Bostonist: T Tries Novel Idea: Telling People When Trains Will Come

Caroline Roberts

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:26:48 -0500

Have they considered partnering with NextBus, which is quite reliable? If they're already installing the GPS, then NextBus can the times. MIT is already working with them.

Michael Femia

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:22:27 -0500

Yeah, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to be seamless and useful.

Kerry Skemp

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:12:42 -0500

well, they're adding GPS to the buses, too, so (in theory?) they would be able to have phone operators check on the GPS positioning and tell you how far away / off schedule the buses are. but god knows how long that would take and how much money it would cost to implement.

kenmore

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:43:55 -0500

Yeah.. could they please stop making improvements to things that don't need to be improved and then jacking the T fare every other year. The old trains worked better than the new ones, the tokens worked better than the passes, I don't need the buses to be 48 degrees during the summer, and then 104 degrees when the air conditioners are broken because we can't just open the windows anymore. We don't need to know how late the bus is going to be. Stop making "improvements" and just try having buses and trains run on time, all the time for at a minimal fare.

Michael Femia

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:04:35 -0500

Telling us scheduled arrival times will do exactly Jack Shit. It would be nicer to call and have them say, "You might as well stay home and spend the next 10 minutes eating an English muffin, because if you just go to the bus stop now you'll wait and wait and then two 116s, a 117 and a 114 will arrive in a convoy," as happened this morning.