San Francisco Will Pay $212 Million for Its Train System to Ditch Floppy Disks

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) committee has agreed to walk $212 cardinal to get its Muni Metro airy obstruction disconnected floppy disks.

The Muni Metro’s Automatic Train Control System (ATCS) has required 5¼-inch floppy disks since 1998, erstwhile it was installed astatine San Francisco’s Market Street subway station. The strategy uses 3 floppy disks for loading DOS bundle that controls the system’s cardinal servers. Michael Roccaforte, an SFMTA spokesperson, gave further details connected however the airy obstruction operates to Ars Technica successful April, saying: “When a bid enters the subway, its onboard machine connects to the bid power strategy to tally the bid successful automatic mode, wherever the trains thrust themselves portion the operators supervise. When they exit the subway, they disconnect from the ATCS and instrumentality to manual cognition connected the street.”

After starting archetypal readying successful 2018, the SFMTA primitively expected to determination to a floppy-disk-free bid power strategy by 2028. But with Covid-19 preventing enactment for 18 months, the estimated completion day was delayed.

On October 15, the SFMTA moved person to ditching floppies erstwhile its committee approved a declaration with Hitachi Rail for implementing a caller bid power strategy that doesn't usage floppy disks, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Hitachi Rail tech is said to powerfulness bid systems, including Japan’s slug train, successful much than 50 countries. The $212 cardinal declaration includes enactment services from Hitachi for “20 to 25 years,” the Chronicle said.

The caller power strategy is expected to beryllium 5 generations up of what Muni is utilizing now, Muni manager Julie Kirschbaum said, per the Chronicle. Further illustrating the airy rail's dated tech, the existent ATCS was designed to past 20 to 25 years, meaning its expected expiration day was successful 2023. The strategy inactive works fine, but the hazard of floppy disk information degradation and challenges successful maintaining expertise successful 1990s programming languages person further encouraged the SFMTA to question upgrades.

Lots of Work to Do

Beyond the floppies, though, the Muni Metro needs galore much upgrades. The SFMTA plans to walk $700 cardinal (including the $212 cardinal Hitachi contract) to overhaul the airy rail's power system. This includes replacing the loop cablegram strategy for sending information crossed the servers and trains. The cables are said to beryllium a much pressing interest than the usage of floppy disks. The aging cables are fragile, with “less bandwidth than an aged AOL dialup modem,” Roccaforte antecedently told Ars. The SFMTA is reportedly readying for Hitachi to commencement replacing the loop cables with a caller connection strategy that uses Wi-Fi and cellular signals for tracking trains by 2028. However, the SFMTA's committee of supervisors inactive needs to o.k. this, the Chronicle said.

In summation to aged retention formats and the connection infrastructure, the Muni's existent ATCS includes onboard computers tied to propulsion and brake systems, arsenic good arsenic section and cardinal servers, and more. The SFMTA's website says that the existent estimated completion day for the implicit overhaul is “2033/2034.” According to the provided timeline, it looks similar the subway exertion replacement signifier is expected to instrumentality spot successful “2027/2028,” aft which there’s an on-street exertion installation phase.

Like with different entities, the SFMTA’s dilatory determination disconnected floppy disks tin beryllium attributed to complacency, fund restrictions, and complications successful overhauling captious exertion systems. Various different organizations person besides been dilatory to ditch the dated retention format, including successful Japan, which lone stopped utilizing floppy disks successful governmental systems successful June, and the German navy, which is inactive trying to fig retired a replacement for 8-inch floppies.

This communicative primitively appeared on Ars Technica.