U Will B Late 2 Work

The MTA has identified high-tech and low-tech ways to improve service when bad weather happens; hopefully your Blackberry can fend off three-and-a-half inches of rain:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled plans yesterday for significant and costly changes to subway stations to prevent the shutdown of service that followed last month’s intense flooding.

The proposals include new ways to keep water out of the stations, like raising ventilation grates off the ground and building steps at subway entrances that would require passengers to walk up before descending into stations but would prevent rain from flowing downward.

The authority said it was also establishing an emergency response center, planning to install new valves in drain pipes to keep out stormwater and developing a system of customized e-mail and text message alerts for each subway line so riders would know about problems.

. . .

The deluge dumped as much as 3.4 inches of rain on parts of the city within a few hours and overwhelmed the transit system.

The report singled out the transportation authority’s failure to communicate with its workers and riders as a significant factor in the chaos that followed the storm.