MBTA says real-time train info to arrive on some South Shore lines tomorrow
The T said today that riders on the Greenbush, Kingston/Plymouth and Middleboro/Lakeville Lines will see real-time arrival info on those platform sign boards tomorrow.
"Displayed in a countdown format on easy-to-read electronic message boards, the information will provide minute-accurate train arrival times to customers waiting for their trains," the T says. The Worcester/Framingham and Lowell lines will get the updates next week, the T says, adding plans are to have all 13 commuter-rail lines operating by February.
The MBTA is also promising special AM broadcasts at stations with the same information, so commuters can stay in their cars until the train is near. The Anderson stop in Woburn will be the first to get the new AM frequency, followed over several weeks by other stations with at least 50 parking spaces.
Meanwhile, the T says that by the end of this summer, it expects to equip all of its 410 coaches with WiFi, making it the first commuter-rail system in the country with full-train wireless.
Meanwhile, the MBTA also said it will begin looking for a new contract for somebody to operate its commuter-rail lines starting in 2013, after granting current operator MBCR a two-year extension.
Comments
Great
Would be nice to see this on the subway stops as well.
Just in time for me to start commuting to Plymouth
Though somehow magically routing the trains through Forest Hills on their way to and from Plymouth would make me happier. Commuting from JP is going to be an experience. ;)
What about buses?
So all thirteen of the commuter rail lines will have it by February, while there seems to be no timetable for the real time bus info (whose riders don't have warm cars to wait in). Commuter railers get wifi and real time info, while people on buses, (many of whom spend as long or more on a bus just getting around Boston as commuter railers do coming from carburbia) have no promised timetable for real time info, much less any plan to display the info.
I've seen a lot of great applications (free or cheap) for disseminating the bus info here:
http://groups.google.com/group/massdotdevelopers?lnk=gcimv&pli=1
including one that doesn't need smartphones, just a regular phone, but they all need the T to release the info for the 100+ other routes they haven't set up. Why are the commuter railers always their first priority, many more people use the bus than the commuter rail.
Because we are better
We, on the commuter rail (more specifically - from the South Shore), are better than you. By you I mean, those on buses and subways. We smell better. Our conversations are more stimulating. Our lives, in fact, are worth more. Ergo, we should be treated better. Huzzah to the fine folks at the MBTA for recognizing this obvious discrepancy and rewarding it.
I am, by the way, definitely not being sarcastic.
Sticking (stuck?) with MBCR
The lead on that news item is also noteworthy, though not surprising:
I wonder how, exactly, the T plans to "ensure...improvements"? Anyone taking odds that MBCR won't win the new contract, too?
Checked it out this morning
Got to the Randolph/Holbrook stop 10 minutes before the 8:37 train was due. There was no train info on the board. Ten minutes after the train was due to arrive, the message showed the next train was 27 minutes away. That message stayed on the board for about 5 minutes. Then I heard the whistle of the train and ran for the platform. The inbound train arrived while the message board said the next train to Boston would arrive in 17 minutes.
And during all of this, I didn't get any of the usual text messages that my train was 15-20 minutes late.
Sigh.