November 17, 2009
Countdown Clocks for 3 Bronx Subway Stations
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
In London, Paris and Washington, subway riders need only look up at a digital sign to know how many minutes it will be until the next train arrives. New York’s straphangers usually resort to peering into a darkened tunnel.
But for some riders in the Bronx, that often-futile search for a headlight is about to end. New York City Transit announced on Monday that it would debut the first batch of subway countdown clocks next month at three stations on the No. 6 line, a preview of a technology that officials hope to extend to all the numbered lines by spring 2011.
The Bronx countdown clocks will be similar to those on the L line, where they have been in place since 2007.
Transit officials also announced plans for a similar system along the 50th Street crosstown bus route, extending a project that began on 34th Street, where bus shelters are already equipped with countdown displays.
Although the 50th Street project is in its early stages, the announcements were the latest sign that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is making good on its long-held promise to provide riders with information that is a standard feature in other major transit networks.
“People have been crying for this for a long time,” said Andrew Albert, a riders’ advocate and member of the authority’s board.
Still, riders may want to hold off celebrating just yet. Last month, officials said they hoped to install all clocks at 152 subway stations by December 2010; that is now expected to be April 2011.
And while the No. 6 line, with 700,000 rides a day, is the city’s busiest, the stations selected for next month’s rollout are some of the sleepiest. On average, those stations — Brook Avenue, East 149th Street and Longwood Avenue — each carry about 4,500 rides each weekday, fewer than 3 percent of the rides handled at Grand Central. The clocks on 34th Street, in contrast, debuted along a highly trafficked route.
“Work was completed first at those stations, that’s why they will be the first to be turned on,” said Charles Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit.
There are no plans in place for the other lettered lines to get the clocks until at least 2014.
New electronic signs will also be in place soon at the 42nd Street shuttle and the Flatbush Avenue station, in Brooklyn, according to transit officials, but they will tell riders where the next train is arriving, not when.
The layouts of those stations have long created confusion among passengers over which track has the next arriving train. Large displays will be installed in the next few weeks, replacing older signs that are partly hidden, the officials said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/ny...=subway&st=cse