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September 1,2010
Transit Tracker by Text Message
TriMet option
first in nation
TriMet riders have a new way text message. This arrival infor­
to receive real-time arrival in­ mation option, one o f the first in
formation for buses and MAX: the nation, is useful for mobile
phone users who have text mes­
sage service plans but not more
Fill Out & Send To: I
J J o r th u ib (O b se ru e r | expensive mobile web service
plans.
Attn'. Subscriptions,
The text message option pro­
PO Box 3137,
vides riders with an arrival time
ju s t $60 p er yea r
Portland OR 97208
trip tool for any ofTriM et’s 7,000
(please include check with this subscription form)
| bus stops or 84 MAX stations
and can be easily used in envi­
N ame :
ronments with a lot o f back­
ground noise such as high-traf­
T elephone :
fic streets. Those who have
A ddress :
tested the new tool report that
------------------------------------------------------------ I the speed is a great benefit to
o r e m a il su b sc r ip tio n s@ p o r tla n d o b se r v e r .c o m I them, that the results come back
Subscribe!
503-288-0033
____________ J
__________ I
___________ J
in seconds, taking less time than
calling TriM et’s TransitTracker
by phone or pulling up an app on
a smartphone.
Riders w anting to receive
TransitTracker arrival times by
text m essage can text a Stop
ID N um ber to 27299. The ser­
vice will send back the arrival
tim es for the buses or trains
that serve that stop. A dding
the line num ber or MAX line to
the Stop ID texted to 27299
generates arrival tim es for that
particular line.
Examples: Text 3633 for the
next arrivals at M adison &
Grand; Text 3633 14 for only the
next 14-Hawthome arrivals at
Madison & Grand; Text 8377
red for only the next Red Line
arrivals at Rose Quarter MAX
Station.
Stop ID Numbers are posted
at just over half ofT riM et’s bus
stops and all o f its MAX and
WES stations. TriMet is posting
more and more Stop ID Num­
bers at bus stops all the time. All
Stop ID Numbers are available
at trimet.org using the Stops &
Stations tool or at the agency’s
mobile site, rn.trimet.org.
TriMet is also working to make
Service Alerts available by text
message.
Pay-TV
X Viewers
Dwindle
NEW
N O W D E L IV E R IN G
Y o u r fa v o r ite n e ig h b o r h o o d g r o c e r y s to r e n o w d e liv e r s
g r o c e r ie s r ig h t to y o u r h o m e o r o ffic e .
i
w w w .n e w s e a s o n s m a r k e t.c o m
you click, we deliver, (or pull up for pick up)
With more than 100 million
subscribers dutifully paying their
bills each month, the big cable,
satellite and telco TV carriers
still have plenty o f viewers to
call their own. Last quarter, how­
ever, the total number o f pay-
TV subscribers saw an overall
drop — the first time that’s ever
happened, according to a recent
report.
The numbers from the research
firm o f SNL Kagan show that
about 216,000 pay-TV subscrib­
ers bailed during the second quar-
terof2010, compared with 378,000
couch potatoes gained over the
same period last year.
While satellite providers like
Dish and DirecTV and telecom-
munications-based TV carriers
like A T & T ’s U -v e rse and
Verizon FiOS garnered 81,000
and 414,000 new subscribers,
respectively, cable TV opera­
tors lost about 711,000 custom­
ers, for a net loss o f 216,000
subscribers.
The SNL Kagan researchers
say most o f the loss is attribut­
able to the lousy economy, as
well as the fact that the second
quarter o f the year is "seasonally
slow" due to factors like college
students switching o ff their ac­
counts for the summer.