NEW YORK - Overcrowding will no longer be used as the reason New Yorkers' subway rides are delayed. 

Transit president Andy Byford is nixing the overcrowding category when collecting and reporting train delay information.

The shift in data collection will allow the MTA to target slow trains and spotty service issues.

The MTA says it's working to update subway equipment and signals, which currently limits the amount of trains that run every hour.

This creates gaps in between trains.

A new category of delays called "operating environment" will be created. 

The MTA says it will be the umbrella group for overcrowding and other unassigned delay causes.