New York prepares to bring CBTC to the demo stage - New York City Transit system's procurement standards - In Transit - Brief Article - Column

Railway Age, Jan, 1998 by William C. Vantuono

This year promises to be a "one for the record books" for communications-based train control. Progress should be realized on key projects in New York and San Francisco. Equally important, suppliers will be unveiling new CBTC systems -- and competing for shares of what should be a multi-billion-dollar market.

New, York's CBTC program, the most closely watched -- and bound to be one of the most hotly contested, due to its potential for setting an industry standard -- is progressing on schedule. "Technical proposals arc due on Feb. 9," says Alan Rumsey of ATSG (Advanced Technology Signals Group, lead consultant to NYC Transit). "We expect to award demonstration contracts for Phase I, the Culver Line test, to three suppliers by July."

Following the demonstrations, one "Leader" and two "Follower" suppliers will be selected. The Leader will get the coveted construction contract for the Canarsie Line; Followers will be offered $3 million each to make their technology interoperable with that of the Leader.

It is this procurement method that is expected to set de facto CBTC standards for the rest of the industry, as the Leader will be required to make its design public domain. It will also enable NYCT to avoid the drawbacks of single-source supply The public-domain provision is getting mixed reactions from suppliers, thou . Some say they would be reluctant to divulge their design, only to have it copied by someone else who did not invest the time or money into it. Others feel that public disclosure is necessary, and that those who insist on keeping the wraps on a proprietary design are being unrealistic.

Interestingly, NYCT's Phase I contractors will be given an opportunity to demonstrate features of their technology that could be applicable to the Long Island Rail Road. "It won't be an evaluation criterion for the Canarsie contract," says Alan Rumsey, "but LIRR has said it would be prepared to accept the systems being proposed for NYCT, provided LIRR is convinced these systems can meet its needs. LIRR would be happy to piggyback on the Canarsie project." NYCT and LIRR, says Rumsey, have a need to improve train headways, and both have long-term plans to adopt CBTC system-wide. LIRR also has a good deal of unsignaled territory on the outer fringes of its system, and is looking to CBTC as 1 potential signaling method.

One transit property that is not taking the "wait and see what New York does" approach is SEPTA, which wants to enter into a single-source contract with Adtranz for a small-scale CBTC system. SEPTA says it's owed $23.6 million in penalties on the 220 cars Adtranz is building for the Market-Frankford line, a procurement now almost two years behind schedule (the contract was originally awarded to Adtranz predecessor ABB in 1993). In such cases, a supplier will usually settle with a customer by providing products or services of a similar nature. In this situation, Adtranz, pending FTA approval, wants to settle with SEPTA by supplying a CBTC system.

The proposed system, SEPTA says, mill be installed in a five-mile tunnel section of the Market-Frankford line prone to rear-end collisions. It will provide speed/stop enforcement only, and is intended to solve what SEPTA says is a pressing safety problem. Since the CBTC system mill be limited in scope, SEPTA says it's not concerned with having a single-source supplier.

Other suppliers are not happy with this arrangement. They take issue with the fact that SEPTA is foregoing an open bidding process. They also are concerned that, since SEPTA's system could be functional within the same time-frame as Phase I at NYCT, Adtranz may gain a technological advantage over its competitors. But what supplier wouldn't jump at such an opportunity? And, given the potential size of the CBTC market, how much impact can one small-scale project have on other suppliers' order books?

Says one observer: "From an industry point of view, I'd actually regard it as a positive. The more agencies that are aggressively implementing the technology, the better. If SEPTA gets its system up and running in two and a half years, yes, it's a bonus to Adtranz, but also to the industry at large. The last thing suppliers need -- because of the time required to develop CBTC -- is a loss of interest and investment in this technology. The more momentum, the more benefit to everybody."

Harmon is now partnering with Hughes to complete the AATC (Advanced Automatic Train Control) project on BART, and has also signed a licensing agreement with Hughes to manufacture and market AATC-based technology to the rest of the industry. Harmon says it "will integrate AATC technology into an advanced CBTC system and provide an open architecture design for application to different operational requirements and allow other suppliers to utilize the technology."

Alan Rumsey is heading up the IEEE Rail Transit Vehicle Interface Standards Committee Working Group 2, which has developed draft CBTC standards. Transit agencies have formed an ad hoc industry peer-review user group that meets on a quarterly basis. Information on these activities is available at a web site maintained by Tom Sullivan, former director of NYCT's New Technology Signals Program. The address is www.tsd.org.