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Mattapan Line to get radar-like anti-smash system
By adamg on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 9:22am
NECN reports the MBTA is going to use the Mattapan Line as a guinea pig for a collision-avoidance system that uses radio waves to detect other trolleys and begins to beep insistently if the trolley operator gets too close. If it works, the system could be deployed on the Green Line.
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Comments
Hmm.
Does the Mattapan line go underground at all? I can't imagine a system like this would work well in the tunnels.
Directional, maybe?
I know they can do some pretty slick stuff with directional radar and things. Maybe that will nix the tunnel-related issues?
Either way, if they put in an anti-smash system, wouldn't that be discriminating against the Incredible Hulk?
This is the T we're dealing with here.
...begins to beep insistently if the trolley operator gets too close.
This being the T, they'll probably end up doing something brilliant like using a system that features a manual override for the beeping sound, which the drivers will discover within 15 days of deployment.
(I'm not being cynical, I'm being realistic.)
I see one problem already.
As described, it appears this system will likely preclude the ability to berth more than one train in a station at the same time (like they now do at Park Street westbound and they should be doing at other stations with adequate platform length), and will possibly also preclude the ability to have trains waiting "back to back" in adjacent blocks (ilke when they have trains waiting to enter occupied platforms).
Simply put, this means that the already long headways between trains, and subsequent delays, during rush hour will get even longer.
Unless, as another poster has indicated, they build in some sort of manual override - thus defeating the "fail-safe" intent of the system.
I also wonder if the control systems of the old PCC cars on the Mattapan Line are similar enough to the systems on the Green Line Type 7 and Type 8 cars that using the Mattapan line as a 'guinea pig' is a realistic test of the equipment.
I think the interaction with
I think the interaction with the control system might be pretty minimal, just to put the car in emergency brake mode if the car gets too close to the one in front above a certain speed. The elderly control system on the PCCs really wouldn't work with anything more sophisticated than that. I would guess that if the speed is low enough (6 mph say), the proposed system will allow two cars to get close enough to double-berth at a station, or get close enough to couple together to push a disabled train. That would mean that under this system 6 mph collisions might still be possible, but the amount of injuries and damaged caused by a collision at a low speed like that would be far less than say a 20-25 mph collision (like this year's collision near Government Center) or a 40 mph collision (like last year's fatal Riverside line wreck).
Possible Problem
Wouldn't the system trigger via an approaching trolley car on a curve, i.e., entrance to Boylston Street? Or, on the Mattapan-Ashmont line, perhaps between Capen Street and Mattapan? Just asking from ignorance, of course. I know very little about radar.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com