Subwaytime and Google Transit "Real-Time" Schedules Have a Boat Load of Bugs...

[BrooklynIRT]

...as does the ATS that feeds the schedules seen in the stations, but when it comes to listing the trains, subwaytime and google seem worse. trains do not appear in the schedules until they are like 5 stops from their origins, there are ghost trains >5 stops from their origins (this also happens in ATS sometimes), and sometimes you have this really annoying thing where subwaytime and google think it takes 8 minutes for a train to get from Nereid to E 241 (subwaytime), Utica to Sutter (subwaytime), Church to Beverly (subwaytime), or Winthrop to Church (google).

 

weird. there are a few more bugs: trains seem to be duplicated at times etc.

[B35 via Church]

8 minutes between a 1 stop interval? Trains not showing up until like 5 stops from the origin? That's embarrassing...

 

Personally, I don't place much reliance on these technological notifications of sorts... I tend to get more miffed when I look up & see a train scheduled to arrive in the next 5 mins (for example), and you sit & clockwatch for 5 minutes and, nothing..... When in the subway, I actually put more stock in when you hear the person on the speaker inform you that the next train is "one station away".....

 

If subwaytime & google transit are that bad, then they should go back to the drawing board.....

[Via Garibaldi 8]

8 minutes between a 1 stop interval? Trains not showing up until like 5 stops from the origin? That's embarrassing...

 

Personally, I don't place much reliance on these technological notifications of sorts... I tend to get more miffed when I look up & see a train scheduled to arrive in the next 5 mins (for example), and you sit & clockwatch for 5 minutes and, nothing..... When in the subway, I actually put more stock in when you hear the person on the speaker inform you that the next train is "one station away".....

 

If subwaytime & google transit are that bad, then they should go back to the drawing board.....

That's funny because the other day I was waiting at Columbus Circle and that lady came over the speaker saying that an express train was one station away... I was like "great" (sarcasm) now is it an or a ...  I use these gadgets as a guide more than anything and they're usually not too bad though the countdown clocks from what I've noticed are relatively accurate on the Lex line.  It seems like the train usually arrives sooner than what the clock states though.

[LRG]

Yeah, I was waiting for an train yesterday. The clock said the train was two minutes away, but 30 seconds later the train came.

[B35 via Church]

That's funny because the other day I was waiting at Columbus Circle and that lady came over the speaker saying that an express train was one station away... I was like "great" (sarcasm) now is it an or a ...  I use these gadgets as a guide more than anything and they're usually not too bad though the countdown clocks from what I've noticed are relatively accurate on the Lex line.  It seems like the train usually arrives sooner than what the clock states though.

Same deal when I used to take the brighton to work (back when the B was running on the local track due to the construction).... Sometimes they wouldn't denote express or local on the speaker, so you were left with that guessing game of sorts (which I can live with).... With me, the thing was, although the B puts me off much closer, I would take whatever train was the least crowded (which fortunately on most occasions used to be the B)... I could imagine how things are on the brighton in the mornings now; and I don't miss it one bit either.....

 

Whenever I'm coming from that area (columbus circle), I tend to have decent luck catching the B, moreso than C's pulling in first & having to wait for a B..... as for the express, it's the other way around... A's usually tend to come before D's....

 

As far as the countdown clocks go, yeah, they're pretty accurate on the Lex... But back when I used to take the 7th av line (1 to the 2) home, the clock for the 1 used to be off by minutes after the 7-8 o'clock hours.... There would be times when the countdown clock said 5,6,7 mins. away (for the next incoming train) & all of a sudden, you see a 1 roaring through christopher st.... The opposite used to happen as well, where I would get out around 8 o'clock or w/e, and I'm sitting there 10 minutes after the next incoming train was supposed to arrive in 1 minute..... I would sit & say to myself, this damn thing's been on 1 minute for the past 10 minutes.... Lol.....

 

I should hope that's still not the case along 7th av....

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Same deal when I used to take the brighton to work (back when the B was running on the local track due to the construction).... Sometimes they wouldn't denote express or local on the speaker, so you were left with that guessing game of sorts (which I can live with).... With me, the thing was, although the B puts me off much closer, I would take whatever train was the least crowded (which fortunately on most occasions used to be the B)... I could imagine how things are on the brighton in the mornings now; and I don't miss it one bit either.....

 

Whenever I'm coming from that area (columbus circle), I tend to have decent luck catching the B, moreso than C's pulling in first & having to wait for a B..... as for the express, it's the other way around... A's usually tend to come before D's....

 

As far as the countdown clocks go, yeah, they're pretty accurate on the Lex... But back when I used to take the 7th av line (1 to the 2) home, the clock for the 1 used to be off by minutes after the 7-8 o'clock hours.... There would be times when the countdown clock said 5,6,7 mins. away (for the next incoming train) & all of a sudden, you see a 1 roaring through christopher st.... The opposite used to happen as well, where I would get out around 8 o'clock or w/e, and I'm sitting there 10 minutes after the next incoming train was supposed to arrive in 1 minute..... I would sit & say to myself, this damn thing's been on 1 minute for the past 10 minutes.... Lol.....

