At Spring St., the PA/CIS countdown clock reminds straphangers that the system is still in the testing phases. (Photo via New York City Transit)

New York City Transit’s efforts at bringing late-20th century technology to its decidedly early 20th century subway system hit a milestone this week as the agency turned on the PA/CIS countdown clocks at the 40th station. The rollout will eventually include the 152 numbered line stations that make up the A Division, and Transit is now more than halfway to its goal of 75 stations for 2010.

“These countdown clocks are another way we are fundamentally changing the customers’ experience using our system by connecting them with 21st century technological advances,” MTA Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder said in a statement. “Despite tough economic times, we continue to move forward in modernizing our communications network, finding creative and affordable ways to better service the riding public.”

In the release touting this progress, the MTA ran through the typical lines. The screens are located before the turnstiles and on platforms. They take the guesswork and the age-old technique of peering down the track into a dark tunnel to discern the lights of an approaching train. The screens provide a way for the MTA to communicate with its riders in case of emergency or unscheduled delays. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

The real benefits are psychological, and Transit president Thomas Prendergast touched upon this aspect of the project. “We are moving ahead steadily with this vital customer information initiative,” he said. “With the PA/CIS screens activated on a regular basis across the system, more and more subway riders will be able to just look up and see when their train will arrive.”

It’s tough to underestimate how comforting it is to be able to just look up and know when the next train is coming. I know from experience. Since my semester ended and the summer job started, I’ve gone from taking B Division trains from Brooklyn into Manhattan to riding the 2/3 from Grand Army Plaza to the 4/5/6 stop at City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge. The countdown clocks at Grand Army Plaza were activated in early June, and they have been a calming revelation.

When I get to the station now, I can check the sign before swiping in, and when I alight on the platform, the sign is right there counting down the time. I don’t have to peer, and I find myself growing much less impatient with the wait when the minutes are melting away. It’s still a novelty to see the train arrive on time, but it’s much less stressful to know that the train that is supposedly three minutes away will actually arrive in three minutes. No more waiting for the piercing shrill of the sign informing us that a Brooklyn- or Manhattan-bound train may be approaching; no more hoping for the lights in the tunnel to grow brighter. I don’t have this luxury at City Hall, and I find myself tapping my toe more often than not before the packed rush hour trains arrive.

Of course, the system isn’t quite perfect, and that’s why I say I’m guardedly praising it. The signs at both Nevins St. and Grand Army Plaza are bugging. The Nevins St. signs present a challenge for the MTA because it is one of the few express stops where the PA/CIS system has been activated. With the 4 and the 5 arriving across the platform from 2 and 3 trains, the signs often contain bad information, and when a train is nearly about to enter the station, the numbers start jumping around. Furthermore, during special announcements from the NYPD, the countdown for the next train freezes. The MTA assures me they will examine this issue, but it’s an alarming one nonetheless from an organization that has struggled with technological adaptation.

For now, the MTA remains on track to bring this technology — one enjoyed internationally for decades — to the IRT lines by mid-2011. The B Division stations remain in limbo as low-budget tests continue while high-tech solutions remains impossibly expensive. Until that day arrives, I’ll stick with my stress-free waits along the A Division. For all the bugs, the signs, promising an end to a long wait on a hot, sticky platform, truly do make traveling slightly more pleasurable.

While Cablevision and its proposal to equip the LIRR and Metro-North with WiFi carries with it a big brand name — and many skeptical engineers — another wireless provider has announced details of its proposal to bring wireless connectivity to the area’s commuter rails. NYFI, a self-proclaimed “neutral host” provider, says it will bring free WiFi to Metro-North and the LIRR, something Cablevision has not promised.

The details of NYFI’s proposal are scarce. Noting, however, that its service would “not require users to subscribe to a service like Cablevision to access the system without paying,” the company had the following to say in a release this afternoon:

Rather than using a pay-for-service model where user fees fund on board Wi-Fi, the NYFI approach would first assist the MTA by paying for an operational revamp of the MTA’s revenue generating activities, like advertising. The revamp would be led by highly experienced firms. The results are expected to more than cover costs associated with the free Wi-Fi system, yielding increased annual revenue to the MTA, while reducing costs.

NYFI, according to the release, is a free service sponsored by Mobilite, a leading private telecom infrastructure company. It owns one of the largest fiber optic networks in Manhattan and wireless assets nationwide.

As of now, only NYFI and Cablevision has announced their intentions to compete for the MTA’s contract publicly. Reportedly, AT&T, RailBand Group LLC and Mastech Enterprises submitted proposals prior to the RFP’s June 2nd deadline. The MTA has not set a timeline for awarding the contract and has yet to comment on these proposals.

As the MTA looks to equip its commuter rail trains with WiFi access, a major player in the New York telecom scene has entered the fray. Cablevision, owner of Optimum Online, wants to extend its burgeoning WiFi network onto the trains. The company says it can accomplish a rollout in 12 months at no cost to the MTA.

