BY DIMITRI FAUTSCH | If you’ve ever been stuck during rush hour on an A or C train in Downtown Manhattan that’s moving like molasses, you’ll be happy to know that help is on the way.
On Mon., Jan. 13, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority awarded a $260 million contract to install Communications-Based Train Control, or C.B.T.C., a modern signaling system, on a high-traffic corridor of the A/C/E line.
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The IND corridor serves 700,000 daily weekday riders and runs from 59th St. – Columbus Circle to High St. in Brooklyn. In addition, the entirety of the E line — which terminates at the World Trade Center and connects to the J.F.K. AirTrain — will have C.B.T.C. installed on its tracks.
C.B.T.C. enables trains to run automatically — and faster and more reliably — by installing equipment that tracks a train’s precise location. The system replaces 1930s signaling infrastructure — stop lights located on the tracks — to allow more trains to run in a given hour. The M.T.A. credits C.B.T.C. for the reliability of the L and 7 lines, citing on-time performance of 90 percent. Those are the city’s only two subway lines to be outfitted with the new technology so far.
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The M.T.A. awarded the contract to L.K. Comstock, the same contractor that installed C.B.T.C. on the L and 7 lines. However, Siemens will be the new provider of C.B.T.C. hardware. The M.T.A. has blamed Thales, the previous hardware provider, for a weather-related breakdown of C.B.T.C. on the 7 line this past December.
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Signal modernization is a core part of the M.T.A.’s $51 billion capital plan, approved by the authority’s board last July. The M.T.A. hopes to install C.B.T.C. on six subway lines, serving 3 million daily riders, by the end of 2024.
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A M.T.A. video on Communications-Based Train Control profiles the antiquated signal system — some parts of which are up to 80 years old — still in use at Greenwich Village’s W. Fourth St. station.
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