NEW YORK, NY July 21, 2008 —The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is about to unveil a new service that will alert riders to unplanned service disruptions, by e-mail or text message. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

REPORTER: The MTA already has an email and texting service, but that only works for planned disruptions, like weekend track work. The new service is meant for all those other days, when something completely unexpected happens. According to Deputy Executive Director Christopher Boylan, the MTA really started moving on this project after a big storm, last August. That's when a tornado hit Brooklyn and the subways were flooded.

BOYLAN: So in that particular instance that day we were not able to tell them in advance that the service was out, so many people arrived at their subway station, or at their commuter rail station, and only then found at that the service was out.

REPORTER: Boylan said riders will be able to sign up for the service on the MTA Web site, and choose the subway lines or bus routes for which they want to receive alerts. The service should start in mid-September.

For WNYC, I'm Arun Venugopal.