MTA Technology

Fifteen months after a crippling flood exposed deep-rooted communications and technology problems at the MTA, the transportation authority has unveiled a text-message and e-mail alert system designed to bring up-to-date information to the masses in near-real time.

The agency’s press release has the details:

Using the MTA’s website at www.mta.info, customers can register to receive alerts about any combination of subway lines, bus routes, rail lines, bridges or tunnels. They can choose to receive them 24/7, or only during a particular time of day or week. The system will use an email transmission technology called Distributed Processing, giving it the capability of sending out up to a million messages every five minutes.

“This is a revolutionary step that has the potential to transform the experience our customers have with us,” said Elliot G. Sander, the Executive Director and CEO of the MTA. “If you know about a service disruption before you leave your home, or now, even as you are making your way to a subway or rail station or a bus stop, you can avoid the frustration of delays by seeking an alternate route.”

The launch of this system…It marks the first time that the MTA will send timely notifications of unplanned service disruptions on subways, buses, bridges or tunnels, and is the first MTA service to use text messaging.

This service is being provided in partnership with the MIS Sciences Corporation under a $10,000-a-month contract that includes an unlimited volume of emails and text messages. While the MTA will not charge customers to use this service, those customers who have cell phone plans that charge for incoming text messages will be liable for those fees.

Interested straphangers can sign up for the service at MyMTAAlerts.com.

In a way, the MTA has a lot riding on this plan. They’re paying out a decent chunk of change for it, but more importantly, riders are going to depend on it for immediate service alerts. For those who aren’t yet underground, the system will be the first way for many riders to find out that they need to change their travel plans, and if a major outage occurs, as it did with the August 2007 flood, the service will have to guide commuters throughout the city.

Furthermore, the MTA’s technological reputation hinges on it too. With the train arrival board project facing an uncertain future, Computer-Based Train Control far off and GPS-based bus arrival boards a bust, the MTA’s technological track record has been far from perfect lately. They’ve gone through an extensive testing process with this alert system and feel that it’s ready for showtime.

The early word though is mixed. A friend of mine signed up for service alerts along the N/R/Q/W lines, and while the MTA recently released an alert for those lines, that friend received the concurrent alert about problems on the F instead. On the good side, the alert arrived, but it was for the wrong line. For now, we can chalk that up to first-day jitters, and we’ll just have to see how it works going forward.

Nearly a year ago, news came out that the MTA and its technology firms were at odds over a few key technology projects. The contractors could not figure out how to implement a GPS-based bus location system in New York and was, at the time, 16 months behind schedule.

Now, according to Pete Donohue, the GPS projects appears to be dying a slow, slow death. The Daily News transit scribe writes:

NYC Transit may pull the plug on a troubled $99 million project to track buses and post “real” arrival times on bus-stop message boards, the Daily News has learned. Officials have halted some work “pending a decision on the future of the project,” according to a report by the agency’s outside engineering consultant.

NYC Transit lawyers also are reviewing legal options, according to the report, which says the contractor is two years behind schedule and still having technical problems with the GPS tracking system. “It’s a dirty, rotten shame,” Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said. “A bus locator system could greatly improve bus service with better dispatching and more real-time information. If your car’s GPS can guide you around town, I don’t see why buses can’t do the same.”

The report by the Carter-Burgess engineering firm refers to problems in general terms, citing software issues, a high failure rate of onboard equipment and inaccurate arrival times relayed to message boards placed on just a handful of routes in Manhattan so far.

The MTA has recently turned off a test-run of the program, but the contractors are still claiming that they are within the contractual requirements.

No matter how this ends up, one thing is certain: As the MTA moves forward with technological investments, the agency and its contractors have to be on the same page. Other transit systems in cities with tall buildings have GPS-based bus systems; other subway systems older than ours have train arrival boards. It’s time for New York to get these features, but these technology projects seem to be stalled out.

A TV monitor at the Myrtle-Wyckoff L stop will test the real-time train data. (Photo by Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times)

In my morning missive on GPS-based advertising, a few commenters wondered why, if an advertiser can employ GPS, the MTA can’t get its own GPS bus arrival board project off the ground. While some questions are simply unanswerable, the MTA — or more specifically, the L train’s line manager — is making strides to deliver real-time train location information to passengers.

As William Neuman reported today in The Times, by taping into the L’s computerized operating system, the MTA can show where the trains are on TV screens purchased at Circuit City. It’s a simple technological fix to a problem that has long plagued New York City Transit. The Gray Lady’s transit writer has more:

Beginning in December, officials will install a computer screen at each end of the platform showing a graphic representation of the entire L line and the location of every train on it. Waiting passengers can watch the trains move along the tracks as the data is updated every 15 seconds. That way, passengers can see for themselves if there really is another train “right behind this one.”

