Know Before You Go Into the Snowicane

I got an email from Metro-North Tuesday informing me I’d been picked to fill out an e-questionnaire regarding the railroad’s email and text message alerts.

“To help us continue to improve this system, we are asking selected subscribers to complete a brief online survey.  This will take about five minutes to complete and your responses will remain completely confidential,” it wrote. “Please help the MTA make its email and text message alerts more useful by providing the kind of information you need to make travel decisions easier and faster.”

I did the thing and, frankly, gave it low marks because I can’t remember the last time I got an email alert from Metro-North.

I searched my email box for Metro-North, MNR and MTA, and got my weekly CleverCommute news, my monthly Mail N Ride statements, and of course the questionnaire from earlier in the week. My box goes back to October and I didn’t see a single service alert. I haven’t seen one in my spam folder either. Not one!

And today, we’ve got a snowicane/blizzicane/Norbeaster, and nothing from Metro-North either.

So, yes, I suppose the alert service could be a little more useful.

For a much better way to get updates from Metro-North, email their PR people and tell them you’ve got some sort of wacky commuter blog or something. Metro-North’s updates to reporters are timely and informative; it’s odd that the railroad sees its relationship with reporters–most of whom do not ride Metro-North each day, and probably don’t report on it very often–as being much more important than its relationship with riders.

I got this a few minutes ago:

Because we expect ridership will be lighter than usual tomorrow morning, (Friday February 26) Metro-North plans to operate a slightly reduced schedule during the AM peak. About two dozen trains will be affected, either by elimination or combination.  The details will be posted shortly on the website (mta.info)

The trains selected were chosen to impact the fewest people.  As a result of these changes, the maximum additional wait for the next train will be less than 15 minutes.

In addition, customers can expect minor delays due to slow boarding on snowy platforms.

Crews are working and will be working all night to clear platforms, stairs and walkways.  Additionally track workers and signal maintainers are deployed to keep tracks and switches clear.

We will update you if and when conditions change. 

Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I got an alert from CleverCommute either, which relies on riders to submit their own train delay updates to members’ emails. I do get the CleverCommute track report each day, which tells me what track my train is on. Frankly I don’t use this anymore; I pass a departures monitor in Grand Central, which is easier for finding my track then pulling up my Blackberry and opening an email. I don’t know that you could enter Grand Central anywhere and not come in contact with a departures screen.

CC tells you to check the board anyway–PLEASE CONFIRM TRACK BEFORE BOARDING, it reads–which makes the service somewhat useless, at least in my opinion.

Plus, my train has been on the same track for months and months. An alert would be useful should it ever be on another track.