NYC Subway Equipment: Ancient Behemoth needs a Makeover
Slow subway trains, an increasingly common complaint amongst the straphanging public in New York City. Despite the system being the largest in the western hemisphere and revolutionary original mass transit heavy rail system over a century ago, lack of investment in the maintenance and upgrades in the subway’s infrastructure have led to increasingly crippling delays, causing folks to doubt the effectiveness of the city’s mighty transit system.
Local and national media tend to focus on the development of new systems, such as a newly opened in Cleveland. Ohio or the opening of a new line in the emerging Los Angeles Metro Rail. While it is very encouraging to see alternatives to car culture spread to other cities, the transit-related projects that would benefit the most people involve the upgrading of existing legacy systems, such as that of the NYC subway. In aVerge article: http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/13/10763330/nyc-subway-mta-cuomo-wifi-usb-future, author Andrew J. Hawkins lays down the basics regarding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) struggle to modernize the subway’s signal and switching system, whose equipment malfunctions are responsible for the vast majority of subway delays.
The current signal system is known as fixed-block signaling (dating back to the late 19th century), which is a very safe but inefficient and expensive one to use and maintain. Hawkins then describes a modern signaling system known as Communications Based Train Control (CBTC), which computerizes the running of trains by allowing the MTA to know the exact location and speed of each train in real-time, allowing the agency to increase the number of trains on each line.
The MTA first experimented with CBTC technology back in the mid 2000s with the automation of the signaling system on the Canarsie Line (L train service). This upgrade came just in time, as an unexpected increase in ridership in Brooklyn allowed the MTA to operate up to 26 trains per station per hour (up from 15 in 2007), a feat that would not have been possible without CBTC. The agency has also been working to install the system on the Flushing line (7 train service), with much delay, cost overrun and inconvenience to riders on that line.
Hawkins also rightfully criticizes the New York State governor, Andrew Cuomo, of deliberately obstructing progress on MTA improvement projects by routinely denying funding in favor of other initiatives. If NYC is to stay competitive culturally and economically with other global cities, it must be more aggressive in maintaining and updating its aging transportation infrastructure, and at least two major things need to happen.
Firstly, more control of the NYC bus and subway system needs to be given from the state back to city government, so the city can finance and execute projects more efficiently and without interference from state officials who lack the expertise and willpower to do such. There is also a lot of resistance to such projects from transit and labor unions, who complain that the modern equipment requiring less maintenance/attention would put workers out of jobs. This perverse incentive of retaining labor at the expense of added costs and declining quality of service for taxpaying riders of the system needs to be defeated. The local politicians and transportation agencies need to be able to overcome these lobbying forces, which have primarily worked to hinder progress in making NYC transit system more reliable.
