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It's no secret that the New York City subway is a delay-ridden mess. And while the MTA embarks on a years long quest to make key fixes to bring the system into the 21st century, straphangers are left, well, hanging. When service grinds to a halt and platforms become sardine-packed, passengers aren't just left with a miserable, lengthy commuter—they're also often unable to receive any updates on the status of their train.
A new app aims to change that.
On Monday, the MTA released a test version of MYmta for Apple and Android devices, which provides an interface that, among other things, displays real-time arrival and service status information for subways, buses and commuter trains. If a train is experiencing a delay, the app explains why (in a much more user-friendly fashion than New York City Transit's official Twitter account).
The app is a major improvement from the MTA's existing train tracker, Subway Time. The new tech has built-in wayfinding that provides slightly more detailed information than Google Maps or CityMapper, and it tracks escalator and elevator outages in real-time, which is a big win for handicapped New Yorkers.
Eventually, the MTA plans to include status updates on the city's bridges and tunnels as well.
The MTA tested the app earlier this year with a select group of 2,000 riders. Now, the authority is soliciting feedback from the public at large with its beta.
MYmta’s release also comes a month after the debut of another subway tracking app, Pigeon, which compiles reports of delays and incidents from users not unlike Google's Waze app. Whether or not either of the apps take off in a big way remains to be seen, but New Yorkers can at least take solace in the fact that they now have more information at their fingertips to use to plan a quicker, less stressful commute.
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