Passengers on the Red, Orange and Blue Lines will know when their next train arrives if countdown signs in South Station, Park Street and Downtown Crossing are successful.
The Green Line and Silver Line, however, are not expected to be recipients of the potential installments.
The signs count down to the estimated time of arrival for the next two trains on each route, said Joshua Robin, director of innovation and special projects for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
“We’re using live real-time train location to generate those predictions,” Robin said, “so we track each train that’s moving in our operation control system.”
He said South Station first received the signs August as part of a pilot program that, if successful, will spread to the Red, Orange and Blue Lines.
“Depending on the pilot, that will determine how and when we expand [to] the other lines,” he said.
The MBTA installed the signs in Park Street on Saturday, with a goal to set up the third pilot station in Downtown Crossing within a few weeks, Robin said.
Every few minutes, announcements tell riders when the next trains will arrive.
He said the software modifications for the signs cost $790,000, 80 percent of which was federally funded with the other 20 percent stemming from MBTA funds.
“Our customers really view it as a game change, I think,” he said.
But commuters on the Green Line are excluded.
“At this point in time, we do not track the Green Line precisely enough to generate accurate predictions,” Robin said. “So we just don’t track the Green in as fine a way as we do the other lines, but it is a system we’re designing for the future.”
He said that system is “definitely a handful of years away.”
“Really the signaling system is what tracks the other lines, and we just don’t have a similar system for the green line,” he said.
Students at Boston University, in the heart of the Green Line’s B train, said the signs might not be necessary.
Third-year Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student Mark Zastrow said other cities he has visited worldwide have similar signs.
Zastrow said Seoul has a fantastic subway system.
“Every stop has those signs that tell you where the next train is,” he said. “Those definitely make a difference when you are worried about being late — just psychology.”
But, he said, it is a hard call to determine if these signs are worth the investment.
“You have to think long term when you are looking at a large part of the Boston infrastructure,” Zastiow said. “You always have to invest in these long-term things to keep it up to date.”
Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences junior Tynaya Frasier said the trains run frequently already, so she does not mind waiting.
“Fares have already gone up this summer,” she said. “If they are going to go up anymore they should just do away with it. There are apps that can estimate the schedule of trains.”
Sixth-year GRS student Mike Wheeler said he would like to know when the T comes, and he does not have a smartphone so he cannot look it up.
He said the signs are a good thing, but he is not sure if it is good right now.
“I’m not sure its necessary above ground,” he said, “but underground would be nice, in the perfect world where they have all the money.”
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