SAN FRANCISCO — The floppy-disk era is nearing an end on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
KGO-TV reports that the Muni board has approved a $212 million contract with Hitachi Rail for a train control system that will replace the more than 30-year-old system that still runs on outdated floppy-disk technology.
The Automatic Train Control system remains in place on the 3-mile, seven-station Market Street Subway. Installed in 1998, its software must be loaded with obsolete 5¼-inch flppy disks each morning. As KGO reported earlier this year, the system is past its expected lifespan, and requires finding programmers with out-of-date job skills [see “San Francisco train control project seeks to retire system …,” Trains News Wire, April 7, 2024].
The system in use on the Market Street Subway will be replaced as part of a project to update the entire Muni system with Communications-Based Train Control. That project is projected to take until 2029; the subway portion could be done in late 2027 or early 2028.
I wonder if they are going to a CD-R based system this go around? I’m sorry, but even in the early 1990’s the 5 1/4″ floppy was considered aging tech, and by 1998 they were archaic…
I had the same thought about the floppy being installed in 1998. Someone(s) who had no idea what was happening at the time must have made that decision.