I don’t know about other Metro-North stations, but at Cos Cob at least, the only way to find out when the next train to New York City is is to grab a flashlight and magnifying glass, and to analyze the system PDF schedule under glass on a poorly lit side of the station house (not on the well-lit platform – that would be silly!).

Lets take a look at that Cos Cob Schedule:

I have highlighted with a small purple line the area which actually tells you when the next trains to New York from Cos Cob. It represents about .01% of the entire area of the PDF, and is in tiny text.

Now, let me take you 3500 miles away to Northern California, where a large, lit, double-sided LED sign in direct view of the entire platform day or night, makes it perfectly clear that the next train to San Jose is at 2:12 PM:

Seriously MTA – this is not ROCKET SCIENCE.

If I haven’t sold you on them already, or think that graphic to the left is some kind of icky ad, StationStops.com has its own Metro-North Schedules.
Why would you need another set of Metro-North Schedules besides the wonderfully comprehensive PDF download on MTA’s site?

One word – USABILITY.
To MTA usability is more of a quantitative concept – do we have a schedule or don’t we?

“Oh, we have one in PDF format” – annoying requirement fulfilled!

However, for those of us in the internet industry, usability is a process.

If I were in charge of customer information at MTA, I would be asking myself the following questions in regards to printed, web and mobile schedules.

• Would it be helpful to create larger schedules at the station which just indicated that station’s schedule to Grand Central, since that is what 85% of riders are interested in?
• How many clicks does it take for a user to find what they need on our website schedule?
• Is there a way we can determine the current time and user location to highlight the contextual relevancy of the schedule they are viewing?
• Can we rework web navigation to create slices of the web schedule which are specifically relevant to the user?
• Is it simple for the user to bookmark their personal schedules for future reference?
• How can we distribute our schedule to different third parties where users might find themselves in need of a schedule?
• How can we make it easier for users to find schedule information on their mobile phone or pda?
• How can we distribute schedules without requiring the user install and use third-party PDF software?
• Is the font on our printed schedules big enough for people to read easily and in a hurry?
• Is our PDF too overwhelming for our less technical users?
• Will the elderly or those with poor eyesight have a trouble reading our schedule formats?
• Is the current train schedule posted in an easy-to-find, well-lit location at each Metro-North Station?
• Could we use internet cookies and personal preferences to present relevant information to returning web users?
• How can I get more of the important content above the scrollable area?

I could go on and on on this subject, but I’ve bored you enough already.