullets and better descriptors, the guide presents information in an easy-to-digest format. It lacks information — such as when these so-called “late night” service patterns begin — that isn’t readily available in the system. For some reason, the MTA hasn’t been keen to announce last trains on routes that don’t run 24 hours or when exactly, say, the D train will start running local in Brooklyn. That’s just something regular riders pick up, and the new feature doesn’t cover the gap.

Still, this is a welcome return of an old feature that shouldn’t have gone away in the first place. It’s not perfect, but it’s information that people need to ride. Otherwise, they may find themselves simply too confused by the subway map to make heads or turns of our ostensibly complicated network. Don’t believe me? Just talk to Bim Adewunmi instead.

If this looks familiar to some, it’s because this is a story I covered via an Instagram posting a few days ago but didn’t have a chance to write up until now. Follow Second Ave. Sagas on Instagram for more sights and scenes from the city’s subways.