So At 3 A.M. You’ll Know For Sure You Have To Wait Twenty Minutes As Opposed To Assuming That You’ll Have To Wait Twenty Minutes

By July, long-suffering L train riders will be able to enjoy something straphangers around the world already have — message boards that notify riders when the next train will arrive:

Riders on the L subway line soon will be the first in the city to know exactly when the next train is arriving — thanks to new platform message boards that should be running by July.

“From a customer information standpoint, it is indeed a landmark,” Transit Authority spokesman Charles Seaton said.

The 24 stations on the Canarsie line in Manhattan and Brooklyn have been rigged with communications upgrades that track train movements and will display train information on electronic message boards.

The system will be up and running in the summer after a series of tests, TA officials said.

“It’s about time that riders here enjoyed the same timely arrival and delay information that systems around the world have had for years,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.