"Will Next Be Installed in Stamford"

This was the blessed phrase I read in the "Mileposts" publication this past week.  It's the triple fold pamphlet that the MTA leaves on Metro North seats for commuters to flick onto the floor and trample all over.  Who reads those, you might say?  Me, apparently...

The big fat take away for me appeared under the heading …As Well As Our Real-Time Information…and said that platform signs with real time information about trains will be coming to Stamford!

Here's why this is deeply meaningful. Commuters like me now camp out in the waiting area above the tracks gawking slack jawed at two small monitors with train info. During peak hours, trains might be mere moments apart but take drastically different amounts of time to get your suited seat to work. For example, the 7:22 takes 49 minutes, where as the 7:25 takes 57 minutes.

The monitor says generally what the deal is - but it's entirely possible at at 7:23, you could be stepping on either version of this train.  Generally, as each train approaches, you hear Charlie Brown's teacher grumbling overhead and a hushed, worried whispering of "do you know which train this is??"

What an innovation to have an electronic board overhead that says "hey dummy! this ain't your train." It seems ridiculous that this didn't happen ages ago, but I'll take progress whenever it chugs along.