More Pointless Message Boards
Posted on December 3rd, 2008 by The SUBWAYblogger in This just in
Looks like the MTA is still installing those pointless LED message boards. The signage is designed to tell passenger when the next train will arrive as well as relay important messages.
The whole project has been a huge joke. Some stations have had them installed for months if not a year or more. The kicker…they’ve never worked.
Time was taken for them to be installed, but so far the system has only been tested.
I noticed that new ones were installed at my home station. They are wrapped in plastic and duct tape right now, so I guess they aren’t ready yet.
Can’t manage to pay the electric bills, but we’re getting these epic boards.
- 7 Comments
- Tags: led message, message boards, mta, platforms, signage, train
Huh? They work OK on the L line. Better than rolling dice, anyway. What line are those new signs on?
I agree that the project has not been an astounding success. Can’t they hire some people from Google or something to run the project?
ReplyThey’ve been putting those signs up slowly for years now. The one at 110 on the (1) line has been there for at least 2 years. Completely blank. After a postman was attack by a psychopath who stole the contractor’s power saw. Way to go, team.
They were supposed to be ready to go years ago on the numbered lines. But for some reason, they put one up on the 96th Street (B)(C) station platforms for no apparent reason. Those lines don’t even (theoretically) support the technology. The station has no escalators, but randomly I saw it lit up once announcing that you should hold your child’s hand on the escalators. And then just… darkness.
It’s not rocket science guys.
ReplyYou’re right, they are pointless and a waste of money. I have found them to be inaccurate at times, especially on the L line, in fact sometimes that system goes wacky. Passengers don’t want to read anything anyway as far as messages are concerned, they are too lazy or too stupid to do something as simple as that. They don’t even read the messages on the MVM machines telling them that there is a problem with the machine before they try to stick their card or money in the machine. They don’t look at any or all of the service disruption posters on the station, they don’t look at the station booth info boards, they don’t look to see that some booths are not full service money booths. They don’t even want to look on a map to get travel directions. They swipe their metrocard by mistake because they never look up to see the signs right up above them. When these people want info I think they would rather get it from an employee.
ReplyWell, I am sure someone pockets money in the meantime……..and these things arent really working just yet….it makes me sick!
ReplyThey installed this on the 96th street 6 train station during the thanksgiving weekend. All wrapped in duct tape. Let’s see how long they take to make it work!
ReplyThe signs on the L train work pretty well. Remember, the time is calculated by the position of the train. So, if a person insists on trying to get on a train while the doors are closing, for example, and delays the train, the time has to be recalculated. Personally, if it is plus or minus a minute, I don’t care, it is nice to now about how long I have to wait.
The MTA is rolling this out for testing on the numbered lines, but IIRC, they have to install them in all of the stations first. That is why you are seeing them installed but not yet operational. Figure 2-3 per station, times 100 or so stations on the numbered lines, = will take some time.
ReplyWaste of money, and seeming rocket science.
ReplyI’ve been following new about the planning & installation of these LED signs. They’re intended to go with the train-automation being (been?) installed on the L line - so they’ll relay information from the computer running the line. It works OK on the L line, but every time I ride that line I wonder - exactly why do I need to know when the train following the next train is due to depart? Maybe at rush hour when the trains are packed, but otherwise, why? And the signs come with automated announcements that repeat the same information as what’s on the signs, presumably because the system had to accommodate blind people to satisfy ADA requirements for all federally-funded projects. No idea how much was spent on it, but I’ll bet it’s a lot more than hiring one full-time, competent, announcer to broadcast trains’ whereabouts. They’ve been slowly installing the signs all along the West Side IRT (the 1,2,3 lines), but there’s no plan (and certainly no money) for automating that line anytime in the foreseeable future, so it’s pretty clear what’s gone on here: MTA procurement graft. They decided to buy & install as many of the new signs as they could get away with, in addition to what was needed on the L line, to grease the contractors’ & vendors’ palms. It’s completely shocking how incompetent the MTA is in how they spend their money, so the idea that they have no money and need a 25 percent fare hike is just insulting to the public’s intelligence.