{"id":30806,"date":"2012-07-12T15:07:37","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T19:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=30806"},"modified":"2012-07-12T16:28:31","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T20:28:31","slug":"the-cure-for-subway-train-congestion-has-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/07\/12\/the-cure-for-subway-train-congestion-has-arrived\/","title":{"rendered":"The cure for subway train congestion has arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to a recent Toronto Transit Commission report<\/a>, ridership across the city\u2019s public transit system is growing at a rate \u201cwell above industry-wide trends.\u201d Ridership is expected to reach 512 million trips this year, an increase of 38% since 1996, and well above the 503 million passengers the system is currently equipped to carry.<\/p>\n

As overall TTC ridership grows, so does congestion underground. Toronto commuters, packed like sardines into subway cars or waiting on jammed platforms at rush-hour, are asking the obvious question: why not increase system capacity by putting more trains on the tracks? Sounds simple enough, so why doesn\u2019t the TTC do it?<\/p>\n

The answer is the TTC\u2019s out-dated \u201cfixed block\u201d subway signaling system limits the number of trains that can be on the tracks at once. Developed in the 1950s, the system spaces out the trains in what is called a fixed block <\/em>(the distance it would take, under minimum braking power, to stop a fully loaded train traveling at maximum speed) to maintain a safe buffer to operate within.<\/p>\n

Under this system, the manually-controlled trains rely on signals similar to traditional traffic lights. Introducing additional vehicles to the system brings each train closer to its fixed block, meaning that a delay on one train will affect more of the trains behind it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For cash-strapped transit systems like Toronto\u2019s, converting out-dated manual signaling systems to computer-based train control (CBTC) technology offers a relatively cost-effective solution to increasing commuter capacity. For example, London\u2019s recent Jubilee line expansion included replacing the out-dated signaling system with CBTC technology \u2014 installed by French firm Thales (which bought Canadian signaling firm Alcatel in 2006) \u2014 while increasing the line\u2019s capacity from approximately 15 trains per hour to 50 trains. If Thales hadn’t installed the CBTC system a new tunnel would have needed to be built to accommodate the frequency of trains. The beauty of the CBTC installation (roughly $60-million) is that it accomplished the same goal as building a new tunnel (roughly $1-billion) but saved the London transit authority from building an extremely expensive capital project.<\/p>\n

Thales has been an industry leader in global transportation technology since the 1980s, when it developed SelTrac, a CBTC system that can dramatically increase train capacity. CBTC allows transit agencies to safely modify the safety buffer for each train based on real-time data. Onboard computers installed in every vehicle send information, such as the train\u2019s status, speed, and location, several times per second to computers located in a central control facility .<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at even TTC and all of their plans, the cost and civil works of the stations are phenomenally expensive,\u201d says Walter Kinio, Director of research, development, and product management at Thales, \u201cour stuff is a fraction of the cost but it\u2019s a critical component.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CBTC system monitors the speed of each train, alerting the operator if he or she is going too fast, and if the operator fails to reduce speed, it will apply an emergency brake. \u201cThe system reacts a lot faster than people can,\u201d says Kinio; \u201cIt\u2019s dynamically computing, based on data, how far that train can go before it has to apply the brakes, so you can actually put trains together more closely under dynamic conditions by continuously re-computing the safe separation distance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, with CBTC technology human drivers could soon be a thing of the past. In the 25 years since Thales built SkyTrain for the 1986 Vancouver World Expo \u2014 the first fully automatic (driverless) transit system \u2014 the company\u2019s technology has spread across the globe, from Dubai to Korea and Mecca to Las Vegas. Today, most of the 55 transit lines installed by Thales in 30 countries worldwide are completely driverless.<\/p>\n

Ron Young, Director of customer care at Thales, acknowledges that many people remain apprehensive about trusting a subway full of passengers to a computer and feel safer knowing that a human is behind the wheel. His response is to point out that many of us use a driverless system every day and don\u2019t think twice about it. \u201cBack in the day, when elevators had people manning them, I\u2019m sure everyone was saying the same thing \u2014 that you can\u2019t get on an elevator without a driver. The way we look at it, driverless trains are not a lot different from the elevator you rode on here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young points to the VIA Rail derailment in Burlington last February. \u201cThere was a driver going over speed,\u201d he says. \u201cAgain, you\u2019re depending on the driver obeying the signals \u2014 an issue that would not arise with a system in place to monitor how fast the driver is going and automatically apply the brakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CBTC system can even increase capacity of single-track lines by alternating the direction of trains traveling on the same piece of track, says Young. \u201cYou would never dream of doing that with a manual system: running trains in opposite directions on the same piece of track. But with an automatic system, it\u2019s easy. You time co-ordinate it and it\u2019s all controlled safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for transit users all too familiar with the frustrating delays that often go hand in hand with construction projects to improve service, the installation of automated signaling systems comes with another bonus: it doesn\u2019t disrupt service. \u201cThere is no shutting down the system for two months. We have to go into some of these systems, like Jubilee, that run 24 hours a day, and install our equipment, test it, commission it and cut over to our system,\u201d says Young \u201cYou\u2019re literally changing the motor of your car as you drive along.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On March 30, 2012 the Toronto Transit Commission approved a\u00a0report<\/a><\/em> that recommends awarding a contract to Ansaldo STS Canada Inc., to design, supply, and install a signal system on the Yonge University Spadina (YUS) Line (Phases 2, 3 and 4) and on the Toronto York Spadina (TYS) Subway Extension. Re-signaling the YUS and TYS lines, using automatic train control technology, will <\/em>improve the safety, capacity, operating efficiencies and cost effectiveness of both lines.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo by Harshil Shah<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to a recent Toronto Transit Commission report, ridership across the city\u2019s public transit system is growing at a rate \u201cwell above industry-wide trends.\u201d Ridership is expected to reach 512 million trips this year, an increase of 38% since 1996, and well above the 503 million passengers the system is currently equipped to carry. AsContinue reading “The cure for subway train congestion has arrived”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20257,20242,20240,20245,20248,20247,20253,20252,20250,20251,427,380,2637,382,359,20244,13771,20243,20255,20256,20246,3274,20249,20241,17746,19,1577,14601,391,20254],"class_list":["post-30806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transit","tag-a-cbtc-system","tag-alcatel","tag-ansaldo-sts-canada-inc","tag-automated-signaling-systems","tag-automatic-train-control-technology","tag-cash-strapped-transit-systems","tag-cbtc-technology","tag-development-3","tag-director-of-customer-care","tag-director-of-research","tag-driver","tag-dubai","tag-korea","tag-las-vegas","tag-london","tag-manual-signaling-systems","tag-mecca","tag-product-management","tag-ron-young","tag-seltrac","tag-signal-system","tag-subway-extension","tag-technology-human-drivers","tag-thales","tag-there","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-transit-commission","tag-transportation-technology","tag-usd","tag-walter-kinio"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe cure for subway train congestion has arrived - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/07\/12\/the-cure-for-subway-train-congestion-has-arrived\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The cure for subway train congestion has arrived - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to a recent Toronto Transit Commission report, ridership across the city\u2019s public transit system is growing at a rate \u201cwell above industry-wide trends.\u201d Ridership is expected to reach 512 million trips this year, an increase of 38% since 1996, and well above the 503 million passengers the system is currently equipped to carry. 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