At the risk of completely doxxing myself, here is a picture taken today of the Malden Center MBTA station, inbound track side:
The ipad-looking devices in the center of this photograph are TV screens. They cycle between advertisements and mask advisories. Now, if you have ever rode the MBTA for any consistent period, you are certainly aware that the service is supremely inconsistent. Stations close suddenly all the time, delays are rampant, wait times are long, and sometimes they have you switch trains three times in a single trip for seemingly no reason. The orange line seems especially prone to these issues, but I am biased there.
Today, the stations between North Station and Back Bay were shut down. A shuttle service, buses (or a single bus, not certain), picked up the slack. My girlfriend and I were not made aware of this until some time into the trip when the train operator mumbled the situation into the microphone. This was actually pretty good for the Orange Line. Sometimes I am not aware the train has stopped its service until I look up from my phone to realize I am one of the only people left in an idle train while an angry voice spams me to get the hell off. These are rude surprises, and can extend thirty minute train rides into hour-long affairs, but at least we were aware this time.
It hit me, however, that there is no information about delays or closures anywhere in any of the stations. Sometimes the largest stations have attendants yelling about these things, but Malden Center is not one of these. It hit me that we have these fancy new ipad screens plastered all over the station and they function purely as revenue machines, ad space. Wouldn’t it be amazing if these things actually conveyed some useful information? How hard would it be to hook them into some kind of network and set them up to provide information about closures and delays? That way, I can know what I am getting into before I get on the train. It would be even better if this information were displayed BEFORE paying the fare, so I can save myself three dollars and go home.