New Countdown Clock Announcement on Lex Av

[PMac18]

I was just at 125th Street waiting for a train and noticed the male announcement voice was different when announcing when the next train will arrive.

 

Instead of: "The next uptown express train to Pelham Bay Park will arrive in 2 minutes."

It was saying: "There is an uptown express train to Pelham Bay Park 2 minutes away."

 

I thought I was hearing things or it was malfunctioning at first because of all the train noise, but when I finally heard it clearly I was like okay, it is different!

 

It's a little confusing, because I'm so use to hearing "There is a..." and thinking a train is actually arriving, but now it says "There is..." for everything, instead of "The next..."

 

I don't know how I feel about it yet.

[jon2305]

I was just at 125th Street waiting for a train and noticed the male announcement voice was different when announcing when the next train will arrive.

 

Instead of: "The next uptown express train to Pelham Bay Park will arrive in 2 minutes."

It was saying: "There is an uptown express train to Pelham Bay Park 2 minutes away."

 

I thought I was hearing things or it was malfunctioning at first because of all the train noise, but when I finally heard it clearly I was like okay, it is different!

 

It's a little confusing, because I'm so use to hearing "There is a..." and thinking a train is actually arriving, but now it says "There is..." for everything, instead of "The next..."

 

I don't know how I feel about it yet.

I'm use to the usual "train approaching the station" as well. Now with this announcement it sort of feels like a tease that a train is coming but instead its telling how far away the next train is.

[DoubleL]

Gonna take some getting used to

[Kamen Rider]

sometimes they just feel like making changes.

 

The R143s used to say they were "Canarsie bound", not "Rockaway Parkway bound" and the celling display did not have a distinct "the next stop is" display, just flipping through the time, the last stop and "X Next".

[checkmatechamp13]

It sounds like some of the IND announcements they make at stations like 59th/CC and 145th Street.

[MysteriousBtrain]

Well it looks like only Lex Av has these new announcements at the moment. When I went to 145 St on the , it still had "the next X train to" announcements instead of the newer "There is an X train" announcements.

[Lance]

I'm still waiting on them to fix the glitch where the announcement plays before the PA system turns on. For quite some time, we've heard "[The]re is an uptown express 4 train..." and "[Plea]se step aside..." with the parts in the brackets cut off. Maybe they can fit that fix in sometime between one of the unnecessary announcement changes.

[bstar1]

At Chambers St on line announcement says "There is an uptown train 4minutes away, then again " There is an uptown train 4minutes away, and it doesn't say approaching the station.

[Around the Horn]

 For quite some time, we've heard "[The]re is an uptown express 4 train..." and "[Plea]se step aside..." with the parts in the brackets cut off.

^ Every day at Astor Place

The announcement doesn't start until the train is in the station too. It'll say the is two minutes away when you can already see the headlights coming around that curve.

[Lance]

... and the celling display did not have a distinct "the next stop is" display, just flipping through the time, the last stop and "X Next".

There actually is a legitimate reason behind this change. When the 142s used this programming schematic, the text got cut off for some of the longer-named stations due to the extra wide spaces between the words on those particular displays. In fact, to this day, the text for the Suspicious Activities PSA will get chopped off due to length. The message was changed to "THE NEXT STOP IS" to fix this error and since the cars are likely programmed with the 142s in mind, that coding has carried over to the rest of the NTT fleet, despite both the 143s and 160s originally being programmed to show "<X> NEXT". I base that belief on such abbreviations on the 160s like "ATLANTC-BARCLAYS" and "JAY-METROTECH" despite there being plenty of space on the 160 interior displays.

[Javier]

Speaking of announcements, (old news but whatever) the has the station announcements, but only announce "There is a Queens Bound" or "There is a Manhattan Bound". It doesn't actually announce the terminals which is odd, but why was the the only IRT line to not receive functional countdown clocks?

[Fresh Pond]

sometimes they just feel like making changes.

