It’s part of a test program on the L line, where they installed boards telling people when the next train would arrive last year. This is just the next step. If it goes well, presumably, they’ll expand it to other lines as well. Like the Q! Bring it to the Q, MTA! Please! [Gothamist; pic via Kate Heffernan]

Damian Francis is the editor-at-large for Australian T3 and contributing technology editor for GQ Australia. He is in Japan as a guest of Toyota Australia.

If it ever does come to fruition, scientists working in some of the most inhospitable areas of the planet will certainly be living in style. [Coroflot via Core77]

After the futuristic Dubai, here is the real Dubai as seen in high-speed from its new metro, inaugurated on September 9. Impressive, in a New York and Miami get drunk and have a bastard child kind of way. [Thanks Gerald]

Yikes. Here’s a video taken from the front of a freight train as it barrels head-on into another freight train. No one was killed, thankfully, but you can see a dude bailing from the oncoming train right before it hits.

This wreck happened at 5.54am on June 24, 2006 between two Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains. As I said, no one was killed, but the crew on the train with the camera was seriously hurt. Good lord. [Neatorama]

These paperclips, when placed on the floor of a japanese commuter train, stand up on their ends and dance whenever the train accelerates or brakes thanks electromagnetism.

The video – shot on the Rokko Liner in Kobe, Japan – shows how paperclips stand on end when the train accelerates and brakes. The magnetism, which is produced by the electric current that drives the motors located under the floor, apparently poses no harm to the human body, though it could damage credit cards, mobile phones, or other electronic devices if left on the floor. The Kobe New Transit Company, which operates the Rokko Liner (as well as the Port Liner, which uses similar trains), says extra shielding is being installed just in case.

The only thing that happens to paper clips when they’re placed on American trains is that they get fed up and decide to just drive next time. Hiyo! [Kobe Shimbun via Pink Tentacle]

The NYC Metro Cuff is an ” über urban matte metal cuff” capable of guiding you a la treasure map through NYC’s intricate train system. No one will take you for a tourist as you compulsively check your “watch,” studying the embossed map fervently while inching away from yet another passenger who dually loves garlic and despises deodorant. Order yours for $US25 shipped. [design hype via Gearfuse]

The story: An unmanned, computerised train slowly rolled forward onto a repairman, who unfortunately did not survive. Authorities haven’t come to a conclusion, saying it rolled for “unknown reasons,” but we’ll leave you, excitable readers, to draw your own conclusions. [via Geekologie]

The errant text message also sent dozens of passengers to the hospital and closed down one of the busier sections of the Green Line at the Government Centre and Park Street stops. The stops have since reopened, and criminal charges are all but set to be filed against the operator, Aiden Quinn, 24, of Attleboro, Mass. Quinn actually admitted to first responders that he was texting his girlfriend at the time of the crash because she wouldn’t answer his initial call (which he also made, presumably, while driving a packed subway train).

In related news, Verizon is on board with a general ban on texting while driving, and Boston just instituted one of those “you mean it wasn’t in place already?!” bans on mobile phones for all T operators. The ban does not apply to popcorn. [AP, NYT, Channel 5 Boston]