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When the New York Metro Chief learned earlier this year that a new signaling system for Line 7 would not be operational until November, he asked the contractor to take the necessary steps to accelerate the project, including included other weekend stops.
"I think customers would prefer to get rid of Band-Aid and continue rather than having this slow limp until the finish line," Andy Byford said in April.
Mr. Byford, President of New York City Transit, wanted the system to be operational by the end of the summer. But he drinks until the end. The system should not be operational until Thanksgiving.
In an interview this week, Byford said that the frequency of events at Citi Field, which is based on the 7, and the need to periodically test new technology, have convinced him that speeding up the schedule would do more harm than good. "I had to be pragmatic," he said.
Mr. Byford's inability to save time in the already delayed project once again highlights the challenges ahead for the modernization of the New York subway system.
The new signaling technology, known as communications-based train control, will enable the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to provide more frequent service. It also replaces the equipment that is causing a lot of today's delays.
But its installation requires frequent stops often followed by delays related to the upgrade. Performing such work on a system carrying 5.6 million passengers a day in a city that regularly hosts major events promises years of disruption and will undoubtedly be an invitation to more flexibility on schedule.
At public forums, Byford describes technology as the most transformational change the MTA can make. Until recently, the agency estimated that it would take up to 50 years to improve the system. Byford intends to modernize the five-line sections most used in five years. He wants to add six more lines over the next five years.
Finding the billions of dollars needed for such an upgrade is a daunting challenge for the state-controlled MTA. And even if he eliminates the financial hurdle, Byford will have to face the technical challenge of installing technology on hundreds of kilometers of track over a hundred-year-old system.
It took the MTA seven years to install the technology, known as the CBTC, on the L-train, the only line currently in service. The 7-line upgrade, which also lasted seven years, was to be completed in the spring of 2016.
The New York subway poses two problems that are not faced by other systems of similar size around the world. It runs 24 hours a day, which makes it difficult to access the tracks. Many trains also change from one line to another, which means that the systems installed by different companies must be able to communicate with each other.
"This is the most complex deployment of CBTC compared to anywhere in the world," said Alan Rumsey, a technology consultant.
Mr. Rumsey compared Mr. Byford's goal of installing 11-line technology in 10 years with the space race – an ambitious but not impossible idea. "If you have a clear goal, it can lead to a lot of things that would not normally happen," he said.
Byford said he thought he could reduce the CBTC's time by simplifying some of the MTA's technology requirements. But he also warned runners to wait for many service failures.
The runners of the 7th line undergo years of weekend breakdown. The MTA has a few more scheduled stops, the last one for the weekend of November 24th. Once completed, pilots should see an immediate improvement in reliability, said Byford. In April 2019, the system will allow the addition of 28 trains a day.
The facility disrupted the 500,000 daily passengers on the 7th line. Melissa Orlando, founder of the Access Queens transit advocacy group, said the weekend closures had had a negative impact on businesses, while midweek users were suffering from signal delays and delays. overcrowding often related to the work of installation. "From the riders' point of view, that can not happen soon enough," she said.
Byford said the Javits Center had asked the MTA to rescind the decision to close on the 7th during the Comic Con weekend in early October. But "we kept our courage" and a replacement bus service worked well, he said. A congress center spokesman said that "the MTA went beyond expectations" to provide alternative services.
Mr Byford said that there would be tension and many disruptions if the MTA continued its modernization plan, which also provided for the installation of elevators in about 180 stations. But "if we stop all the elements of the plan," he said, then he "will really fight from the start."
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