Even the chairman of the MTA forgets to check for subway diversions before he goes out on weekends.

Jay Walder told a group of business leaders on Monday that last weekend, he ended up at the Herald Square station, trying to figure out how to get to a theater in the East Village after his train took a detour. Walder says the MTA won't stop weekend work, but promised the authority will improve how it communicates those diversions to riders.

"As much as I might want to suggest that everybody should check before they go, many people do not and we want to take the frustration away from them in doing that," he said.

Walder appeared at a Crain's New York Business breakfast. He didn't give a timetable, but said officials are trying to get trains to announce the route changes when passengers board, and also to install digital signs outside of stations warning about diversions. As many as 18 out of 19 subway lines have seen service diversions in recent weekends. The MTA says that's because the fall is one of the best times to do construction improvements.