NYC Subways Leaving The Paper Behind

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mta-subwayThose taped-up paper signs that provide service updates in subway stations — which inevitably end up filthy and falling onto the tracks — could soon be replaced with electronic announcement boards, an MTA official said yesterday.

The bad news they bear will still add time to your subway trip, but officials are hoping that a paperless upgrade will make underground stations appear more modern, according to Michael Horodniceanu, the president of MTA Capital Construction.

“We want to provide all of the information needed on electronic media,” Horodniceanu said during a speech at New York Law School on the state of the agency’s capital program.

The digitalized signs won’t just look good — they’ll also lead to less litter than their ancestors.

“[Paper signs] end up on the track or somewhere else,” said Horodniceanu.

The new $1.4 billion Fulton Street Transit Center will be the first station to do away with the antiquated signs when it opens in June 2014, he said.

“We want to build a center that will be a 21st century-type station in which paper should not be there to provide information,” Horodniceanu said.

“We will have all of the information provided on large [electronic] boards.”

The station’s ads and art will also be digital.

For now, the electronic makeover just involves Fulton Street, which is expected to handle some 300,000 passengers a day, he said.

“You have to start somewhere,” said Horodniceanu.

But the century-old MTA has been slowly introducing a slew of high-tech approaches to other aspects of service for several years.

Just last month, the agency unveiled its new “On the Go! Travel Station,” an interactive, 47-inch touch screen that gives everything from service updates to neighborhood info at stations.

The system — which operates much like a giant iPad — is in place at several stations, including Bowling Green, Penn Station and Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street.

Grand Central also has screens that give real-time status of buses, trains and info on businesses nearby for commuters.

Horodniceanu — whose job involves overseeing the MTA’s mega-projects — said he was certain that Fulton Street, the Second Avenue Subway and the extension of the 7 line would all be completed on schedule.

The finishing time for East Side Access, however, remains unclear.

That project — which will connect Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central — is delayed in part because of track work being done by Amtrak.

{NY Post/Matzav.com Newscenter}


1 COMMENT

  1. Finish all the projects you started, get rid of unions and stop wasting my money!! Tell the unions that they have certain “due dates”- you must finish x amount in x days or you are fined… It works in private projects and you can write it into the contracts for building your own home so why not here?

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