If the system works, and riders like it, it could be installed in other stations on the L line, said Greg Lombardi, the line’s general manager, who helped create the system. Ultimately it could be used on other lines as well.

“There’s no end to the possibilities,” said Wilson M. Milian, a director of technology projects at the transit agency. He said that the same information could some day be displayed on the Internet, so that riders could quickly check the location of trains before heading to the subway.

Imagine that. Real-time train information in New York City. This could be the push the MTA needs to update the rest of its technology.

As Cap’n Transit writes, the MTA could introduce this technology across its agencies, incorporate it with service advisories and provide a historical database of real-time train information. The possibilities are truly limitless, and if this is the innovation coming out of the nascent line manager program, by all means should it be continued and expanded.

The Lower Manhattan street furniture/grate will include some much-needed bike parking. (Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Rob Wilson)

Speak of the devil. Just this morning, I finally got around to writing about the anti-flooding grate prototype the MTA plans to install in flood-prone areas. A few minutes ago, the MTA unveiled the second grate prototype.

These grates — found in Lower Manhattan — are a street furniture collaborating between Grimshaw Billings Jackson with Systra/HNTB. The current prototype is on display in front of 151 Broadway between Worth and Thomas Sts. In addition to a few benches, these raised grates also provide bicycle racks for the neighborhood. The MTA plans to install this design at 15 locations on West Broadway between Chambers and Leonard Sts. and on Varick St. between Leonard and Franklin Sts. These units will range in length from 16 to 24 feet.

These grates are more functional than the ones prepped for Queens and northern Manhattan. The bike racks are a much-needed addition, and city officials praised this design. “Initiatives like this are critical to the continuous functioning of the City,” Janette Sadik-Khan, commissioner of the Department of Transportation, said. “The fact that this new street furniture does more than double-duty as protection from stormwater by providing seating and bike racks shows that good design can turn problems into assets.”

I’m glad to see such forward thinking from the MTA, and the incorporation of other modes of urban transport into something benefiting the subway should be applauded.

A grate prototype rests on Sutphin Boulevard in Queens. (Photo by David W. Dunlap/The New York Times)

When the subways flooded in 2007, the MTA knew they had a grate problem. Run-off from the storms were sloshing underground through sidewalk grates, and the tracks along Queens Boulevard — buried just a few feet underground — were quickly rendered inoperable. While in other cities, such as DC, the subways are far enough underground to escape the problems of heavy rains, in New York, cut-and-cover construction techniques resulted in subways prone to flooding.

When the last big storms hit New York City over the summer, the MTA protected their tunnels by manually covering these grates with tarps. Clearly, this would not be the most efficient way, going forward, for the transit agency to operate every time bad weather hits the Big Apple.

To that end, the MTA has spent the last year developing a new type of sidewalk grate that would push water away from vulnerable subway areas and into proper sewage canals. Pictured above is that prototype, and a few days ago, CityRoom had the story behind these aesthetic and functional grates. Wrote David W. Dunlap:

hammered stainless steel and available in three different heights, their almost sculpturally undulating form is a deliberate reference to the problem they are supposed to help solve. “You’re aware that this is here for storm water,” said Rob Rogers, whose firm, Rogers Marvel Architects, designed the new grates in association with di Domenico & Partners. “It has a didactic purpose…”

The prototype shown on Friday at the corner of Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica was made up of one unit in each height, which formed a whole composition when combined. They can also be used singly or in pairs. The lowest unit, which would hold back flood waters up to six inches above the sidewalk, incorporates a seat. But the gentle troughs between the waves are not uncomfortable and could certainly serve as a temporary perch for someone, say, waiting for a bus.

As a flood-control device, the structure creates a protective collar, or sleeve, around ventilating grates that are typically set flush to sidewalk level. The idea is not to completely waterproof the platforms and tracks below, but to mitigate a devastating cascade of water, silt, mud and debris.

As Dunlap notes, these grates are still grates — The MTA needs to circulate air through their system as well — and water will find its way underground. But by elevating the grating, the MTA can ensure that runoff on the sidewalks will head to storm drains and not underground subway tunnels. Eventually, the MTA will install these grates in other flood-prone areas as well. Sounds good, right?

