Suspicious activity is about the only creative announcement the PA CIS system is capable of broadcasting. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
For the past few years, I have been an unabashed supporter of the MTA’s new countdown clocks. The system, available in most A Division stations, is based on a signalling system that can assess where along the signal blocks and also how far away the next train is. Ostensibly, the system is flexible as well as the CIS part of PA/CIS allows the MTA to provide customer information to certain stations from a centralized location. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work like that.
Last night, I had one of those moments that I often have at Nevins St. when something goes wrong with the subway system that could have easily been avoided. It’s happened often and usually it involves headways that are improperly spaced or an announcement that should have been made. Last night, it was the latter.
This story begins as my tales from Nevins St. often do: on a 4 train on the way back from Yankee Stadium. It was around 11:30 when we pulled into Nevins, and the PA/CIS clocks said the next local train was eight minutes away. Usually, I would just walk home from Atlantic in the face of an eight-minute wait, but I was tired and had a good book with me. So I waited.
As I waited out those eight minutes for the 3 train (with a 2 train just two minutes behind), another 4 came and went at Nevins St., and no signs of a problem emerged. The 3 arrived on time and inched its way to Atlantic Ave. I noticed something was wrong when it hit the switch and wound up on the express tracks. Only then did the conductor announce that all trains were running express from Atlantic Ave. to Franklin Ave. due to track work.
Now, this was not an unplanned service change. Had I read the service alerts before leaving or had I walked to the other end of the Nevins St. platform to inspect the one sign hanging there, I would have seen it. But I didn’t. Instead, I waited. I waited as the automated PA/CIS announcements alerted me to approaching trains. I waited in sight of a countdown clock that not once warned passengers of a service change. I waited near a column that had no hanging signs. In fact, only until I walked past Bergen Street — a station closed because of the service change — did I see a sign warning of the 11 p.m. start time.
Over the years, I’ve written about the MTA’s need to focus on its customer. The authority has taken great strides in the realm of technology, but it hasn’t yet bridged the gap between active and passive information. The conductor on my original 4 train should have warned riders that there would be no local service between Atlantic and Franklin Aves. The conductor on the next 4 train should have said the same thing, and the MTA, which has the ability to do so, should have programmed the PA/CIS monitor to announce the change. For nearly ten minutes, I waited in Nevins St. with no visible or audible sign of an impending service change.
Ultimately, last night, I learned a lesson I should have learned a long time ago. Even if there are no individual signs, it’s best to check the service advisories at any time of day. Still, the MTA should learn a lesson too from the numerous irate customers who found out about the change after standing around Nevins St. for ten minutes: Information is key. With new technologies, Transit can better alert its riders to service changes, and they can take an active role in doing so. That is, after all, why the new devices are called Public Address/Customer Information Signs. It’s in the name.
18 comments
The problem with PA CIS is that the screen is too small. Monday evening when the ABCD were disrupted from the water main break, the MTA was running a ticker informing people of the disruption and alternate routes.
The problem is this monopolized the 2nd row of the display. I was on a 1 train pulling into Chambers street heading uptown, normally I check the display to see how long until the next 2/3 will arrive before deciding if I want to get out and wait for the express. But since the first row only showed that my 1 was in the station and the 2nd row was displaying a warning about another line I wasn’t using, there was no way to know when the next train would arrive until my 1 pulled out. There was no way to make an informed transfer decision until it was too late and the PA ICS was useless for me. In the end I decided to transfer and made the right call, but I easily could have been screwed. If the displays are only two rows, the MTA needs to be very careful about using those rows for anything beyond upcoming trains.
The actual signs themselves are smaller than those WMATA and BART use, and of a much lower quality. Thus, displaying messages results in a blurry mess, with only one line to display said message if one remains for train listings. WMATA and BART’s are a lot sharper. I know BART’s signs are Daktronics, not sure who manufactures WMATA’s and MTA’s. I’d like to know how much the MTA saved by cheaping out with these signs.
Telecite makes them. The signs are much more capable of than what the MTA has ever put on them. Maybe the MTA didn’t pay for the “premium” software package to drive the displays.
Watch an example of the display in its home country (Canada) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Well, figures. Are we sure that’s the same display model though? If it is, it is in fact a big fail.
