AMNY Subway Tracker

The city council will convene a hearing on cell phone service in the subways Thursday. Council members Gail Brewer and John Liu will "review the capabilities and limitations of the system." The MTA already approved a pilot program of six cell and wifi accessible stations that will eventually expand to all stations. Brewer said she wants to probe whether service on the 277 platforms enhances security. She also wants to know what text services, if any, may be paired with cell phone and wifi service, offering customers a line into the MTA or a way to communicate with each other. MTA officials are looking into a text message alert service for Transit customers. The service was one recommendation from the flood report that probed the MTA's response to August's transit crippling floods. Transit officials will be at the hearing to take questions from the council's transportation and technology committees.

To the surprise of no one, the MTA board put its rubber stamp on cell phones in subway stations today.
Transit Wireless will roll out cell phone and WiFi access in six stations during the next two years. After New York City Transit OKs the company's handiwork, the other 271 will be outfitted in the following four years.

(via flickr's rich_gersh)

The MTA has been dragging its feet when it comes to making subway platforms cell phone-accessible, Congressman Anthony Weiner and Councilman John Liu said today. They pushed for at least 911 call and text messaging access on platforms, saying the access could have helped riders during last week's transit meltdown. Weiner also floated the idea of text message alerts about service outages like those caused by the storms, and MTA board member Andrew Albert backed that idea in a phone interview. He said text alerts were briefly talked about when Transit decided to put out weekly e-mails about weekend service outages. "I don't think it's been a plan before, but I think it's a fine one," Albert said.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens) says the House Transportation Committee will allow federal dollars to be used for “establishing emergency 911 cell service in subway stations and on subway platforms.”

Remember, the MTA is still weighing a big from a consortium of wireless providers to rig stations for cell phone use. But Weiner called that project a “stalemate.”

“Tragedies like the Indian subway attack and New York City subway slashings provide clear examples of why we need better communications networks in our subways,” said Weiner.

Today if people had full cell phone service in the stations, they’d all be calling the MTA customer line to ask where the hell there train is. Probably overload the system.

-- Chuck Bennett