Earlier this month, The Post highlighted the mixed results for the MTA’s attempts at bringing automatic train operation to the L line. Various glitches and a higher-than-expected failure yet has plagued the three-year effort to bring this technology — a part of a communications-based train control suite — to the New York City subways, and this weekend, the news got worse. According to the Daily News, Transit had to temporarily suspend the ATO program to fix a handful of glitches with the system.
According to Pete Donohue, a series of incidents required Transit to request software updates as trains were moving on their own according. Since automatic train operation began in 2009, these problems have popped up frequently. Donohue reports on the latest developments:
In one incident, a train that was stopped at a Brooklyn platform took off on its own – traveling three to five feet before a crew member on board hit the emergency brakes, NYC Transit confirmed yesterday. With two other similar incidents recently on the Brooklyn-to-Manhattan line, the agency suspended use of the computerized train control system on Aug. 16, NYC Transit said in a statement yesterday.
Train service continued the old-fashioned way – with motormen doing the driving, not computers – until software fixes were finished last weekend, the agency said…In automatic train operation mode, the Robotrains are controlled by computers telling them when to stop and how fast to travel. After discharging passengers at a station, a train should remain idling until the motorman, who’s monitoring its operations at the cab’s computer, authorizes departure with the push of a button.
“Train operators have the authority to take manual control of their train when necessary while still maintaining a safe operation,” NYC Transit said in the statement. “It’s important to note safety was not an issue, but reliability was.”
As of now, many of the ATO-equipped trainsets have been updated and are back in service, but this problem is one in a long line of issues plaguing the L train, the guinea pig of the transit system. Since the late 1990s, the MTA has tried to bring this technology to the Canarsie Line, but various difficulties — from overcrowding to backwards compatibility concerns — have prevented a smooth upgrade. A 2007 report said the service would be ready to go in January 2010, and while ATO commenced a year before that, the implementation has been anything but smooth.
Meanwhile, the union, which stands to lose jobs if ATO is implemented properly, continue to claim that the problems prove how untrustworthy this system is. Kevin Harrington, a higher-up at the TWU, said that the recent problems show how ATO and CBTC are “potentially dangerous.” Yet, other transit systems throughout the world have brought these systems online with fewer troubles. As the MTA gears up to computerize the 7 line, the L can serve as a valuable practice run, but the kinks must still be worked as well.