“Access to the Internet on MTA trains will transform the riding experience, and we believe Cablevision is uniquely positioned to deliver this enhancement through the extension of Optimum WiFi – already the nation’s largest and most advanced WiFi network – onto the rails,” John Bickham, Cablevision’s president of cable and communications, said in a statement. “As a New York-based company already providing popular WiFi access at nearly 200 MTA commuter rail stations we propose to deploy wireless Internet access across the entire MTA system within 12 months of selection, at no cost to the Transportation Authority or taxpayers.”

In a press release, Cablevision touted the high points of its proposal:

Under Cablevision’s proposal, submitted to the MTA today, the company would provide unlimited free access to its Optimum Online high-speed Internet customers and would provide a reasonable access option for non-customers. Cablevision would assume all costs associated with extending its Optimum WiFi network onto the trains and would also create a separate, private and secure, WiFi network exclusively for MTA use…

One of the key advantages of the Cablevision proposal to the MTA is that it provides for trackside WiFi backhaul – connected to Cablevision’s fiber optic wired network – as opposed to cellular transmission, ensuring network availability and sufficient bandwidth for riders. Trackside WiFi backhaul can support more than triple the number of simultaneous users and data capacity than a cellular-only option, promoting customer satisfaction by delivering a positive experience.

According to a Multichannel News report, AT&T, RailBand Group LLC, Mastech Enterprises and Mobilite all submitted RFPs as well prior to the June 2 deadline. The MTA has not yet determined when it will select a carrier, and the authority has not yet put forward a potential timeline for installation and activation of a WiFi network for commuter rail. Needless to say, the sooner the better for New York’s economy and those who need or want to work on the ride home or just surf the Internet.

Updated (4:15 p.m.): As the expensive PA/CIS roll-out continues along the A Division stops, New York City Transit is continuing its attempts at a low-cost solution for a few key B Division stations. The latest to enjoy this new-to-New York technology is the popular Stillwell Ave. terminal at Coney Island.

This past weekend, Transit debuted a series of screens on the station’s four platforms that inform riders which train will be leaving next. As shown above, the screen will display the line information with an arrow pointing toward the next train to depart, as the signs currently in use on the 42nd St. shuttle platforms do. This is, says Transit, Phase I of a larger pilot program that will provide train departure track and time information throughout the popular station.

“Providing easy to understand travel information to our customers is one of our primary goals as we look to introduce cost effective new technology into the system,” Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast said. “While not as sophisticated as what we have in place on the Canarsie L line, or what is going in on the IRT, this next train departure information system is something our customers will come to rely on as they head home from a fun day at Coney Island.”

For now, this solution — engineered and installed in-house with the system supplied by SolariUSA — will feature four 32-inch high-definition, sun-readable LCD screens in the middle of each track. The signs will be activated by the dispatches at Coney Island. This initial pilot features track-specific signs, but according to Transit, later phases will incorporate a larger screen near the fare-control area that displays track and time departure information in the form of a reverse countdown similar to those information boards used by commuter rails. Transit is, in other words, trying to take the guesswork out of Stillwell Ave., and riders will no longer have to use their powers of ESP to determine if, say, the Manhattan-bound N or D will be leaving before the Q or F.

As yet, there is no timeline for the future phases of this project, and the MTA has yet to release a cost estimate. It is, however, a much-needed addition to the Coney Island terminal.

After the jump, another view of the new screens. Read More→

At times, I often think that Felix Unger and Oscar Madison got along better than the MTA and technology do. For various reasons — some more legitimate than others — the MTA has seen nearly every other major international public transportation network pass it by in the way technology is deployed, and the authority has struggled with bringing its own projects on line. Countdown clocks, long a standard feature in other systems, are only now being slowly phased in, and Transit let slip yesterday that the rollout along the A Division stations won’t be completed until May 2011, one month later than recently anticipated.

Yet, despite these technological troubles, we can still dream of a better future. Sitting at our computers without the reality of the complexities of integrating technology into a system that is nearly 110 years at parts, we can explore what others are doing to make our commutes easier.

To that end, enter 4-id creative network, a Barcelona-based transportation design firm. In a blog post earlier this month, the 4-id team unveiled schematics for an LCD screen system that tells passengers how to board trains. This isn’t a simplistic instruction schematic. Rather, the technology scans subway cars to highlight which areas of the train are emptiest and which still have seats.

“With this new information,” the company explains, “people can better choose what carriage to board depending on their needs. A simple but attractive graphic shows users the amount of people that are on each carriage and which of them are accessible for Trolleys, Bicycles and Wheelchairs users. To complement this information a light strip is located along the platform that will also give the occupational density of the carriages in ‘real’ scale.”

Let’s take a look:

The system, 4-id says, uses either imaging sensors placed inside train cars or “artificial vision software applied to existing security cameras” to render graphical representations of the crowds. The screens — a close-up is shown below — can be reconfigured to include a variety of transit system-specific functions including service alerts, advertisements and news.

As I see what transportation firms are doing with forward-looking transit technology, I have to wonder if the MTA’s approach isn’t inclusive enough. While it’s true that the agency is short on money right now, I believe the authority should have been looking beyond preexisting technology as it rolled out its countdown clocks. Those clocks that are currently coming online along the IRT routes are definitely helpful, but the technology isn’t new. London’s Underground and Washington’s Metro, for example, have had the clocks for over a decade.

