MTA continues to confuse riders by not updating or fixing NTT Programs before Planned Work.

[Lawrence St]

On multiple occasions this year, the has confused riders by not updating, fixing, or adding programs to their New Tech Train fleet before the start of planned work. Is there no team to check and make sure that these train programs are functioning right before they publish them to the rest of the train fleet? Why are the newer programs no longer as detailed as they were prior to 2019? When will they start actually fix these issues BEFORE the start of planned work?

Some of these examples include;

to 145th Street G.O. For the first week, all trains kept announcing "This is a Myrtle-Wycoff Av bound train", confusing riders.

to 96th St G.O. When this program was originally made, the trains kept saying "This is a Queens bound local train", creating a ton of confusion at 57th St. While this was recently fixed, the announcements still dont explain that it's running on the line. This is the same problem with the . How come newer programs no longer announce the lines that they're running on? For example, "This is a 96th St bound train, via the line."

to East 180th St G.O. There was no program made, which caused a ton of confusion along White Plains Road and Lexington Avenue as multiple trains were signed up as various destinations for the first weekend. 

to Metropolitan Avenue G.O. There was no program made, and caused a LOT of confusion at Myrtle Av as trains were signed up to Broadway Junction or the Automated System turned off, despite there being an program from Broad St to Metropolitan Av, which would have worked better in this scenario.

Thoughts on these issues?

[Lex]

6 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

On multiple occasions this year, the has confused riders by not updating, fixing, or adding programs to their New Tech Train fleet before the start of planned work. Is there no team to check and make sure that these train programs are functioning right before they publish them to the rest of the train fleet? Why are the newer programs no longer as detailed as they were prior to 2019? When will they start actually fix these issues BEFORE the start of planned work?

Some of these examples include;

to 145th Street G.O. For the first week, all trains kept announcing "This is a Myrtle-Wycoff Av bound train", confusing riders.

to 96th St G.O. When this program was originally made, the trains kept saying "This is a Queens bound local train", creating a ton of confusion at 57th St. While this was recently fixed, the announcements still dont explain that it's running on the line. This is the same problem with the . How come newer programs no longer announce the lines that they're running on? For example, "This is a 96th St bound train, via the line."

to East 180th St G.O. There was no program made, which caused a ton of confusion along White Plains Road and Lexington Avenue as multiple trains were signed up as various destinations for the first weekend. 

to Metropolitan Avenue G.O. There was no program made, and caused a LOT of confusion at Myrtle Av as trains were signed up to Broadway Junction or the Automated System turned off, despite there being an program from Broad St to Metropolitan Av, which would have worked better in this scenario.

Thoughts on these issues?

That  one could've been avoided if they just used the  designation. (The same goes for that  scenario with regards to the , as does that " to Burnside Avenue" crap they pulled with regards to the .) 

[Lawrence St]

34 minutes ago, Lex said:

That  one could've been avoided if they just used the  designation. (The same goes for that  scenario with regards to the , as does that " to Burnside Avenue" crap they pulled with regards to the .) 

Isn't that what they did during the 2nd weekend of that G.O?

[Kamen Rider]

Because they have to manually install the program in each unit. 
 

some service changes, like the M on CPW, are so rare, what’s the point of having to reprogram ENY’s entire roster for a reroute that’s only going to be used for a few days?

I mean, they knew about the 2010 changes months ahead of time, and yet most of the NTTs ran announcements and finds off for the first few weeks until their inspection turns came up, after the changes went into effect.

[Lawrence St]

1 hour ago, Kamen Rider said:

Because they have to manually install the program in each unit. 
 

some service changes, like the M on CPW, are so rare, what’s the point of having to reprogram ENY’s entire roster for a reroute that’s only going to be used for a few days?

I mean, they knew about the 2010 changes months ahead of time, and yet most of the NTTs ran announcements and finds off for the first few weeks until their inspection turns came up, after the changes went into effect.

I disagree with this. When they created the to 145th St program, did they not check their work or test it out before implementing it to the rest of the ENY units?

