The New York City subway system is getting a makeover. Specifically, a team composed of Nordic Signals and two major US-based engineering companies is in the process of helping the MTA replace the old signalling system with communications-based train control (CBTC) signalling technology. David Chabanon, Nordic Signals’ chief technology officer (CTO), discusses the project and the challenges facing it with RailTech.
With over a billion riders in 2023, the New York City subway system is one of the most used in the world. It is also the largest in terms of the number of stations, boasting 472. It has 36 different lines, totalling around 380 kilometres, on which 27 different services operate. “The transit system is a city within a city, so it’s very complex,” says Chabanon. Operating since October 27, 1904, it is the world’s ninth-oldest metro system. Ageing legacy signalling systems now pose imminent concerns on some lines, they are surpassing the 50-year ‘state of good repair’ age.
“The signalling system in the New York subway is quite an old system. On some lines, it’s very, very old, and it is a huge task to try to modernise and to get it to what we call a state of good repair,” explains Chabanon. The considerable task of replacing the old signalling system with Communications-based train control (CBTC) signalling to address this concern began 20 years ago, “but now it needs to accelerate. And that’s why we, at Nordic Signals together with our Joint Venture-partners, are helping the MTA with this task,” he states.