Clinton Washington C-station finally getting audio announcements

If you’ve ever stood on the platform at the Clinton-Washington C stop, waiting in vain for a train that never came –you’re already aware the station has no PA system for MTA announcements. With no cell signal, no station agents, and no speakers - riders currently have two options in that situation: leave the station to get information above ground; or wait indefinitely on the platform, sharing eye-rolls and shoulder shrugs with fellow commuters in this information vacuum.

It appears that’s about to change, as workers began installing dozens of JBL Control 25AV speakers on the platform’s vaulted ceiling this past week. The $350, 200 watt indoor/outdoor speakers are some of the first “modern” loudspeakers we’ve seen within the MTA system – and will hopefully mean that riders will get clear, intelligible announcements – unlike the garbled, under-amplified mumblings you often get via the decades’-old speakers in other stations.

As of mid-2009, over 120 of the system’s 468 stations lacked PA systems – at a time when budget cuts were forcing the elimination of human station agents at over 100 subway stops. In the face of pressure from straphangers’ advocates, the MTA pledged to provide audio announcements systems in all stations, but admitted it would take until 2012 to complete the work.

Will Clinton-Washington see fancy digital countdown clocks anytime soon? Sadly, the answer appears to be “probably not”. The MTA’s website says that 19 Manhattan stations on the A/C/E line currently have the clocks, and there’s no mention of expansion to the Brooklyn end of the line at this time.