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

4 hours ago, Lex said:

That  one could've been avoided if they just used the  designation. (The same goes for that  scenario with regards to the , as does that " to Burnside Avenue" crap they pulled with regards to the .) 

Surprisingly, there wasn't too much confusion (from what I've seen) with the  to Burnside.

It's much easier to denote them as  to Burnside and run them express than to describe that "select  trains will run express from 149th Street to Burnside Avenue, and end", and "select trains terminate at Bowling Green", because it wasn't a 50-50 split of each. Also, that in itself makes things much more complicated for those going to Bronx and Brooklyn destinations. If  trains made stops at 161st and 167th, there would be a lot of time wasted by having conductors explain that the train only goes to Burnside (specifically at 161st). Going southbound, most people should realize that the  will make the same stops as the  up to Bowling Green and that they run on the same line into Manhattan, so it wouldn't be too confusing for  train riders.

Edited October 22, 2019 by BM5 via Woodhaven

[Kamen Rider]

3 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

I disagree with this. When they created the to 145th St program, did they not check their work or test it out before implementing it to the rest of the ENY units?

You’re assuming they actually created a program.

Unless they have finally gotten around to updating the process (you never know with the MTA) the trains have to be brought into the shop and be hooked up to a special computer (I’ve seen the one that was at East 180th), something that takes time to cycle through.

 

you are assuming they had time to do all that.  

[Lex]

7 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Isn't that what they did during the 2nd weekend of that G.O?

That's what they did before that G.O., so why they decided not to for that one weekend is beyond me.

[Lawrence St]

On 10/22/2019 at 2:31 AM, Lex said:

That's what they did before that G.O., so why they decided not to for that one weekend is beyond me.

Let's see how long it takes them to fix this train to Burnside Av since 138th St uptown is going to close soon.

[Lance]

I suppose the better question that needs to be asked is, why can't this be done remotely? It's 2019. One shouldn't need to physically plug into the onboard computers to update the system these days. Naturally, that will be an added expense, but considering the existing hardware likely needs replacement anyhow, perhaps it's a good idea to look into.

Side question: how are the digital ads updated on the 142s/160s?

[Jsunflyguy]

1 hour ago, Lance said:

I suppose the better question that needs to be asked is, why can't this be done remotely? It's 2019. One shouldn't need to physically plug into the onboard computers to update the system these days. Naturally, that will be an added expense, but considering the existing hardware likely needs replacement anyhow, perhaps it's a good idea to look into.

Side question: how are the digital ads updated on the 142s/160s?

It is according to my calendar, also 2019 over here. The problem is that NTT trains aren't from 2019 they are builds and rehashes of technology from the R110 and the first generation NTTs. Under the hood the computer programs are still of the Windows XP/Windows 2000 ilk. The downside to wanting interoperability between manufacturers of the same type is every has to build to the Lowest Common Denominator, as such no party is going to be interested in re-doing the coding under the hood from the basic structure that was developed forever-and-a-half-ago. I'm not sure what hardware you're speculating needs replacement so I won't comment,

Speaking to the technological implementation, be careful what you wish for. Here at the LIRR we have an ASI that is primarily drawn from a remote telemetry system, in Penn Station and Atlantic Terminal this system is often overwhelmed  and will take several minutes to download, or will fail entirely leading the crew to have to manually program the system.  I think the intent was for the MTA to be able to put in notices and special announcements without crew intervention but because of this short coming in never worked out. 

The application in NYCT will face similar shortcomings especially considering the prolonged periods underground and the apparent poor radio reception that exists in many parts of the system.

[Jemorie]

On 10/21/2019 at 12:43 PM, Lawrence St said:

to East 180th St G.O. There was no program made, which caused a ton of confusion along White Plains Road and Lexington Avenue as multiple trains were signed up as various destinations for the first weekend.

That is why the following weekend and onward, they suspended the  completely and replaced it with the . There is already a  program from Utica Av/New Lots Av to Dyre Av anyway so.