Surviving the snow storm

A snow thrower at the Howard Beach station in Queens helped keep the above-ground subway tracks cleared of snow. (Photo courtesy of NYCTSubwayScoop)

When Mother Nature decides to dump a foot of snow on New York City, travel becomes treacherous. Street corners turn to snow-blocked slushy pits; cars inch slowly down slippery streets; the subways run at slower speeds. Everyone is cold and wet, and they all just want to get to where they have to be.

For New York City Transit and the MTA, the weather has posed problems in the past. Most notable was an August 2007 storm that knocked out nearly every subway line. The subsequent panic and search for information also killed the MTA’s website for a few hours that day. Straphangers couldn’t get up-to-date information on service changes, and millions of New Yorkers were left searching for answers.

That day served as a catalyst for the MTA. Never again could the agency be left without a communications plan. Never again could the agency fail at providing up-to-date route changes and comprehensive travel information. That day, in fact, spurred the MTA into action, and as real-time Internet-based communications has exploded over the last few years with the advent of Twitter and Facebook, among others, the MTA has vastly improved its web presence.

Yesterday’s snow storm is the perfect example of the way the MTA communicates and how things have improved in just over two and a half years. As snow set in on Tuesday night, the new-look MTA website was updated to feature a prominent winter weather advisory, and the individual agencies hosted their own inclement weather plans as well. People navigating to the MTA’s site could easily and rapidly figure out how the storm was impacting the subway system.

Meanwhile, for those who dug a little deeper, the MTA and its agencies communicated via social media outlets as well. The NYCT Subway Scoop Twitter feed kept its followers up to date on storm preparedness and service changes. NYCT Bus Stop had the latest on surface transit, and MTA Insider served as a clearing house for the latest on Transit, Metro-North and LIRR. Amidst the storm, MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder took the time to record a video update on the status of MTA service.

Of course, many of these outlets have only a limited reach. To find the MTA and Transit on Twitter, one must first be on Twitter and following these accounts. The social media accounts, however, are linked from the MTA’s website, and after years of corporate silence from the MTA in light of weather disasters, this transparency and outpouring of information is welcome indeed.

Right now, the information is out there, and people who navigate to the website looking for the latest won’t find the same 404 errors we used to see. Today, the MTA can feel good about its efforts at improving. It may just be one small area of customer service, but it shows a level of care and attention to its customers that has long been lacking at the authority.