Subway riders in the Bronx will now able to answer that age-old question: When the heck is the train going to get here?
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is testing countdown clocks subway stations along the 6 Line.
The clocks count down the number of minutes (hours?) until the next train, but the MTA says the countdown signs can also be used to give information about delays and other transit information.
The clocks are now installed at five stations along the ol’ Pelham line in the Bronx: Brook Avenue, Cypress Avenue, E.143rd Street-St. Mary’s Street, E. 149th Street and Longwood Avenue Stations.
“Our customers have long been accustomed to having to guess when the next train will arrive and, of course, we are well aware of the complaints about poor quality public address systems in the subway," said NYC Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast. "With this system we are taking a quantum leap forward in customer communications and the information we are offering.”
The MTA hopes to have them installed in 152 stations on the numbered lines (F no!) by the middle of 2011. The system was first rolled out along the Canarsie L line in January 2007.
