On any platform in New York’s subway system, passengers can be seen peering down the tunnel to catch a first glimpse of an arriving train. This is set to change with the introduction of display systems showing arrival times. Yet plans for an information system are just one part of big changes taking place to this, one of the world’s oldest underground mass transit systems.

For a start, New Yorkers recently learned that the long-awaited Second Avenue Line, on the East Side of Manhattan, is to go ahead. First mooted in the 1920s, the project has for years been hampered by lack of funding. But with federal funds secured, a groundbreaking ceremony took place in April, and the city finally seems assured of getting its extra subway line.