BART Shows Off New "Close Train" Train Control Technology.

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 1996--BART engineers today demonstrated a new train control system that utilizes battle-proven U.S. Defense Department tracking technology that will enable BART to increase the current number of passengers it can carry during the congested morning and evening commutes.

The Advanced Automatic Train Control (AATC) system converts the U.S. military's radio position locating technology, which was successfully used during the Persian Gulf conflict in tracking equipment and troops, to pinpointing a speeding BART train to within 15 feet of its location -- including inside the 3.6-mile TransBay Tube deep under San Francisco Bay.

The ability to pinpoint the position of trains will allow BART to reduce the intervals between trains along the system and thus put more trains along the trackways and in the TransBay Tube at the same time.

"This Advanced Automatic Train Control (AATC) system represents the future not only of BART, but of transit around the world," said BART Board President Dan Richard.

"It removes the existing major impediment to increasing BART's passenger-carrying capacity and it lays the foundation for a new, worldwide train control technology. Not only will BART be able to serve more people of the Bay Area -- and serve them with better, faster transit -- but we'll also save money on expanding the system; reduce air pollution and energy consumption; help to create thousands of new, good-paying jobs, and make California the hub of high-tech transit technology in the world."

Using technology related to the successful Global Positioning Satellite defense technology, AATC entails placing radio transmitters and receivers alongside BART tracks and in the lead and tail cars of BART trains.

Messages are sent and received between the trains and the trackside radios every 1/2 second, with each trackside receiver calculating the time it takes for the signal to get from a train to a trackside receiver and directly converting the time to distance and hence location.

The position of a train traveling at 80 mph can be pinpointed to within 15 feet. The information is sent to the control stations, which then set the train's speed and controls the distances between trains.

BART currently relies on 25-year-old "fixed block" technology, which limits BART computers to knowing which "block" of track is occupied by a train, then setting the speeds and distances between trains by separating trains by several blocks of track. The AATC system will allow BART to operate trains closer together at higher average speeds while still maintaining safety standards.

Where BART's current train control technology means keeping trains approximately 2 1/2 to three minutes apart, the new AATC technology will allow BART to operate trains two minutes apart. The added capacity means that BART will be able to carry approximately 60,000 additional passengers during the morning and evening commute periods.

The new AATC system will also allow BART trains to use electricity more efficiently, thus reducing electrical consumption -- and the electricity bill -- on the all-electric system. BART currently pays about $15.5 million a year for the electricity that powers the trains.

AATC is being developed through an alliance of BART, Hughes Aircraft and Morrison Knudsen Corp., seeded by a $19.5 million grant from the U.S. Defense Department through the Clinton Administration's Defense Reinvestment Conversion Initiative's Technology Reinvestment Project, which is intended to link the best of America's defense and commercial industries in creating new "dual-use" technologies with both commercial and military applications.

BART, Hughes and Morrison Knudsen are matching the federal grant with cash and in-kind contributions. The grant covers the first two phases of the work, including Phase I, which entails software design followed by the testing at BART's test track in Hayward.

Phase II will expand the program to include revenue-service testing on a portion of BART's main line system. Phase III, which is currently unfunded, will entail installing the technology for everyday use throughout the system.

BART is helping to design and implement the system; Orange County-based Hughes Aircraft is modifying the military equipment, generating the control software and overseeing system design and testing, while Morrison Knudsen is integrating the technology into train cars and control stations.

In addition to the specific benefit to BART, AATC technology will also be marketed to other transit agencies, both domestic and international and other industries.

Hughes and Morrison Knudsen have already formed and invested in a joint venture company to pursue the market and to make the investments that will be required to develop business.

Officials from several large commuter rail systems in the United States have visited BART to review the project and expressed strong interest in its potential.

"This shows, once again, that BART is on the cutting edge of transit not just in the United States, but throughout the world," said BART General Manager Richard A. White.

"It also shows the worth of BART's investment in R&D. BART was one of the first transit systems in the United States to set up its own in-house research and development department.

"Our investment has now paid off handsomely by attracting significant amounts of federal funds to leverage BART's investment and `grow' a new technology that will benefit the entire American economy."

"The federal government's money will be recouped handsomely through sales to other transit systems in the United States and around the world," White added. "BART will recoup its investment many times over through increased patronage and elimination of the need for a second, multi-billion TransBay Tube."

CONTACT: BART

Mike Healy, 510/464-7110

510/482-2981 (nights and weekends)

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