MTA announces digital enhancements

Digital initiatives that will improve its email and text-message service alerts, add to its trip-planning feature, and streamline its website were announced Monday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The enhancements mean the commuter service will increase the transparency of email and text-messaging with an archive, provide more functionality for TripPlanner+ and offer easier navigation at the MTA.info website, according to a news release.

The MTA has launched a comprehensive archive of all service alerts that have been issued via email and text message for all MTA services since its current MTA-wide email and text alert system began in October 2008, the release said.

The archive is updated in real-time, and is searchable by date.

The updated archive means a commuter can find old appointments and travel dates, the release said, and previously issued service alerts.

The archive has more than 58,600 individual entries, amounting to about 40 updates per day. Each entry contains the date and precise time the message was sent down to the hundredth of a second, the MTA agency that sent the alert, a subject and the body of the message. It is sorted to show the most recent updates first, according to the release.

"The MTA is the most transparent public transportation agency in the world," MTA chairman Joseph Lhota said in the release. "The inclusion of this information on the website furthers our transparency achievement by allowing members of the public to carefully scrutinize how we provide service-related information to our customers."

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

Bloggers or those who edit or control a website can now add a real-time feed of MTA email, text message alerts and the historical archive, by using the archive's RSS feed. The feed is accessible from the transparency menu as noted above, or at Mymtaalerts.com/rss.aspx.The MTA's TripPlanner+ function on its website now makes mention of any current service disruptions in trip-planning results.

"This one change means that TripPlanner+ moves from being essentially a static service that lets customers plan trips in an idealized abstract universe to one that understands and acknowledges how our system is working in real time," said Paul Fleuranges, senior director for corporate and internal communications.

The upgrade highlights delays in bold red letters in proposed trip plans and can help users plan an alternate itinerary.

The streamlined website generally means fewer links and also links that are easier to find, the release said.