MTA wnts 2 snd txt msgs 4 srvice alrts

Following last week’s communications debacle on Wednesday, the MTA is looking to establish a real-time text message alert system for service delays, amNY reported today.

Marlene Naanes has more:

Text messages alerting passengers that a train is not running are far from reality, but a task force the MTA created after last week’s transit meltdown is looking into the possibility. The group — the response to a gubernatorially ordered 30-day investigation — is also looking at possible real-time email alerts for New York City Transit riders.

“We are going to be looking at all of the electronic ways to communicate including text messaging,” said Chris Boylan, deputy executive director of MTA corporate and community affairs. “I think that the issue is not that we want to do it but what the technological limits are.”

While the writing in this amNY story is among the worst I’ve ever seen in a daily newspaper, that’s beside the point. As I noted earlier this week, text message and e-mail alerts are a reality in other transit systems. It couldn’t be that hard for the MTA to implement a similar feature.

But I have a better idea. Why not subcontract out an alert system? There are plenty of enterprising folks on the Internet who could design a text message alert system for the MTA. I bet the folks at Dodgeball could manipulate their service to serve a similar function for train lines. Text a train line to a number and get back a service alert.

It couldn’t really be that simple, right?