US News

NO ETA: FIRM FLUBS $160M SUBWAY TECH

When is the next train coming? Don’t ask the MTA.

The $160 million digital message boards that transit officials have long promised will take the guesswork out of the platform waiting game do not work, The Post has learned.

MTA leaders are furious at German technology powerhouse Siemens, which has already been paid $45.2 million since getting the contract in 2003.

Siemens has been unable to deliver on promises to fix its software, forcing the MTA to consider looking for another company to finish the job.

There has not been “any tangible evidence that the fixes we have been promised are in fact fixes and can work going forward,” New York City Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said. “We have begun the process to explore whether we should pursue a different course of action with other parties.”

Despite several delays, a separate system using a different technology has been installed on the L train. That system does work and will be up and running by “year’s end,” Fleuranges said.

Subway systems in cities such as Paris and London have been able to provide passengers arrival information for years, note transit advocates, who say the MTA has a lousy track record when it comes to bringing in new technology.

“It’s really disappointing. With the exception of the MetroCard, they have a terrible history with anything that needs software,” said Beverly Dolinksy, director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Council to the MTA.

In 2000, the MTA scrapped a contract with Orbital to provide a satellite bus-location system, which failed to work around Manhattan’s skyscrapers. “That contract is 10 years old, and we still don’t have that system,” Dolinsky said.

Since May, the MTA has stopped paying any invoices for work related to the Siemens software, according to a report by the agency’s independent consulting firm, Carter Burgess.

“Payments to the contractor for software-related work are being held pending resolution of which direction the software development will proceed,” the report said.

Though the contractor may have failed to deliver, Gene Russianoff, of the Straphangers Campaign, contends the MTA has only itself to blame.

“The buck stops with transit officials, because they are the ones who drew up the specs,” he said. “They spend tens of millions of dollars and promise their customers real-time information. Their own studies and polls show riders crave knowing what is going on – even more so in a 9/11 world.”

Siemens contends it will resolve the problems.

“Siemens is confident that we have the solution,” spokeswoman Paula Davis said. The project will be completed to “the satisfaction of the New York City Transit and New York City commuters.”

In the meantime, riders can still employ the more low-tech method of staring into the void for signs of that telltale light at the end of the tunnel.

Worse for ‘ware

Sept. 2003: Siemens is awarded $160.6 million contract for train-arrival message boards.

July 2004: Company establishes software platform.

June 2006: MTA, having paid a total of $45.2 million, stops paying for software, which still doesn’t work.

Oct. 2006: MTA considers finding another contractor to finish job.