The days of squinting up at Penn Station's large black-and-white departure board for updates on a delayed Amtrak train will soon be a thing of the past.
Amtrak announced on Tuesday that it was in the process of replacing its giant departure boards that hang from the ceiling in the center of the station's main hall with several smaller LCD screens, including two large video boards at the ends of the room.
The move is aimed at getting passengers information faster and easing congestion in the normally-packed main hall of the station.
Several of the screens have already been placed in waiting rooms and other areas throughout the station, and Amtrak said in a release that the new screens will also be able to broadcast emergency communications, station announcements and other messages.
The current departure boards in Penn Station's Amtrak concourse are themselves replacements, according to The New York Times, which first reported the replacement of the boards earlier this year.
The original split flap display board that featured flapping analog cards that made a loud clapping noise whenever information was changed was replaced by the current LCD board around 2000.
