LIRR Launches TrainTime® Live Chat
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive EditorMTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) has added a live chat feature to its TrainTime® app, as another way for riders to get information or report problems.
Riders can ask about the time, location or passenger load of trains, for instance, and receive links to specific information or real-time passenger loading data. LIRR customer service representatives are available seven days per week, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., to answer questions. Built in-house, the new app feature will make the rider experience more seamless, according to LIRR Chief Innovation Officer Will Fisher.
Customers who already have TrainTime® installed will receive an automatic update so that they can use the new feature. The revamped app is also available for download through the App Store and Google Play Store.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority will track the usefulness and popularity of the in-app chat function and consider extending it to other agency apps, including MYmta. In 2020, MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) began using WhatsApp to allow subway and bus riders to communicate with NYCT in real time.
“We are giving our customers the tools they need to communicate directly with us no matter where they are and building features for the 21st century,” LIRR President Phil Eng said. “With the support of our labor partners at TCU and their members for embracing this idea, Will Fisher and his entire team once again went outside the box and put this new communication tool in the palm of our customers’ hand.”