Well, I love the grates, and I’m glad to see the MTA taking a proactive step to address this problem. I have two concerns, albeit minor ones. Will the stainless steel get too hot when exposed to direct sunlight in the summer? We’ve heard about parents complaining about playground mats that get too hot. What will happen the first time someone gets burned on the bench?

I’m also less than thrilled with the reduction in sidewalk. Personally, I feel that New York as a walking city doesn’t afford its residents with enough sidewalk space. In the grand tradition of Jane Jacobs, I support widening the sidewalks, but these grates do just the opposite.

Of course, we can’t have our cake and eat it too. We can’t have flood-proof subways and enough sidewalk space, and in this case, I’ll take dry subways and trains that aren’t delayed every time it rains.

For all its faults, the DC Metro tells riders how long they’ll have to wait. (Photo by flickr user NYCArthur)

Riders in Washington, D.C., know how long they have to wait for the next train. Straphangers in London are told how far away the next Underground subways are. Even Rome, with its graffiti-covered, two-line subway system, has managed to figure out train arrival boards. But not New York.

For years, New York City Transit has announced plans to bring this not-so-nascent technology into the subway system. In fact, they’ve been running a pilot program on the L line for years, and originally, this technology was to be ready for a system-wide roll-out in 2006. After announcing a projected 2009 launch date last December, the MTA has now admitted that the project is five years behind schedule and will not be ready until 2011 at the earliest.

Pete Donohue broke the story:

A project to display real-time train arrival times in 152 subway stations is now behind schedule – by five years. The project, featuring electronic message boards posted above subway platforms, was originally expected to be completed in 2006.

NYC Transit has pushed back that date several times over the years, citing software development problems, technical glitches and other problems. Earlier this week, officials pushed the date back again, this time to 2011. The delays in the $185 million project have frustrated riders and advocates who have seen such information provided in other cities around the world but not here.

“What a drag!” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. “Riders really want to know when trains are due to arrive and when they are delayed.”

Besides the utter obviousness of Gene Russianoff’s quote, this project has turned into one giant joke. The MTA, for reasons both within their control and without it, have been unable to get a technological project off the ground, and now they’re talking about delaying it for five years. If I delivered something at work five years later, I would be fired.

Right now, we need this system simply to enjoy a modern subway system. But considering the price tag — $185 million — the delay and the fact that we’ve lived without it for so long, I have to wonder if this money wouldn’t be better spent elsewhere at this point. We all know the system could use it.

In a ceremony this morning at Grand Central Terminal, Google and the MTA announced a partnership designed to bring New York Metropolitan area transit directions to Google Transit, a feature of the popular Google Maps. Users will now be able to find comprehensive directions for New York City Transit, the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North and the area’s bus service in one place.

First hinted at thirteen months ago, the service is now available online at both a special page on the MTA’s website and at Google Transit. “It is a very complicated transit system, and it just got less complicated today with the advent of Google Maps for transit,” Gov. David Paterson said this morning.

Currently, New York commuters enjoy numerous trip-mapping options. Independent sites such as HopStop, onNYTurf and Gypsy Maps offer up their own versions of integrated directions for intra-city travel. New York City Transit’s TripPlanner provides an MTA-sanctioned source for directions.

But the new service is the first to offer integrated mapping and directions across all three services. With the MTA’s making comprehensive schedule data available to Google and NJ Transit and Port Authority’s PATH service already on board, New Yorkers can now find directions from one end of the Metropolitan Area to the other.

The key feature here is the inclusion of schedule data. Over the last few years, many of the directionally-minded website developers — with Will at onNYTurf leading the charge — have tried to wrangle to-the-minute schedule details out of the MTA, but the agency has been reluctant to part with this proprietary data. Publicly available schedules, particularly for the subways, are incomplete. But now, users can set a departure time and find the most accurate scheduling information around. Incorporating all of the current features of Google Maps — walking directions, street view, local points of interest — the new service is a step above the others right now.

Both MTA officials and Google executives were quick to praise this partnership. “At a time when the MTA is facing mounting fiscal challenges, we are thrilled to be able to offer this service to our customers at no cost to taxpayers,” MTA Chair Dale Hemmerdinger said. “Google Transit will encourage ridership and underscores the importance of the MTA to the region’s economy and environment.”

“By being able to access station and schedule data for the largest public transit system in the United States via Google Maps, users are exposed to the availability and convenience of public transportation and are better equipped to take advantage of all that the New York metropolitan region has to offer,” John Hanke, director of Google Maps and Earth, said.

It wasn’t easy, however, putting together this project. As Sewell Chan at City Room reported this morning, the MTA delivered a large volume of data to Google, and the information giant had to parse it into a usable format. The MTA and Google plan to make the data available to other developers as well.

