Our subway system is one of the most extensive in the world and definitely in the United States. Millions of passengers travel every day on local and the world's only express tracks. And on a sunny day that doesn't include the weekends, they tend to work rather well. Its only when we get some rain, like Wednesday that there can be total shutdowns and a non-existent communication system gets brutally exposed.
Being in Chicago last week, it was great to be able to use my cellphone on the L, and locals that have U.S. Cellular can use their phones anywhere. That means the Chicago Transit Authority can tell commuters if there are problems on the lines and what you can do about it so one isn't stranded in hot and humid stations (like I was last Wednesday waiting for a C train that never came at Penn Station). Local politicians are speaking out for cell service, so that we can hear updated information and even report on things that are suspect, like all those ads and loudspeakers keep saying on the trains.
From AM New York:
Straphangers were left with white dry-erase boards and bullhorns to tell them about subway service during the floods last week.
With spotty platform pay phone service, the MTA could have used wireless service to get the word out about outages, in text messages or emails to devices like BlackBerries, the officials said.
The MTA doesn't have a text or email alert system for New York City Transit outages, except for a weekly weekend service advisory e-mail, but could consider such a program with cell phone access, said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens).
"There's a mantra they repeat over at the MTA: If you see something, say something," Weiner said. "The problem is that without cell phone service, there's really no way to tell anyone."
Weiner said a cell phone service surcharge is already in place that could fund underground service. The MTA is considering subway cell phone access and companies bid for the work in January 2006, but none has been chosen.
Thats the MTA for you, slow in doing....anything really. Meanwhile customers suffer and despite a billion dollar surplus, their concern is to raise fares and drop untold gobs of cash into a Second Avenue subway line that was started nearly eighty years ago. They could have left the old elevated line in place until an underground tunnel was completed...but that might be considered common sense, and why would we want something like that to be a trait of the MTA?
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