Have you ever wondered how Second Life avatars who “don’t have one of those fancy phones that have all those apps and things” find out when the next Metro train is coming? By using WMATA’s new real time arrival information-by-phone service, duh. Metro rolled out the new service today: you call 202-637-7000, say “next train,” then follow the prompts to hear train arrivals at any given station within the next 20 minutes. (At stations with more than one line, callers have to choose one color.) The service is designed to complement WMATA’s online and mobile arrival time tools.

Those of you who are NextBus addicts will note that this is the same number that you call to get real time bus arrival times by phone.

When I gave it a shot a few minutes ago, the system worked pretty well — though there were some minor hiccups. To start, since the this is the same number for NextBus, you really have to enunciate when you say “next train” — the system got confused the first couple of times, probably because I was slightly mumbling (and drinking coffee). Another interesting feature of the automated system is that once you state your station, it informs you if there are any rail alerts, and asks you if you want to hear them; though, this morning’s alert was about the spam issues that WMATA has been having wasn’t exactly a important when I was just trying to figure out was when the next train at U Street was coming. All in all, though, it’s a fairly decent option that I’m sure will com in handy for those without access to “those apps and things.”