MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-05-04 |
| FROM | swd
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Old Hood is going digital subway
|
Like the token machines, it probably runs on Window$. Again, "crash" is the
operative word here.
On Wednesday 04 May 2005 06:43 pm, Ruben Safir wrote:
> Subway riders at the southern end of the L line in Brooklyn will be the
> first to ride computer-guided trains, a transit official said yesterday.
>
> Starting this fall, the "robotrain" system will serve the stretch
> between the Rockaway Parkway and Broadway-Junction stops, said Fred
> Smith, vice president and deputy chief engineer in the Transit
> Authority's capital program division.
>
> Smith, testifying at a City Council Transportation Committee hearing on
> the computerized system - called Communications Based Train Control -
> said it will then be phased in along the rest of the 11-mile line,
> ending next May.
>
> The computer-guided system on the L line, which connects Eighth Ave. and
> W. 14th St. in Manhattan with Canarsie in southern Brooklyn, was
> originally supposed to go on line in December.
>
> Committee members raised many safety concerns - about the possibility of
> computer hackers wreaking havoc with trains, software glitches that have
> delayed the program and the plan to remove conductors from L trains this
> summer, among others.
>
> Councilman Lew Fidler (D-Brooklyn) said, "This issue continues to plague
> my constituents, who are going to be asked to be the lab rats and the
> guinea pigs."
>
> Canarsie line upgrades, including those to signals and the computer
> systems, are expected to cost nearly $300 million. Testing continues,
> Smith said, but he added: "There are no safety problems with any of the
> equipment that has been installed and tested."
>
> Smith said the TA has done studies that indicate hacking into the system
> would not be possible.
>
> The TA has said the computer-guided trains will allow it to pinpoint the
> location of trains and let them run more frequently - and more safely -
> by removing the possibility of human error. Under the plan, a motorman
> will always be at the helm to manually operate a train if necessary.
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