The latest initiative from the MBTA to improve service by providing text messages to subscribers announcing delays raises many questions: How often will it work? Why did the agency choose text messaging, of all things, as its latest pet project? Most importantly, will it actually improve service?

Though the public may never receive adequate explanations for the first two questions, the answer to the last is no riddle: Text messages will do little to ease T riders’ frustration with late trains, frequent stalls and random station closings. With all the improvements the MBTA could have made to rider’s frustrating experience, including later trains on weekends and a better system for spacing trolleys on the Green Line, the text messaging program should have taken a back burner to more pressing issues.

The authority should also explain how informing riders of seemingly constant delays will help them plan their trips. Many T riders have no alternative form of transportation to fall back on should the unwanted message appear on their cell phones. With the apparent delay of an MBTA program to wire its tunnels with cell phone coverage — a plan that would benefit riders far more than a simple mass messaging program — the text alerts will also fail to reach many riders already stuck underground.

After drastically increasing its fares this January, the MBTA fulfilled many of its promises to better serve commuters: The Green D Line underwent repairs; stations like Kenmore have continued upgrading; and the authority’s complicated website received a major redesign. The central issue of unreliable service remains unfixed, however. More than anything, exasperated T riders want the transportation agency often responsible for complicating their daily commute to play less, not more, of a role in their lives.