Photo by Benjamin Kabak
Where: The south end of the downtown 6 platform at Bleecker St.
When: Wednesday morning shortly after 11:15 a.m.
Earlier this week, the Bowery Boogie excitedly heralded the arrival of countdown clocks on the Bleecker St. platforms at the Broadway/Lafayette station complex. The clocks along the 6 line, long covered by the MTA, were turned on at the entrances this past week, and I found myself at the station heading down to the City Hall area on Wednesday morning. While most of the countdown clocks were functional, one seemed out of place, and I snapped the above photo.
As you can see from the picture, the customer information board toward the south end of the downtown platform is aligned in a rather amusing direction. Instead of facing the platform so that folks at either end can see it, the clock is facing out toward the track and in toward a blue plywood wall. Unless you’re standing in the few feet of space in between the board and the track, the clock is all but invisible to the rest of the station. In other words, this particular countdown clock isn’t particularly useful.
The MTA has struggled with these clocks at certain stations. A few at 72nd St. and Broadway were obscured by emergency exit signs and low-hanging pipes. Others have faced walls while some have been placed awkwardly near station entrances. By and large, the new system is a success, but now and then, something wrong sticks out like a sore thumb. Why this board was installed in such a strange fashion when the blue plywood has a cutout for it in the first place will remain a mystery until someone comes to realign it.
13 comments
From what I can tell with the evidence in the picture. Even through the cut out there’s not enough clearance to face the board in the proper direction. If that is indeed the case then it never should have been installed in that spot. At least until construction is completed or some alternative should have been used.
I was at the downtown platform of the Houston 1 station last night and noticed the countdown clock was installed behind a “customer assistance intercom” sign so that it was invisible to 90% of the platform, including the turnstiles. How is such a simple act of coordination so difficult for the MTA?
What is, or will be, behind the blue plywood? If it’s an entrance or waiting area of some sort, it makes sense where it is (except for it being 2-sided).
But if that’s not the reasoning behind it, I’m going to bet that the symbol was put sideways on the construction drawing. When the contractor went to install it, he may have noticed something peculiar, but rather than submit an inquiry to the MTA and wait weeks to get a reply, he hung it as the drawing directed him to do, so he could get his money and get out of there.
Maybe they will rotate it after construction is over. Is this transfer and renovation project still supposed to be over by the end of the year?
It’s so that people on the train can check to see how far the next train is behind them. They might be trying to get away from someone on that train, and need to know how much of a head start they have.
Most problematic is that in many stations these clocks are installed past the turnstiles, often times in such a way that they’re only visible once you’ve deposited your fare and entered. This seems to be pretty standard on the L.
The clocks are deliberately installed where you see them. They are beyond the turnstiles so that customers don’t block the turnstiles while they keep looking at the clock. The icea is to pay the fare, enter the system, and then look at the clock down on the platform.
At 86th & Lex, the local tracks are on the upper level and the express tracks are on the lower level of the station. The countdown clocks on the upper level only tell you when the 6 train is arriving, and the clocks on the lower level only tell you when the 4/5 is arriving. Is it not possible to put all 3 on one countdown clock, or is this just incompetence at its finest?
this is my home station and i’ve noticed the same thing. very annoying, esp. as either exp or lcl on the lex cover alot of the same territory and many riders can use either route.
also, the countdown clocks at atlantic avenue IRT used to work – but now they’ve been turned off! showing only date and time! WHY??
atlantic avenue working again tonight 🙂
The countdown clocks show when trains will arrive on the platform they serve. If 4, 5 & 6 trains are running on the upper level, all stopping at the same platform, then the information will iclude all three trains. When you see the information spread out on the two levels, that tells you that the service is pretty much normal for the time of day involved.
I don’t see the problem. If the sign were oriented normally, it wouldn’t be entirely visible from the platform, and the time estimates would be cut off. Better to orient it this way for the time being so that people can walk up to the sign and see what’s going on.
You say this is near the south end platform? That’s where most people enter the platform, so they’ll be walking past this sign anyway. And presumably there’s another sign closer to the other access point. Not a big deal.
Most likely due to construction-wouldn’t want the sign to get damaged in the work area.