San Francisco's transit authority has approved a $212 million overhaul of its aging train control system, which for decades has operated on data stored on floppy disks.
The City Transportation Authority Board, which oversees the city's light rail network, has approved a new contract with Hitachi Railway to upgrade the existing train control system, which was first installed at the Market Street subway station in 1998. .
The software that runs the Automatic Train Control System (ATCS) is stored on floppy disks and is loaded each morning. According to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Three floppy disks are used to load the DOS software that controls the system's central server. According to Ars Technica.
DOS stands for Disk Operating System and was used to power IBM personal computers in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the growing popularity of Windows and other graphical user interfaces led to its demise.
“Once the train enters the subway, the onboard computer connects to the train control system and operates the train in automatic mode, allowing the train to operate autonomously while the driver monitors,” said SFMTA spokesperson Michael Roccaforte. He told Ars Technica in May.
“When you exit the subway, it disconnects from ATCS and returns to manual operation on the street.”
Roccaforte said the original plan was to move away from floppy disks starting in 2018. The entire process was expected to take 10 years.
However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the original final goal was postponed to 2030.
Hitachi's system, which will eventually replace floppy disk-powered mechanisms, is five generations ahead, said Julie Kirschbaum, the city's transportation director.
Kirschbaum told the Chronicle that the new system is the best train control technology available on the market.
For those who owned personal computers in the 1980s and 1990s, the 5 1/4-inch floppy disk was once one of the most popular formats for memory storage and data exchange.
However, the advent of CD-ROMs, USB drives, and improved hard disk capabilities ushered in the end of floppy disks.
The last major manufacturer of floppy disks was Sony, which discontinued production in 2011.
