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MTA technology running trains date back to the 1930s
A new video released by the MTA shows off the some of the antiquated technology used to run the city’s vast network of trains, some of which dates back to the 1930s.
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“People know that the system is old, but I don’t think they realize just hold old it is,” the videos narrator explains. “What our riders don’t realize though is that in our system it’s not just the architecture that’s a hundred years old it’s a lot of the basic technology as well.”
The video goes on to showcase the “safe,” “reliable,” but antiquated systems that have been running one of the world’s busiest transit systems in the biggest city of the United States.
At one point, Wynton Habersham, the vice president and chief officer of service delivery for the MTA shows off some of this technology stacked in an old and dusty looking storage closet in the West 4th street control room.
“This equipment is not supported at all by the railroad industry. We are fully self-sufficient and self-sustaining,” Habersham says. “When any modernization is going on we scavenge to retain the parts so we can provide replacement for those that remain in service.”
Scavenge? The people who control the busiest subway system in the country have to scavenge for parts?
Oh, man.
Take a look at the entire video below:
