Hey Commuters, No More Texts from Metro North: Switch to the App

By Lanning Taliaferro (Patch Staff)

Metro-North advises riders who request train schedules, real-time track assignments and train status updates via text message to 266266 to switch to smartphone apps instead.

CooCoo, the company that provides text messaging service free of charge to LIRR and Metro-North customers, is ending the service Sept. 26.

“Due to the changing nature of technology and the rising cost of SMS, CooCoo will focus on providing this service to transit riders through mobile applications,” CooCoo’s Co-Founder, Ryan Thompson, told the MTA.

If you use a smartphone, you can can continue to get the same information by downloading the MTA’s official Train Time apps for Android and iPhone, or by accessing the apps through the web.

A number of third party apps have been also developed using a raw data feed from the MTA. Many of the apps can be found at the MTA’s App Gallery, at web.mta.info/apps

MTA officials recommend the LIRR Train Time and Metro-North Train Time apps, saying they are free, user-friendly, and have been praised for easy functionality by many users. The apps show when the next trains are due at your station, whether each train is running on time, and which track each one is slated to use.

The apps have been downloaded more than 200,000 times since they debuted in December 2013.

For more information about downloading Metro-North Train Time, visit this link.

It is available without a download by using it through any web browser on a mobile phone, tablet or desktop computer. The mobile versions of the Train Time apps are available at the MTA’s mobile website, m.mta.info

• Metro-North Train Time for mobile web is available here:http://m.mta.info/mt/as0.mta.info/mnr/mstations/default.cfm
• Metro-North Train Time for desktop is available here:http://as0.mta.info/mnr/mstations/default.cfm
• LIRR Train Time for mobile web is available here:http://m.mta.info/mt/wx3.lirr.org/lirr/TrainTime/
• LIRR Train Time for desktop is available here:http://wx3.lirr.org/lirr/TrainTime/