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Subway riders have come to accept their cell phones do not usually work in the subway, though sometimes they get lucky when reception leaks below ground.

What riders may not expect is that trying to use a subway pay phone is also a gamble, as about one in four do not work properly, according to the latest report from rider advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign.

"I stopped using pay phones about two years ago," said one subway rider. "It wasn't working."

Many straphangers who spoke with NY1 said they rarely, if ever, use the pay phones anymore. But at the same, they all agreed they serve an important function.

"There are times where you need to make an emergency call and that's the nearest thing you have, instead of running back upstairs," said a straphanger.

"It's always important just to have a safety net there, no matter what," said another.

"For the system we have right now, where you know, a large portion of it is underground, we have to make sure that those pay phones are working so that people can reach the outside world," said a third.

Altogether, the Straphangers Campaign tested nearly 1,000 pay phones at 100 randomly selected stations, and found 26 percent were non-functioning for one reason or another. In 2007, the survey found 29 percent did not work.

Surveyors also went to the 25 most-highly trafficked stations in the system, and found just one of them, the Flushing-Main Street stop on the Number 7 line, had all its phones in working order.

As for cell phones, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had announced plans to wire all subway stations for cell phones by 2013. But as NY1 reported last week, that project is stalled indefinitely, which means, working or not working, subway pay phones are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

In response to the survey, the MTA says it works with Verizon to keep the phones operating, and that 95 percent of problems are fixed within a day after they're reported.

The agency also says subway phones are a popular target of vandals.