By Philip Newman
Fred Smith, chief deputy engineer of the Transit Authority, told a Council Transportation Committee public hearing the agency now plans its computerization debut next fall on L trains of the Canarsie line in Brooklyn.Smith acknowledged the original time for startup of the computerized trains, known as Communication Based Train Control, was supposed to have been this summer. But he said it had been delayed by issues involving software “glitches.””The delay did not involve safety issues,” Smith said.City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), chairman of the Transportation Committee, said Smith's assertion that no safety issues were involved “leaves me speechless.”Liu suggested to Smith that computer software malfunctions were a safety issue because they could endanger passengers in an automated train.”I ask you to be careful and not to try to pull the wool over this committee's eyes,” Liu cautioned Smith.Councilman Lewis Fidler (D-Brooklyn) asked Smith whether it was possible an outsider could disrupt the radio signals used to control the automated trains. “Not to our knowledge,” Smith said.Smith declined to answer questions about how such a thing might be done.”Councilman, this is not the proper forum to discuss intricacies of our computer system and how to break into it,” Smith said.He said the TA has sought from the Federal Communications Commission the right to an exclusive radio frequency for use in the automated trains but has not been successful.Smith was asked whether the frequency now in use could be used by others and he said it could.Councilwoman Helen Sears (D-Jackson Heights) also said the system seemed unsafe and unready.At the conclusion of Smith's testimony, Liu said “we do not believe the MTA is anywhere close to having safe computer-operated trains and told Smith:”We ask the MTA to slow down and take care of the basic stuff before you embark on this Buck Rogers stuff.”Roger Toussaint, president of the Transit Workers Union Local 100 asked, “Where did 2004 go?”The loss of an entire year suggests that retrofitting a 70-year-old subway line with space age technology may not be the cakewalk the TA has promised. It is not 'proven technology' as a TA spokesman has claimed.”Proponents of the CBTC system praise its potential to monitor trains with more precise control, allowing more subways to run more frequently. Opponents have criticized it as jeopardizing safety at a time of potential terrorism. Critics have expressed concern about the reliability of the system and whether a member of the public or a terrorist could obtain access to the system in order to disrupt it.Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at news@timesledger or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 136.