 

I should hope that's still not the case along 7th av....

lol... I have HORRIBLE luck with the in Manhattan... A little better in Brooklyn... I'm sorry but ever since I found out that the subways actually have schedules, I downloaded the lines that I tend to use the most and especially the ones with kind of sh*tty headways where I seem to wait an eternity for a train... Those would be the , and . I have the downloaded as well though that train is frequent but I like to see which trains hook up with the express trains so that my waits can be as short as possible and when I do use the now I can pretty much get an express train within minutes if not almost simultaneously as I get off of a .

[BrooklynIRT]

Same deal when I used to take the brighton to work (back when the B was running on the local track due to the construction).... Sometimes they wouldn't denote express or local on the speaker, so you were left with that guessing game of sorts (which I can live with).... With me, the thing was, although the B puts me off much closer, I would take whatever train was the least crowded (which fortunately on most occasions used to be the B)... I could imagine how things are on the brighton in the mornings now; and I don't miss it one bit either.....

 

Whenever I'm coming from that area (columbus circle), I tend to have decent luck catching the B, moreso than C's pulling in first & having to wait for a B..... as for the express, it's the other way around... A's usually tend to come before D's....

 

As far as the countdown clocks go, yeah, they're pretty accurate on the Lex... But back when I used to take the 7th av line (1 to the 2) home, the clock for the 1 used to be off by minutes after the 7-8 o'clock hours.... There would be times when the countdown clock said 5,6,7 mins. away (for the next incoming train) & all of a sudden, you see a 1 roaring through christopher st.... The opposite used to happen as well, where I would get out around 8 o'clock or w/e, and I'm sitting there 10 minutes after the next incoming train was supposed to arrive in 1 minute..... I would sit & say to myself, this damn thing's been on 1 minute for the past 10 minutes.... Lol.....

 

I should hope that's still not the case along 7th av....

everything in bold still happens quite a bit, except clocks being on 1 minute for the past 10 minutes. something similar happens only when you have a train scheduled to arrive in 1 minute but its leader is already in the station so the follower closes in on the leader and the clock goes to 0 minutes and the guy says the follower is approaching but the follower must wait and sometimes the follower disappears from the board since the board has said 0 minutes for too long (see President St).

 

and as Via said, clocks tend to jump from 2 or 3 minutes to 0 minutes. usually on the busiest parts of these lines (West Side line south of W 96, East Side south of E 125, and much of the Brooklyn IRT). sometimes the clocks even north of W 96 will say there is a 20-minute gap b/w uptown trains and that the one to show up at the end of the 20-minute gap will end at W 238 (both of which are false as almost nothing ends there and intermediate trains do appear eventually, or sometimes you have total ghost trains until the train actually approaches the station and the guy usually says there is a train approaching the uptown local track).

 

the other day, a weekday, I waited for a s/b at E 174. it was about 12:30. a came as I was ascending stairs. then it left. then another came ~5 minutes later and all the other trains were up there like they should have been. but it said no for like another 19 minutes. then after the second came the board finally said there would be a 3 minutes after and it came in 3 minutes. then the following went up on the board, scheduled to come 8 minutes later.

[bobtehpanda]

Same deal when I used to take the brighton to work (back when the B was running on the local track due to the construction).... Sometimes they wouldn't denote express or local on the speaker, so you were left with that guessing game of sorts (which I can live with).... With me, the thing was, although the B puts me off much closer, I would take whatever train was the least crowded (which fortunately on most occasions used to be the B)... I could imagine how things are on the brighton in the mornings now; and I don't miss it one bit either.....

 

Whenever I'm coming from that area (columbus circle), I tend to have decent luck catching the B, moreso than C's pulling in first & having to wait for a B..... as for the express, it's the other way around... A's usually tend to come before D's....

 

As far as the countdown clocks go, yeah, they're pretty accurate on the Lex... But back when I used to take the 7th av line (1 to the 2) home, the clock for the 1 used to be off by minutes after the 7-8 o'clock hours.... There would be times when the countdown clock said 5,6,7 mins. away (for the next incoming train) & all of a sudden, you see a 1 roaring through christopher st.... The opposite used to happen as well, where I would get out around 8 o'clock or w/e, and I'm sitting there 10 minutes after the next incoming train was supposed to arrive in 1 minute..... I would sit & say to myself, this damn thing's been on 1 minute for the past 10 minutes.... Lol.....

 

I should hope that's still not the case along 7th av....

 

It probably has to do with the fact that the subwaytime is based on the signal blocks, and not the actual physical location of the train itself - the clocks at Penn for southbound expresses don't display a time shorter than 2 minutes because of this.

 

Yeah, I was waiting for an train yesterday. The clock said the train was two minutes away, but 30 seconds later the train came.

 

Theoretically, the CBTC constantly monitors the train's position and should have a more accurate time, but didn't they get into a dispute with Siemens or some other manufacturer in regards to these specific clocks?

 

lol... I have HORRIBLE luck with the in Manhattan... A little better in Brooklyn... I'm sorry but ever since I found out that the subways actually have schedules, I downloaded the lines that I tend to use the most and especially the ones with kind of sh*tty headways where I seem to wait an eternity for a train... Those would be the , and . I have the downloaded as well though that train is frequent but I like to see which trains hook up with the express trains so that my waits can be as short as possible and when I do use the now I can pretty much get an express train within minutes if not almost simultaneously as I get off of a .

 

The and run like clockwork, but if they didn't, QBL overcrowding would endanger lives...

 

I find that the is an awful train line to be waiting for, but I'm not sure as to if that's the crap scheduling or reliability issues, or both.