Instead, Transit could have tried to implement something with a component that added a “wow” factor and moved the technology forward. In installing something old, the technology will be out of date before it’s even activated in many stations. Lately, Transit’s outlook on technology has improved, but it’s not there yet. For now, then, we’ll just be playing catch-up while other systems may look further into the transit-riding future with help from 4-id and others.

Since late March, when three suspects in an on-board stabbing were not caught on tape because the cameras at Christopher St. aren’t working properly, the MTA’s nascent surveillance system has come under fire. The authority, critics say, has spent tens of millions of dollars on a system that doesn’t work and is three years behind schedule. With a mixture of terrorist threats, station agent dismissals and booth closures fresh on the minds of New Yorkers, the failed camera program has become a very convenient scapegoat for those who worry about the safety of the city’s straphangers.

There is, of course, one small problem: The camera system is a metaphor for the MTA’s technological woes and not a comprehensive solution to securing a porous system. When fully working, camera recordings may improve police response by providing detectives with video evidence of a crime, and an efficient camera system may act as a minor deterrent. But making the system safer requires eyes and officers.

As I’ve noted in the past, the limitations of a camera system are clear. Viewing crimes after they happen aids officers in the hunt for the perpetrators, but only a fictional counter-terrorism unit on FOX’s 24 has the ability to spy on New York City in real time. As former NYPD commissioner Howard Safir said a few weeks ago, “There are so many entrances, so many stations, so many people. It’s virtually impossible to guarantee that [the subway system] won’t be vulnerable.”

Yet, there is a lesson to learn from the camera saga, and Pete Donohue of the Daily News delves into the MTA’s technological failures today. It a nutshell, the MTA’s current problem is one of cost. As Donohue relates, an original $15-million plan to install 910 cameras at 32 stations and record the goings-on has taken over four years to get off the ground, and the price tag is now a cool $21.3 million or $23,000 per camera. He continues:

The problems with the MTA’s surveillance cameras, watchdogs say, stretch from top to bottom. Different types of camera equipment have been installed by different contractors under the oversight of different MTA units. Some were hooked up as part of station rehabilitations while others fell under anti-terror programs, with different arms of the MTA overseeing them…

The $23,000 camera debacle came about, critics say, because the agency wanted to raise the bar on its camera system – but raised it too high. While a previous project to install 16 cameras in 60 stations stored recordings on site, NYC Transit wanted contractor TAP Electrical to store all recordings from the 910 cameras – about 28 per station – on a network created by a new company.

The agency believed the new network would be able to handle the larger amount of data and enable information to be transmitted digitally, NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said. Only it didn’t work out. There were technical glitches, and attempts by the start-up company to fix the software failed, Fleuranges said. Then the start-up went belly up.

This is a similar story to the one we know about the MTA’s cellular service pilot as well. The agency picked a start-up formed for the sole purpose of wiring the subways and one with little experience under its belt or a track record to its name. Similar to this camera plan, the cell service pilot went nowhere fast, and the MTA found itself with a bill and no progress as other subway systems throughout the world increased their underground wireless connectivity.

With Jay Walder at the helm, the authority has started to focus more on technological integration and transit in New York City, but Walder also has to carry the burden of cleaning up previous mistakes. Eventually, this summer, the cameras will be plugged into a recording system, but the project will finish three years later than planned. This is technological innovation at its worst, and Walder could create a legacy for himself if he can figure out how to improve the MTA’s relationship with the 21st century.

Late last summer, before Jay Walder took the reins at the MTA, I wrote a long piece about how the transit authority was struggling to cope in an age of open information. The MTA, I claimed, had overstepped its legal rights in a pair of showdowns with iPhone app developers who were exploiting schedule data for the benefit of commuters, and instead of fighting with these programmers and entrepreneurs, I believed the MTA should be working with them to make more transit information available.

When Walder came in and the MTA unveiled its new website, it was clear that the agency was on the verge of an information revolution. With the new site design came mounds of publicly-available transit data that developers coud use as they see fit. “We need to get out of our own way and instead get out in front of the data sharing revolution,” Walder said at the time. “By making access to our data directly from our website, we are encouraging the developer community to do the work we can’t to create apps that benefit our customers at no cost to the MTA.”

Now, the agency is set to work with these developers to get a better sense of about the future of open transportation data. The MTA and Google will be hosting an Unconference for Developers on May 5 at Google headquarters in Chelsea. Anil Dash will host the event, and it will include a panel discussion, breakout sessions and, reportedly, the release of more transit data. Panelist speakers will include Walder, Derek Gottfrid of The New York Times, Bernhard Seefled from Google Maps and Nick Grossman from OpenPlans.

For more on the MTA’s push for open data, check out this amNew York piece, and to register for the conference, follow these directions on the MTA’s site. I’m amidst my finals this semester right now, but I’ll try to have a report from the conference late next week. This is a very positive step forward for the MTA, and I’m looking forward to the results of this unconference.