 

The R143s used to say they were "Canarsie bound", not "Rockaway Parkway bound" and the celling display did not have a distinct "the next stop is" display, just flipping through the time, the last stop and "X Next".

They changed the names to 2 stations too

 

Broadway Junction use to be displayed as BROADWAY JCT, and Bushwick-Aberdeen was just displayed as BUSHWICK AV.

[LTA1992]

I heard it for the first time yesterday at Allerton Avenue station and had to turn everything I was listening to off because I thought I was crazy.

[Around the Horn]

I base that belief on such abbreviations on the 160s like "ATLANTC-BARCLAYS" and "JAY-METROTECH" despite there being plenty of space on the 160 interior displays.

Actually, the interior signs are programmed to show the same abbreviations as the exterior signs, which can't fit as many letters.

That's why you'll see "BWAY JUNCTION", "FOREST HILLS-71", "KEW GRDNS-UNION" and the like (also the and only show "ASTORIA-DITMARS" even though it clearly fits the interior display) .

 

Also if you look at pictures of the R143 when they were delivered, both the interior and exterior originally showed "8 AV MANHATTN" and were changed to "8 AV-14 ST" around the same time.

[RollOver]

The Broadway-7 Avenue Line and the Brooklyn IRT also have the updated announcements on the train arrival message boards as well.

[MysteriousBtrain]

The Broadway-7 Avenue Line and the Brooklyn IRT also have the updated announcements on the train arrival message boards as well.

Looks like every IRT station has thus upgrade now.

[paulrivera]

Looks like every IRT station has thus upgrade now.

Even the terminals. Now a train will be "5 minutes away" when it's already at the terminal station waiting to depart.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Even the terminals. Now a train will be "5 minutes away" when it's already at the terminal station waiting to depart.

I really HATE the new announcements. I became accustomed to hearing the next Southbound such and such train is now arriving.  Now they use the same announcement whether a train is approaching the station or several minutes away.  It seems as if they do it on purpose to try to calm people down.  I also notice that the trains usually arrive a minute or two before they are supposed to.

[Around the Horn]

 The message was changed to "THE NEXT STOP IS" to fix this error and since the cars are likely programmed with the 142s in mind, that coding has carried over to the rest of the NTT fleet, despite both the 143s and 160s originally being programmed to show "<X> NEXT". I base that belief on such abbreviations on the 160s like "ATLANTC-BARCLAYS" and "JAY-METROTECH" despite there being plenty of space on the 160 interior displays.

Late reply I know...

but the R142As actually fully spell out ATLANTIC-BARCLAYS unlike the R160.

[jon2305]

I really HATE the new announcements. I became accustomed to hearing the next Southbound such and such train is now arriving. Now they use the same announcement whether a train is approaching the station or several minutes away. It seems as if they do it on purpose to try to calm people down. I also notice that the trains usually arrive a minute or two before they are supposed to.

Im with you on that matter. Why change the announcements to begin with.

[Around the Horn]

Perfectly fine the way they were...

[DoubleL]

Even the terminals. Now a train will be "5 minutes away" when it's already at the terminal station waiting to depart.

 

I feel like terminals should have the train announcements: "The next ____ bound train will depart in approximately ___ minutes"

[Around the Horn]

I feel like terminals should have the train announcements: "The next ____ bound train will depart in approximately ___ minutes"

I agree with that.

[paulrivera]

Yeah, why fix something that wasn't broken? Now the countdown clocks at the terminals are broken again (they were broken in the beginning of the activation phase too, they would say the next train "will arrive in XX minutes" for a terminating train.)

[onthe1train]

Sitting on the at 96th, southbound with the doors open

 

"There is a..."

 

people stand up

 

"...downtown express train to Flatbush Avenue / Brooklyn College..."

 

people exit the car

 

"...six minutes away."

 

people find their seats again

 

It's seriously confusing.