Daniel Convissor's Website
NYC Transit's New Rail Control Center
[The new control center will]
be both big and very costly (latest estimates are $40 million for
the structure and over $140 million for the equipment just for the A
Division (IRT), but we at MTA don't believe in these numbers; they'll go
higher before the contract is committed). It will be built on a portion of
the site now occupied by the old 54th Street Bus Depot on Ninth Avenue
between 53rd and 54th Streets in Manhattan. Besides its size, which is
suitable for locating operating theaters for all three divisions (IRT, BMT,
IND) on a single floor, the main appeal of this site is its proximity to the
existing Power Control Center, and to the seven fiber optic rings that
converge there, which will be used for controlling the trains.
The intent of the plan is to go to full central control, replacing all the
master towers, with the exception of the terminal dispatchers, who will
continue to be located in the field, connected to the rest of the system via
operating consoles in their offices. How long it will take the TA to migrate
to this system, however, is an open question <g>.
This was written by Rock Miller on 6
Nov 1994 as personal correspondence to Daniel Convissor
[The seven fiber optic rings Rock mentions are seven independent networks on
which each node of a ring is linked serially with other nodes in a giant loop.
The purpose of linking them in a ring is to provide redundancy and optimize
packet travel time. If sending information via one direction on a ring is
impossible due to catastrophe, or will get stuck in traffic, the packets are
sent the other direction. --dc]
PLEASE NOTE:
My name is Daniel Convissor.
You are viewing a sub-page of My Main MTA Page.
I am a public transportation advocate, not an MTA employee.
If you want to contact the MTA or want more information about them, you should go to The MTA's Official Web Site.
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This page is hosted by Daniel Convissor
Home Page: http://www.panix.com/~danielc/
Email: danielc@panix.com
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Last updated: 4 April 1999