“Customer Information Displays” Have Gone Live

Located in the pre-fare lobbies, the new digital signage is dedicated exclusively to real-time information that will help riders make the most informed decisions about their commutes.

The first Customer Information Displays went live at Government Center, Tufts Medical Center, Maverick, Ashmont, and Porter in April 2022.

Today the MBTA announced that the first of its pre-fare “Customer Information Displays” (CIDs) have gone live at Government Center, Tufts Medical Center, Maverick, Ashmont, and Porter stations. CIDs will be dedicated exclusively to real-time information about the state of the system and service, and are located within the lobby level of these stations outside the fare gates, which allows customers to make the most informed decisions about their travel plans before entering the MBTA system. Similar screens will be installed at more stations in the coming months, and system-wide to every rapid-transit station over the next three years.

“These new pre-fare CIDs are another excellent tool in our customer information arsenal. Our goal is to provide customers with the best information we have so that they can make the best decisions about their commutes,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak. “Service disruptions or elevator outages are sometimes an inevitability, but with these new digital screens, customers will see in real-time how the issue might affect their trip, and perhaps decide on an alternative way of getting where they’re going. And they’ll get this information before they even step through our fare gates – something they’ve long requested. The information on the screens has been designed and developed completely in-house, and I want to thank our Customer Technology team for their dedicated work on this project.”

An initiative led by the MBTA’s Customer Technology Department, CIDs located outside fare gate areas are in direct response to feedback from riders and will initially include notifications of subway service alerts and information about out-of-service elevators. Dedicated exclusively to real-time information about the system and service, the screens also include a button to generate an audio message, ensuring that blind or low-vision customers have equitable access to this information.

Making real-time information more widely available is one of the MBTA’s strategic objectives in improving the customer experience. In community meetings and surveys that led to the MBTA’s long-term plan, Focus 40, customers asked for more types of real-time information in more places. Bus customers also frequently report that real-time information at bus stops would make them more likely to ride the bus more often. CIDs join the MBTA’s growing inventory of digital signage that connect riders with accurate real-time information. In addition to CIDs, in 2022, the MBTA is doubling the size of its pilot of solar-powered electronic ink (E Ink) signage at bus stops and beginning the scale-up of E Ink signs at Green Line street-level stops.