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Metro North Christmas Service Plan Info

Posted by
on December 23rd, 2011 at 2:10 pm

Here are the details for the Metro-North Railroad’s Christmas service plan:

It’s easy to get out of town for the holidays when you make Metro-North part of your plan.

When the exodus begins after lunch on Friday, Dec. 23, Metro-North will provide 20 extra trains in the early afternoon. But should you choose to stick around, beware that there will be fewer outbound trains than normal between 4 PM and 8PM. Eight trains will be combined into four and 10 trains will be cancelled altogether. All changes are shown in the public timetable.

On Christmas Eve Day, Saturday, Dec. 24, trains will operate on a regular Saturday schedule. Shoppers Specials will not operate.

On Christmas Day, Sunday, Dec. 25, trains will operate on a regular holiday (Sunday) schedule.

On the day after Christmas, Monday, Dec. 26, it’s a national holiday and financial markets are closed. Metro-North will operate on a Saturday schedule. Shoppers Specials will operate.

For the rest of the week before New Year’s, Tuesday-Thursday, Dec. 27-29, Metro-North will provide essentially regular weekday schedule, with slightly reduced AM peak service and additional inbound service operated in the late morning since so many people are off from work and others are coming into New York City for pleasure. All changes are shown in public timetable.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Staten Island Railway Christmas Service Plan

Posted by
on December 23rd, 2011 at 1:50 pm

As usual, the MTA Staten Island Railway will be providing its “Getaway” service:

Staten Island customers looking to get a head start on their holiday weekend will be able to catch earlier afternoon express train service on Friday, December 23 with Staten Island Railway’s Early Departure Getaway schedule. This schedule means extra SIR trains will be added earlier in the afternoon beginning at 2:31 p.m. from the St. George Ferry Terminal. There will be one express train and one local train awaiting every boat until 7:50 p.m. SIR will operate on a Sunday Schedule on both Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25, and the following day, Monday, December 26.

The Early Departure Getaway service plan on SIR is also available on the Friday leading into the Memorial Day weekend, the day before Independence Day, the Friday before Labor Day, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and on Friday before this New Year’s Eve.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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MTA Launches Real Time Elevator Escalator Info

Posted by
on December 23rd, 2011 at 1:16 pm

Just the other day, the MTA announced the launch of an e-mail alert containing real time elevator & escalator service info. Here are the details via press release:

MTA New York City Transit is now offering customers the opportunity to receive up-to-the-minute updates on the status of elevators and escalators through a new email alert notification system. Riders can sign up now at http://www.mta.info.

“We’re working harder than ever to ensure that our escalators and elevators operate as designed, but there are times when our equipment is out of service for planned maintenance or occasional outages,” said NYC Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast. “This new email alert will help our riders avoid the frustrating experience of arriving at a station only to find that the elevator or escalator isn’t working.”

While customers have been able to access elevator and escalator status on the MTA website since 2008, this additional step will automatically notify customers who sign up for the email alerts. The system as a whole was developed in-house by the Internet Applications Group of NYC Transit’s Technology & Information Services.

“With the addition of E&E alerts we are expanding our “Know Before You Go” philosophy of sharing information with customers regarding service conditions before they leave home, work or school. Given the need of customers with disabilities and those with medical issues who depend on these pieces of equipment during their daily commutes, we feel this will be a hugely beneficial and successful program,” said Paul J. Fleuranges, Senior Director of Corporate and Internal Communications.

Customers can subscribe to as many locations as they need. They can subscribe by borough and station. When they pick the station, they will be able to pick a particular elevator or escalator. After subscribing, customers will receive an alert when an outage occurs. A second email alert will be issued once that piece of equipment is back in operation.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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LIRR Launches Real Time Train Info Pilot

Posted by
on December 23rd, 2011 at 12:57 pm

In this day & age, real time information is available at our fingertips regardless of the subject matter. Unfortunately when it comes to the MTA, they have been far behind their peers in providing such information to its riding public. They have been trying to catch up so they deserve a little credit for that.

