Hi all,

Following up on last week's thread on the NYCT automation project,
I'd like to report that I met yesterday with the project manager
for this and most other new signaling projects in the New York
City subway system. Among other things, I discovered that the
so-called Phase II contract, in which one entire line (Canarsie)
will be re-done with Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC),
is in the final stages of being awarded. Obviously, with things
at this sensitive stage, he could not say a word about it.

I'll stay in touch on this; we should know shortly which company
has won; as a matter of policy, NYTC does not issue press releases
on contract awards; they prefer the contractor to do it.

we'll have to rely on sources closer to the project
to ascertain the degree of "Ada Inside." My contact at NYCT _may_
know, but he is an EE who did not seem terribly interested in
software details like coding languages. He was, in fact, interested
in the whole area of formal methods and B.

I did learn a lot about CBTC in general, and just found a
very good semi-technical article in the railroad trade press, at

http://www.railwayage.com/jun99/cbtc.html

This reports on an entire conference held recently on the subject.

Since it summarizes things, including the New York plans, so
well, I won;t repeat it but will suggest you read it if you're
interested in the subject.

Note that _many_ other CBTC projects are mentioned in the article,
including some here in the US. If anyone out there knows more about
any of these, please let us know, either back to this list, or
(at a minimum) confidentially to me. I will, of course, respect
the confidentiality of any sources.

Later -

Michael Feldman