MTA: 150 Subway Stations Will Get Digital Train Timers

By Roy Edroso Fri., Oct. 2 2009 at 10:39 AM

Categories: Featured, The Subway, Transportation

Lucky L train riders have had digital signs telling them when trains are coming (not always accurately, in our experience, but usually close enough for comfort). Now the MTA, which has mainly offered us blood, sweat and tears lately, says on December 2010, if not sooner, they'll start equipping more than 150 stations with train-arrival announcement signs. Digital signs were among the priorities mentioned by Jay Walder when he was being proposed as executive director of the MTA, for which post he was confirmed by the state senate on September 10...

MTA's 2010-2014 capital program calls for "advanced-technology train control system to identify the location of trains" and screens to "broadcast digital audio announcements and display digital text-based announcements." Numbered lines will get theirs before the lettered lines, and stations north of 149th Street in Manhattan will be among the last to get them; other details are unreported, but long years of bitter experience suggest that premium routes will have priority, and the crappy lines on which we live, such as the G, will be among the last so favored. (Also, the Times reminds us, "the transportation authority is not known for making its deadlines.")

MTA introduced a digital clock for buses at a 34th Street bus shelter in August. Photo (cc) Wikipedia.

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