Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Airport; Human Factors; Procedure
During taxi out in LGA to runway 13 for departure; LGA Ground instructed to enter runway 13/31 at taxiway J and to proceed down runway 31 and hold short of the 'main intersection.' The FO (First Officer) and I had no idea what the ground controller meant when he said hold short of the 'main intersection.' We queried the controller about what intersection we needed to hold short of and he replied; 'the intersection; the main intersection; the big one.' At this point we just assumed he meant to hold short of runway 4/22 since runway 22 was the landing runway in use.A few minutes later; the same controller cleared us to cross the 'main intersection.' We again assumed he meant runway 4/22 and crossed as instructed. Looking back; this was a stupid decision on my part because; although that was what the controller wanted; he failed to use proper phraseology again and never gave us a proper clearance to cross 4/22.I heard the controller give several other aircraft on parallel taxiways the instruction to cross the 'main intersection' when he meant runway 4/22. The lack of standard and acceptable phraseology from LGA local and ground controller is an ongoing problem and never seems to get rectified. This particular situation was an egregious violation of the FAA Order 7110.65 and presents a safety hazard to aircraft. At no time should a controller instructing an aircraft to hold short of or to cross a runway be omitting the runway number and using something like 'main intersection.'This event occurred because the LGA controllers on a regular basis do not use standard phraseology as outlined in the 7110.65. It causes confusion among pilots at a busy airport that frequently has frequency congestion. It makes it difficult to understand instructions and causes poor communication between pilots and ATC.The LGA controllers really need to be re-educated on proper phraseology. Issues such as these at LGA have been reported several times and unfortunately there have been no positive changes that I have observed with those controllers.
Air Carrier Captain reported LGA Controllers routinely use nonstandard phraseology causing confusion understanding taxi instructions.