Will that happen? I dunno, but ‘cool new stuff’ seems like a pipe dream following today’s revelation that MTA would be slashing services deeply, affecting nearly every single bus and subway rider in New York City.

Sadly, families of elementary and high school students who commute into NYC will suffer more than anyone. Not only will they need to put up with overcrowding resulting from the service cuts, but MTA is taking away all of their student discount fares as well, enraging pretty much everyone with a heartbeat.

It’s all coming this way as early in June. I’m sure the MTA is going to make sure it doesn’t coincide with the 2011 7.5% fare increase to drive home the irony to commuters. Or maybe they will, WTF do they care?

At some point I am going to get sick of writing about MTA and its just going to swallow the entire tri-state into its maelstrom of horrors and be done with it.

In the meanwhile, read Michael Grynbaum’s story at the New York Times.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: MTA to Slaughter Service, Student Discounts

If you select the ‘Metro-North TrainTime‘ link from the MTA mobile site’s homepage, you will be able to see, for now, the ontime status of current trains. Unless one of the trains is delayed, they will pretty much just all read ‘On Time’ or ‘Arrived’ for now.

At the Bedford Ave L-line Subway Station, things get a little more interesting. A graphical LCD screen shows where nearby trains are, updated every 15 seconds.

It’s great that MTA is making progress on this, but I hope these are not long-term how this information is going to be disseminated.

Let’s take the mobile site as a first example.

The realtime train data should not be a separate menu on the Metro-North mobile website, it should be integrated into the schedule results (like track info .

There is no usability reason to fill out one form for schedule information and then backup and go to another for realtime information.

As for the L line, the LCD board is not going to cut it. Its too small and can only be read by people standing directly in front of it – but its information is of interest to everyone on the platform at all times. Also, the map display is unnecessary – all that is relevant is ETA of next trains.

So, lets take these two important pieces of information and rethink how to display this data.

The results look exactly like DC’s realtime train ETA signs.

These signs show exactly how long before the next 3 trains arrive in minutes, and can be seen by passengers standing 100 ft away.

There is no advantage to making people crowd around an LCD screen to see a relatively small diagram when all they want to know is ‘how long do I have to wait here?’.

This is a complaint I have had before with the Grand Central Terminal monitors as well – they use small color television screens that users need to stop and crowd around to read.

It would be much better to use a large overhead LED display that users could see from a distance and read without stopping.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: MTA Takes a Shot at Realtime Info on Subway, Metro-North

The MTA has a budget deficit of $1.2 BILLION dollars. Even after slashing costs, it’ll be around $600M.

This is where you come in

SecondAvenueSaga’s Ben Kabak says the NY Daily News is being alarmist , inferring the base MetroCard fare will go to $3 a ride, but concedes that the MetroCard is a very likely target an that $2.50 is a very real possibility.

This is not likely to be the only hurt MTA will be laying on us.

Via SecondAvenueSagas

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: NYC Subway MetroCards $3 to Fix $1.2B MTA Budget Deficit?

Watch more Dailymotion videos on AOL Video

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: American Idol Wannabe Commits Suicide Outside Paula Abdul’s Home

Friday night I was taking an uptown 6 train to Grand Central at around 11 PM. I was tired, and not looking forward to the non-express train which would get me in after midnight.

A hispanic gentleman facing me gestured to look to my right urgently. I looked, and sitting on the seat next to me, facing forward and coyly acting like ‘just another passenger, was your typical subway cockroach.

I stood up, and it scurried near the gap between the seat and the wall at the end of the car. My stop was coming up anyway.

Shortly, two girls approached to sit in my seat, and I graciously pointed out the cockroach to them.

One responded:

“Oh great, there is a cockroach, and no one wants to sit there, and no one wants to kill it”

This was obviously a crack at me – inferring – ‘you’re a guy, why don’t you kill it?’

Why? Because I am getting off at the next stop, and the cockroach has strategically positioned itself in the crack, so trying to get a swat at it is going to be a fruitless pain in the ass. This is also the one day of the month when I am not wearing a t-shirt and sneakers, and have no intention of plastering dead cockroach all over my Bruno Maglis.

But most importantly, in very typical NYC straphanger fashion, I don’t give a shit.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Cockroach Apathy

A reader writes in this morning:

“Was there a stopage or halt to the Uptown 6 train service last night (Nov. 4th) in NY around 11pm or so? I heard there was a police investigation somewhere down the track line and that hundreds of people were stranded inside the train for almost an hour. I think they said train was stopped around 86th st. Can anybody confirm??”

I sent in to MTA for more info – if anyone else has any ideas, please let us know in the comments…

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Hundreds Stranded On 6 Train Last Night For an Hour?

It’s to promote History Channel’s “Cities of the Underworld” series and was unveiled this morning.

‘The History Channel’ has changed its name to just ‘History’, but I’m not ever calling it that, because its just confusing and stupid. -ed

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: 42nd St/Grand Central Shuttle Train Wrapped Inside and Out by The History Channel