Computer Glitch Stops Metro's Info. Signs September 13, 2000 Print Story Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post Staff Writer

Metro's plans to unveil its new real-time track information signs today after four years of irksome problems are on hold because the new signs suddenly went dark last weekend. "The contractor tried to install new software over the weekend and the system crashed," said Metro spokesman Ray Feldmann. "We're very disappointed and we're working feverishly with the contractor to get things back, but we're not quite there yet." Metro officials, who have spent four years and $11.5 million trying to get the signs to work, say they do not know how long it will take to resolve the latest headache. "Hopefully it will be a matter of days, not a matter of weeks," Feldmann said. "We just don't know." The setback comes in the middle of "Try Transit Week," an annual promotion of public transportation around the country. Metro officials had planned to celebrate the new track information signs today in Rosslyn as an example of innovative technology in the transit system. The signs are designed to tell passengers when the next train will arrive and how long a delay will last. For the past three weeks, the signs have been undergoing final tests and have been working at a basic level, counting down the minutes until the next train. Eventually, the signs are supposed to carry live information about delays and arrival times for not only the next train but also the one following it, Metro officials said. The 500 signs, which contain speakers for announcements, are installed in all 78 Metro stations. The chocolate-brown signs have yellow light-emitting-diode lettering on a 5-foot-by-27-inch screen and are mounted on eight-foot-tall galvanized steel poles. Some signs, on lower-level platforms, are suspended from the ceiling. Metro began considering a computerized message system six years ago, prompted by a provision in the Americans With Disabilities Act that requires subways to have visual information for hearing-impaired passengers. While many subway systems in Europe have real-time track information signs, only a handful of American transit systems have similar equipment, and none is as complex as the system designed for Metro, said Richard A. White, Metro's general manager. The agency awarded an 18-month, $5.5 million contract to Inova Inc. of Charlottesville in 1996. The contractor ran into a string of technical problems that added time and money to the job. The Metro contract was the largest job Inova had ever handled, White said.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 13, 2000