Yeah, but those displays are in French. What good would they be here? 😉
Except for the scrolling text, how would any of that be useful in its application here?
Just the scrolling text will do. Maybe show an ad once in a while (hey, it’s money). For me it’s really just the size (maybe have it big enough for 3-4 lines) and the lackluster quality of the ones the MTA has.
No ads, please – this is time-sensitive information. Avi isn’t the only one who needs to know (in a matter of seconds) whether to stay on the local or to wait for the express.
Ads can go elsewhere.
Most frustrating is when the second row is telling me that my bag may be checked – during the precious seconds that I need to decide if I should wait for the express. Or when, on a southbound platform in Brooklyn, it’s telling me about an outage on the Pelham line. General “public service announcements” should never run when trains are pulling in, and service advisories should be played only at locations where they might possibly be relevant.
In this case, I would pin the blame primarily on the conductors, who should be announcing relevant changes on connecting lines (and in this case, the conductors can’t even claim they didn’t know about the GO). I’ve unfortunately found that, in the age of automated announcements, conductors have grown increasingly lazy.
Doesn’t every station have a complete list of planned service changes? Of course, that doesn’t help if you don’t think to look at it.
I’m going to go ahead and say this should’ve been on the insides of the NTT trains instead of pretty pictures, displaying general information and service changes while the ceiling displays and FIND still provide information on where the train is going.
Credit to pete for pointing this out.
I agree, but the subway cars have no means of communication with the outside world. (Changing the transfer lists or prerecorded announcements requires bringing the car to the shop and plugging in a laptop!)
Ideally, the display inside the car would not only show service changes, it would also show when connecting services will be arriving (based on PA/CIS data).
But regardless of all the fancy displays, the conductor is ultimately responsible for the announcements on his train. If they are inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading, it is his job to get on the PA and clarify.
It is his job, but the union (Sad, too, I generally support unions, but this one is a joke) will make sure the conductors that don’t bother to even half-ass announcements get the same treatment as the ones who give passengers every ounce of info they need. And CBTC would’ve made communicating some of that info possible, at least the L could’ve had this.
Communication is key, and if there’s one major thing the MTA lacks, it is that. Same story when waiting for an (L) train at Grand Street at 11:30pm on a Friday night a couple weekends ago. Of course the service change is listed on the website and on signs at every station as starting at 12:01am on Saturday, but for some reason the dispatcher stopped all train service well before that. If I had known that, I would have left for my destination sooner, instead I had to walk to the (G) train. The best part was my interaction with the station agent who knew that the change was supposed to go into affect at 12:01am on Saturday; he was as nonplussed as I to see no more (L) service.
The dispatcher has nothing to do with it – the trains run on a schedule, and after the last scheduled train goes by, there are no more.
Sounds like a mismatch between the supplement schedule and the signs. Have you reported it?
Completely off topic, but people who lurk on this site may find this guy interesting:
http://vanishingnewyork.blogsp.....-mind.html
ben, totally off topic as well, if this is considered a rant, webster’s needs to change the definition immediately. loved this post – i have no idea how you can be so calm and collected sometimes. lol. this would of driven me crazy. especially if it was a station i frequent regularly. cheers buddy.
These signs, while they may be nice, don’t really help riders get to their destinations any faster or keep the subways any cleaner.
A few times I’ve noticed them (there are SO many signs), but the way I use the subway didn’t rely on them before and still won’t.
I wonder how much soap and water those antiquated signs would have bought. Of course, the mop don’t work itself…
I found your post a little funny because a few days ago I had to wait at the Bowling Green station for an uptown 4 train, and I was getting annoyed at how *often* they were announcing (verbally and with the scrolling text) that the 4/3 were traveling express in Brooklyn. It seems NYCT is in a lose-lose situation because no matter how often they announce service changes, there will always be at least one rider who doesn’t get the info. And no matter how infrequently they announce service changes, it will always be heard by someone who doesn’t need the info.
The real solution is pushing forward on mobile communications and making the service changes available in real time APIs so that developers can build apps that warn you when your ride is changed.
Until then, maybe the MTA could come up with a symbol next to the train name/destination on the CIS displays for when the service has been changed? What about a red or orange colored astrix after the final destination if there are going to be service changes en route? That way, the rider can then go and check the board, the web, etc. for more info.