With the MTA’s preeminent place in the region, this is a very welcome and long-awaited development indeed.

Long has the MTA — and, in particularly, New York City Transit — borne the label of technophobe. While subway systems across the nation and globe have long enjoyed video information boards and digital communications systems, NYC Transit has yet to bring this technology to New York City’s straphanging masses.

Well, the wait is sorta, kinda, almost over. According to NY1, the MTA has unveiled digital notice boards along the L and 7 lines, those line-managed icons of experimentation. The story:

Transit officials are testing a new program to alert subway riders with digital announcement boards in the event of delays.

Straphangers at six stations on the 7 and L lines will see video screens inside token booths as part of a pilot program. For now, they are only broadcasting public service announcements, but officials say they will provide up-to-the-minute information on service disruptions.

The Station Agent Information Display program, or SAID, cost the MTA $30,000 so far.

Officials at the rail control center will be able to send messages to individual stations, or groups of stations using wireless technology.

As with everything new in the subways, this is part of a pilot program, and the line managers say that station agents will continue to use those useless and uninformative white boards that I always thought were hanging up in the station booths for decoration. Why else would they still feature messages from July 22, 2005 when the NYPD started randomly searching bags in the subway?

Of course, the typical caveats apply: These boards are only as useful as the information on them. Right now, as the video story on NY1’s recently redesigned Website shows, the boards are being utilized only for the same old MTA PSA’s we’ve all had drilled into our subconscious: If you see something, say something. Throw away your trash. Sign up for the e-mail alerts.

The first real test of these boards will come during an unexpected service delay. If these boards help passengers find out before entering the system that trains are delayed, if they help re-route lost, confused or stranded passengers, then we can label them a success and call for systemwide implementation. But until that day, they’re just fancy TV monitors that happen to hang in the booth in your nearest subway stop.

There’s an old saying out there that goes something like this: All is fare in love and subways. Or perhaps that’s love and war. But either way, this week has not been a good one for public transit and fare-payment technologies.

We’ll start in New York where the MTA has recently discovered a flaw in its vending machines that has allowed riders to acquire free tickets just by using a debit card. Oops.

William Neuman reports:

The Long Island Rail Road said that a check of its records from 2004 until this May, when the glitch was discovered, found that in addition to the scam, there had been 990 transactions totaling $74,000 that appeared to be related to the software error.

Metro-North said that it had not made such an extensive check but that in the first several months of this year it found that the error had allowed the sale of tickets worth $2,960 in which the buyer was not charged. The machines were installed in 2001, and a Metro-North spokeswoman said that there appeared to have been hundreds of the free transactions in the intervening years…

Technicians discovered that it was possible to buy tickets using one of the debit cards even if there was not enough money in the account to cover the cost of the transaction. Further investigation revealed that other debit cards from some smaller banks operated in the same way: if the account had insufficient funds, the vending machines dispensed tickets anyway, and did not charge the account.

So instead of alerting a customer to a potential overdraft and denying the charge, the MTA’s vending machines simply processed the transaction and dispensed a ticket for free. Needless to say, the glitch — seven years in the making — has supposedly been corrected, but this is an embarrassing admission on the part of an agency long criticized for its inability to adopt and respond to problems with new technologies.

Meanwhile, in Boston, a group of MIT students has hacked the MBTA’s own fare payment system. Basically, three students figured out how to reverse-engineer the magnetic strip on the CharlieTickets and how to crack the RFID technology used in the CharlieCard. Transit systems across the nation and globe rely on these technologies, and I’m sure no one is too thrilled to hear about these two developments.

For those of us who ride the subways every day and don’t want to see our technologies hacked, these news is not surprisingly but discouraging. Those who run subway systems are forever looking for ways to improve fare systems, and the obvious answer is technology. MetroCards allow for discounted fare options, and more flexible payment systems. RFID-based cards such as the CharlieCard or London’s Oyster Card allow for speedier fare processing. A touch-and-go system is a lot more efficient than our swipe, “Try Again at this Turnstile” and finally go technique.

But as with any technology, the people who can get at the root of the code and turn it around are always one step ahead. The hackers will always be able to exploit security holes and systematic loopholes. Once the MTA addresses its problems and the MBTA deals with their security holes, something else down the line will pop up. That’s just the nature of technology.

While it’s easy to say that we should go back to an era of tokens, even those relics of another age aren’t hack-proof. Just ask Alan Campbell and Kim Gibbs. I wonder how their token slug ring is doing today.