Next train is arriving.....

Has anyone seen the new boards on the L that say what time the next train is coming? just saw it on tv.

I commute on the L from Lorimer into Manhattan every day and have seen them working intermittently only during rush hour, they seem to be fairly accurate, although the L is kind of a dumb line to do it on since it doesnt have many connections so the information allows little more than peace of mind, although i guess in Manhattan you could decide to transfer to another line if it said the next L train was going to be while (though I understand why it was the line on which to introduce the technology since they were doing all that work on the tracks for CBTC). Perhaps they will be more useful once they start working at all times, rush hour trains on the L are usually back to back anyway these days.

Well at least it's a start. Hopefully this will follow on other lines eventually. It is nice in Washington DC to be able to see when the next train is coming. I hope this system will be as accurate as that one is.

The London Underground has a system that alerts passengers to how far away the next train is. This isn't all that important in NY during rush hour, with a train every 4 or 5 minutes, sometimes only seconds. However, at off times I've sat and waited for trains like the "L" for 30 minutes. Had I known I would have taken a Taxi.

L'mont wrote:The London Underground has a system that alerts passengers to how far away the next train is. This isn't all that important in NY during rush hour, with a train every 4 or 5 minutes, sometimes only seconds. However, at off times I've sat and waited for trains like the "L" for 30 minutes. Had I known I would have taken a Taxi.

Last sat i was in time square trying to get to NYP for a NJT train, had i known how long it was going to take at the 8th Ave subway i might have went to the 7th or heven forfend... walked!

There's a study out there, can't find a link, that says that people's tolerance for waiting triples if they know exactly how long they have to wait. These signs will make the subway a much more pleasant experience psychologically for many people, which will, one hopes, drive ridership higher in turn.

arrow wrote:Well at least it's a start. Hopefully this will follow on other lines eventually. It is nice in Washington DC to be able to see when the next train is coming. I hope this system will be as accurate as that one is.

And we have such a similar system here in MBTA Boston too. It's pretty reliable, considering that we're the nation's oldest transit.