Information boards providing train arrival and departure times will be added to 131 stations over the next year, but it will take until 2014 for every subway platform to be equipped, MTA officials said yesterday.
Even though some stations on the L line have that capability now, another 131 are being added by September 2006, officials told lawmakers yesterday at the City Council’s Transportation Com- mittee.
The new system gives “date, the time of day and this one will have more detailed information about where the next train is, how far is it,” said Kevin O’Connell, the MTA’s chief transportation officer.
“It’s a better system than we have today,” he added.
The hearing was often contentious, as O’Connell took umbrage at suggestions the MTA hasn’t prioritized communications.
The hearing came on the heels of a critical report by the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA which found that despite exceptional performance during the 9/11 terror attacks and the blackout of 2003, the agency’s communications systems are extremely weak.
The installation of the Public Address/Customer Information System in all stations was supposed to have been completed by 2009, but was delayed for budgetary reasons.
Lawmakers fumed that many stations don’t even have microphones and speakers that can heard everywhere.
“The token both is actually two flights of stairs below the elevated platform,” Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx) said of his own subway stop.