NYMTA touts Help Point pilot tests

MTA New York City Transit announced Tuesday its new Help Point station communications system has begun pilot testing at two subway stations along the Lexington Avenue Line (4,5, and 6) on Manhattan’s East Side.

Designed to be both highly visible and easy to use, the instant communications devices offer immediate access to assistance and information with the touch of a button, giving customers on the platform level of subway stations immediate access to the station booth and personnel at the Subway’s Rail Control Center.

Units will be positioned and spaced for easy access and high visibility, and have been “created specifically for the subway environment,” MTA says. The Help Point also is designed to be an easily recognizable communications tool for customers who need to either report an emergency or ask for travel directions. The units will be easy to spot with a bright blue beacon light that will pulse when the unit is in action. This feature will help alert first responders in case there is an injured or sick customer at that location.

Pilot installations are at the 23rd Street Station (a local stop, served by the No. 6 line) and Brooklyn Bridge Station, a major station and transfer point, both located on the Lexington Avenue Line. The pilots will serve to determine not only the usefulness of the units but also to evaluate which system of installation, wireless or hard-wired systems, is best. MTA said 9 Help Points will be installed at 23rd Street and another 10 at the Brooklyn Bridge Station. 

“These Help Points will make our subway system safer and easier to use, expanding access to assistance throughout stations in a way that wasn’t possible before,” said MTA Chairman & CEO Jay H. Walder (pictured at right). “This is just another step in our efforts to bring new technology to customers in ways that make using the transit system better every day.”

Each Help Point will be individually addressable, so that in the case of an emergency, personnel at the Rail Control Center will be able to pinpoint exactly where in the station the call originated. Digital audio will provide much clearer sound than is available from the customer assistance intercoms used in subways now—a source of urban folklore and irritation among New Yorkers.

The control panel contains a red emergency button and a green information button along with a speaker and microphone. Emergency calls are routed to the subway Rail Control Center while information calls are sent to the station agent.

If the pilot goes well, the plan calls for the installation of the Help Points in all of the system’s 468 subway stations.