A few days ago, the agency announced the launch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) real time train information pilot. Here is more courtesy of the press release I received:

The MTA Long Island Rail Road today launched a pilot of LIRR Train Time™, a digital service that provides real-time train arrival status to customers using mobile devices or desktop computers. Starting today, LIRR customers using the Port Washington Branch will be able to use the service by going to http://mta.info/lirr/TrainTime. To use the service, a user enters his or her origin and destination, and Train Time will then provide upcoming departure times and indications showing whether each train is running on time or, if late, by how many minutes. Train Time also displays scheduled arrival time at the destination station, track assignments at most origin stations, and a chance to click for a list of each upcoming train’s intermediate stops.

“Each day, our customers are becoming more familiar with CooCoo text schedules and a wonderful, ever-growing availability of LIRR-related apps for iPhones, Android devices and Blackberries,” said Helena E. Williams, President of MTA Long Island Rail Road. “We’re delighted to take the next step to further improve the digital information that makes traveling on the LIRR easier and more rewarding. Now, our customers will be able to get access to the same convenient information offered by real-time electronic signs on our platforms, before they get to the station.”

Train Time uses real-time train location information provided by an enhanced state-of-the-art GPS system and from the LIRR’s signal system. Its graphic interface is based on the one used by Metro-North Train Time™, a similar service that launched last year. But because LIRR customers sometimes need to change trains at Jamaica or other stations, the Long Island Rail Road edition of Train Time has added space to show up to two transfers. Outside of Jamaica, the LIRR’s most common transfer points are Babylon, Hicksville, Huntington, Lynbrook, Mineola, Ronkonkoma and Valley Stream.

The LIRR is piloting its edition of Train Time on the Port Washington Branch because the branch does not connect with other branches at Jamaica. The transfer columns will remain blank during this pilot release. To the left of these columns, Train Time shows a train’s scheduled arrival time at the selected destination. And next to that, users can click on the “stops” button for each listed trip to view all the intermediate stops made by each train or combination of trains.

Train delays are shown in terms of number of minutes late. In keeping with U.S. industry-wide railroad standards for on-time performance, trains arriving within 5 minutes and 59 seconds of their scheduled time are listed as being on time.

Train Time on the Port Washington Branch has been beta tested by LIRR employees and some commuters selected by the LIRR Commuter’s Council. Now, Train Time invites the general public is invited to provide comments and reactions to the service via a link on its main page. The LIRR will make updates based on user comments before launching Train Time on the LIRR’s 10 other branches. Train Time has a survey link on the application page to help make it easier for customers to provide feedback on the product.

Because of the complex operational dynamics at Penn Station, where last-minute track changes can be made, LIRR Train Time™ does not show track assignments at Penn Station. Track assignments are available at all other participating stations.

LIRR Train Time™ is the latest in a series of initiatives the MTA has undertaken to increase the availability of digital service information. Other recent advances include subway countdown clocks, real-time bus tracking via MTA Bus Time™, a competition to encourage app development, two major overhauls to the MTA website, digital screens that provide service status information, release of machine-readable service and performance data on the MTA’s website, and more.

Long Island Rail Road Train Time™ is also available by going to http://mta.info/lirr and clicking on the “LIRR Train Time” link.

Hopefully riders take advantage of this information which leads to a successful pilot. Time shall tell……..

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Service Diversions 12-19-11

Posted by
on December 19th, 2011 at 5:01 am

I have just updated the Service Diversions by removing the work that wrapped up about a minutes ago. This week’s planned work has moved up the list.

The next update will be sometime on Thursday after I receive the press release from the MTA.

As always, if I hear or see anything worth noting, I will tweet about it so follow @TransitBlogger or click the button in the sidebar.

Stay safe & have a wonderful weekend.

xoxo Transit Blogger

P.S. Check out SurgeFM which opens later today.

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