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MTA Releases New Video Showing Its Stone Age Technology

By Trevor Kapp | July 21, 2015 3:17pm

The MTA has released a wide-ranging new video showing the Hoover-era technology that causes many of its subway snarls — and highlights some its plans to update the system.

The nine-minute video shows the 1930s equipment center at the West 4th Street stop and also outlines some of the agency’s plans to grow automatic train control, which is currently only available on the L line.

“It’s not just the architecture that’s 100 years old. It’s a lot of the basic technology as well,” said Wynton Habersham, the MTA’s vice president and chief officer of the Service Delivery of Subways, standing next to an interlocking machine that predates WWII.

“Reliability is certainly becoming more and more of an issue with the age.”

Habersham said the agency plans to expand Communications-Based Train Control — currently only available on the L line — in the coming years, which will enable MTA controllers to more freely regulate subways.

Dispatchers will know every train’s precise location and speed, allowing trains to travel closer together with increased safety, Habersham said.

“Being able to reduce the space between trains means we can provide more trains per hour when ridership warrants it,” he said.

CBTC will come to the 7 train in 2017 and then will be added to the Queens Boulevard lines.

“There’s a lot of work that’s happening at the present time,” said Andrew Lubrano, the MTA resident engineer on the Flushing line. “We have power cable work, we have the track department out here doing rails. We’re wiring, we’re grounding, installing conduits, we’re testing.”

Lubrano cautioned that the work will require additional shutdowns along the line, but will be worth it in the long run.

“A lot of work will be performed during that time frame,” he said. “Be patient with us.”