PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA is continuing to conduct behind-the-scenes tests on its long-awaited countdown clocks that will show riders how long it will be before the next train arrives. But for the foreseeable future, riders on the Market-Frankford Line will still have to lean out over the tracks to look for the headlights of the next train.
For the last six months or so, software engineers have been testing the systems. The problem, said SEPTA Chief IT Officer Bill Zebrowski, is that signal information is coming from 20-year-old proprietary systems.
“We’re taking that data, we’re trying to retrofit it and deliver it accurately to the signs,” he explained.
Deputy Chief Engineer John Frisoli said it hasn’t been easy.
“Unfortunately, we’ve encountered a lot of roadblocks with the software,” he said. “It’s been painstaking to try to get this to function properly. … Every software change we make to correct an issue, we discover a new problem.
“But the goal is, when we do deploy it, that it’s functioning properly.”
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SEPTA can’t say when that will be, but Lex Powers, the agency’s director of service information design, said riders on the El may see occasional test countdowns in the coming weeks.
“We’ve definitely received a lot of informal feedback. I think every time one goes on, it probably ends up on Twitter,” said Powers.
SEPTA originally said it would have countdown clocks three years ago.