If you were in New York last summer you remember this:

When torrential rains shut down nearly the entire subway system last Aug. 8, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was unable to provide quick information to riders. Its Web site crashed. And other means of delivering information like cellphone alerts, downloadable maps and electronic message boards were not available.

The M.T.A. has listened to your complaints:

Chastened by the criticism, the authority commissioned a study of what went wrong and proposed a number of fixes, including developing a system of customized e-mail and text message alerts for each subway line so riders could be informed about problems.

That notification service will be unveiled in September.
...
But the “Big Kahuna,” Mr. Boylan said in a telephone interview, is the new system of real-time text alerts. Customers will be able to select information for specific subway, bus or railroad lines. “You’re going to self-select what you want, how much you want and when you want it,” Mr. Boylan said.

Read more at the New York Times.