Track Your Train Via the Web

Many commuters can recall a time when they've stood on the train platform, neck craned, eyes squinting, searching for any sign of their incoming train. Now Metro North has made it easy to know just when that ride is coming.

For Bedford and Katonah commuters with web-enabled smart phones, a glance down at MTA Train Time, available through the MTA homepage, provides real-time train status, up-to-the minute train arrival and departure information, train stops, track assignment, and final destination information for the next 12 trains at those stations.

Launched in January with 67 stations, the information is now available for all 96 stations, including Katonah and Bedford Hills.

"People expect to have the information on hand, in hand," said Dan Brucker, MTA spokesman. "It's the way everyone expects to have their information, and we had to bring it to our customers," he said.

From the MTA homepage, users click on the TrainTime logo, select a station from a drop-down menu and click "get status." Customers will now be able to see at-a- glance if their line is operating with "Good Service" or if there are unexpected "Delays," "Planned Work," or "Service Changes."

Bedford resident Dan O'Callaghan takes the train from the Bedford Hills station a few times a week but hadn't yet heard about the new web feature.  "It sounds useful, especially during the winter when there's a chance of a weather delay," he said. 

This web-based service follows the launch of an email and text message alert system over a year ago, which allows commuters to receive notice for all MTA agencies delivered to an unlimited number email addresses in the form of text messages to cellphones.

The MTA is making strides to provide more information to its customers before someone else does it first.  In 2008 StationStops for the iPhone was released, allowing commuters to store the Metro-North timetable in their phones with no internet connection needed. A legal skirmish followed, with the removal of StationStops from the iTunes store, and its eventual return (it's now available for $2.99 in iTunes).

With all of this technology available, will Bedford and Katonah riders (783 and 1,249 inbound riders daily, respectively) use it?

"Maybe," said O'Callaghan. "I find the trains pretty reliable up here though."